OAD milking

[Mary Kay]

I have a heifer that is two, she is half jersey and half Kentshire. She looks like a Hereford. I've had her for 21 months. I've had her bred to a mini jersey. She is due in June.
I really want to do OAD milking, is that doable if I remove the calf? I am concerned that she will be very possessive of the calf, she has more Hereford attributes then Jersey ): she is also an only cow.

I have been looking up info. about OAD, but there doesn't seem to be any real directions as to how to start. Step by step kinda thing, when your new to something it's nice to have a guide as to how to go about it.

I'd sure appreciate any advice.

[haypoint]

I can understand the desire to have the convenience of OAD milking.
I believe that you greatly increase the chances for mastitis.
What you have bought/created is not ideal. But at this point, you may have to accept a less than ideal solution.
Is it fair to assume that you have attempted to train this heifer to be lead, but it didn’t go so well? Now you have a mature heifer ready to calve and you foresee twice a day milking as a time consuming, chore with what you expect to be a difficult and uncooperative cow?
OAD isn’t the solution. Your cow doesn’t deserve to be left in milk all day. I question if her mini-Jersey will be able to fully share milking obligations with you.
I would build a stanchion for her and keep her in it. At 6am, milk her out and put her calf with her. At 6pm, put the calf in a pen, or anywhere safe, but away from the cow.
Then once that is working, at 6pm, put the calf in a pen and turn her out. By 6am, she will want to be fed and be near her calf and she should come into the barn for your OAD milking.
If possible, you could start this routine now. Feed her in a stanchion in the morning, turn her out in the evening.
If evening milking works better for you swap am for pm.
BTW, I hate crossing Jerseys with anything, in part for the reasons you mention.

[Mary Kay]

Haypoint, she is a sweet little 800 lb heifer. (-; She is halter trained and leads well. She stands tied for as long as I want her to and never gets rambunctious. I have already trained her to her stanchion and that has been our routine for the last six months.
I am concerned about her being an only cow and being possibly aggressive once the calf shows up. Mainly because she seems far more of a beef cow attitude then the family jersey cow.
I have always been interested in OAD milking and how to go about starting out right out of the chute with OAD. If I am fortunate enough to have a heifer calf that will eventually be my milker. The current one would then be used for raising beef cows.
Hope I I clarified my goals (;

[francismilker]

May I suggest letting her have the calf all the time for the first few weeks and still bringing her in to strip out the excess milk at least once but desireably twice a day. She'll more than likely get to the point that she's holding up her milk and not fully letting down for you but you'll be able insure she's not getting mastitis. Once her edema goes down and the calf's a little bigger, you ought to do fine locking the calf up either during the night or day and sharing with the calf through once a day milking. By the time you get to this point, she'll be used to the routine of coming to the barn for some feed when she sees you step out on the porch.

[haypoint]

Well that sounds better. you are concerned she'll be agressive? Towards you in protecting her new calf, or establishing her dominance towards her calf?
Did you leave her with horns?
I know nothing about OAD milking. It goes against what i have come to understand. Where did you learn about it?
From what I believe, less than twice a day milking leads to Mastitis. Mastitis can be helped by milking every couple hours around the clock for a week or so.
I don't see OAD working, unless you are sharing milking duties with a calf. I'm willing to learn. I wish you luck, keep us informed.
Is she getting lots of selinium with the rest of her minerals?

[Miss Kay]

Since your cow is not a pure jersey, my guess is her production will not be high volume but certainly more than you will need. Besides genetics, feed has a lot to do with how much milk she produces. If you feed a lot of grain then you’ll get more milk and you’ll have to milk twice a day. Here’s what we do and it works great for us. We take the calf after mom gets it cleaned up and it has nursed. We prefer to raise them on bottle with mom’s milk instead of fighting with the calf and mom over the sharing. We also feed very little grain because we prefer grass fed and we have great pastures so we can do that (almost year round grazing down here). Each cow is different and you certainly don’t want to starve her so you’ll have to adjust your feed to meet your situation. We have Guernsey’s and they could be high producing if we milked them twice a day and put the grain to them but we don’t want to do that. By the second month we only milk in the mornings. We go cold turkey but I know some people do it gradually. That first evening we skip, we don’t even go around her for fear it will trigger her let down. We don’t feed her that evening either. By the next morning she is dripping and ready but after that she never drips again. Her udder has not suffered and she quickly adjusted her production to meet the new milking schedule. From what I understand, OAD is the norm in Australia from day one and they don’t have problems. We have NEVER had a case of mastitis. We attribute that to many things. One, we don’t feed high protein so her production is not maxed out. Two, it is very dry here so she never has to deal with mud and laying around in wet manure so the bacteria doesn’t enter her teats. Three, we are extremely clean with her before and after milking. And four, we feed balanced natural minerals. You will most likely get a different answer from every person you ask so I suggest you consider them all and make your own plan, then try it. You will never know what works for you until you test it on your cow.

[Mary Kay]

Haypoint, she gets plenty of minerals. Every morning she is given a mineral mix along with some natural earth minerals, kelp, DE, cod liver oil and wheatgerm oil and apple cider vinegar. She also gets an apple, alfalfa pellets and I grow fodder for her so she gets one 3-lb biscuit. In her stanchion of course. Yes, she is spoiled rotten, I know (-;
OAD is being done on dairy farms here in the US and a lot in Australia. The studies are very positive. No problems with mastitis, cows health improves, families lives improve. From all I have read, after three years into doing OAD, they are only 10% down in their profits. They feel its worth it for what they gain.

Miss Kay, thanks for the info. I have been reading a researching this whole thing for a while. If you read what i just stated above about OAD milking, sounds like you ave seen this research also. However, no one ever gives an explanation as to how to go about implementing it from the get go. I thank you for your explanation on how you have done it. Seeings how you have a cow that would give much more then mine would. I appreciate the insight as to how you do it. Like allowing them to stay together until mom has cleaned up and allowed the calf to nurse. Is that just for 12 hrs, 24 or what?
My husband and I are just shy of 60 (-; I love making all our own yogurt, cheese and so forth. I do not drink milk, love cream and butter tho (: Anyways, we don't have need for a lot of milk. That's the reason behind my wanting to go to a OAD set up.

[pfarms]

We do OAD milking. We separate at night. I milk in the morning and then put the calf on all day. That way anything the cow holds back is drained by the calf. I prefer milking in the morning and not at night because a calf doesnt feed as much at night. We keep them on pasture all day long also. At night the cow gets grain in a stall and the calf is taken to another stall, they are right next to each other. After a bit they both get used to it. I havent had issues with mastitis either. I find that it also gives me time to brush the calf and get it used to being handled. I do not start separating til the calf is a week old, but for the first week I empty her in the morning anyway. My heifer did hold back and not let it down for the first month or so. There is another way. If they are holding back then you put the calf on ONE teat and you milk the other three. It will stimulate her to let it all down. I usually milk the three teats first, then once she is holding up I put the calf on the fourth and finish stripping the three.

[Miss Kay]

We take the calf away at about 12 hours. We don't want them to completely bond and the cow doesn't seem to look for them by the next day. We put the calf in a stall and bottle feed it twice a day. I actually enjoy raising the calf of bottle. Sure makes for a sweet animal! By the time it is 6 weeks old or so we move it to a paddock near the house so it is easy to step out the back door to give a bottle and make sure all is well. They start grazing and we continue to give a milk until they are 4 months old. This way the heifers develop a rumen that is big enough to process lots of grass. We do feed a very small amount of grain just so they know what it is. We have never tried the calf share becasue we didn't want to try and catch the calf each day and lock it up. We also didn't want to deal with the emotional attachment between mom and calf. It sounds like you are well prepared and I would expect OAD will work for you.

[Mary Kay]

Pfarms, thank you for the input, I appreciate it. I am aware of the calf sharing approach but I really wanted to completely separate after birth and bottle feed and still do OAD.
Miss Kay, thank you, especially for your vote of confidence. It is your approach to OAD that I was seeking and your advice for how to start out right after birth has been very helpful.

[cshire]

Here is a decent "how to"
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/lewis99.html

[Mary Kay]

cshire, thanks, that's a great article and indepth too. I am really interested in doing this OAD without leaving a calf on the cow. I might consider this method if a bull calf is what I end up with tho (:

[haypoint]

All the information I've read, plus that detailed article, OAD milking for you and OAD milking for the calf which equates to twice a day milking of the cow.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/lewis99.html
She details how easy it is to move the cow and the calf.

In the summer, my neighbor keeps a cow and calf tethered to a fence post, outside the fence, near the road. Each day, he moves her to a fresh spot of grass. After milking, the calf is allowed to nurse. Then in the evening he seperates them.
In this area of high snowbanks, sometimes fences are moved away from the snow plow trucks. Without this system, such areas would get weedy or brushy. Plus it is easy to walk to.

[tab]

Thank you for that article. Between that and the search feature here, I have had a ton of questions answered.