Jersey milk cow.

[DownHome]

Okay, I have always wanted a Jersey milk cow. I'm really going for the look and personality with milk as an added bonus. I'm mostly looking to raise it from a calf, so that we know what to expect from it as it gets bigger. But given the right opportunity I would consider buying a grown cow who is completely hand milk broke to milk. The problem is can't seem to find any anywhere.

How did you find your milk cow?

[Rosepath]

Call Ron Martin, Haubstadt, IN, he has a 9 month old Jersey heifer, the last one left from selling out his dairy, $450. Raise her to know you and then breed her when she's at the right age (16-18 months). His brother has some Jersey milkers left to sell. I've been to his farm and seen them, all are nice, and most are registered. 812/768-6743

[arnie]

I wanted a jersy or gunsey because they were smaller and " prettier" but iny searching wild gernsys and kicking jerseys sicklooking potbellied calfs .I found a big beautiful gentile brown swiss 6 years ago and have been happy .with no worrys about getting kicked or cowboying to get her into the milking stall. a young hefier or calf raised and handled trained to come into milking stall for feeding and grooming and halter broke is a joy but takes time . when getting a older cow make sure she is hand milkable and calm .

[Judy in IN]

If you buy from Ronnie Martin, you'll have to use a milking machine on those cows. They are bred for production and have very small teats. Just sayin'.

They are great cows if you have a machine, but not for hand-milking.

ETA: You're in Kansas? How about this? http://seks.craigslist.org/grd/3631168135.html

[opportunity]

My jersey/lowline and jersey were hard to find. The first I bought form a guy who had been making mini cows she always had a calf big as her at weaning he hated it I love it. The jersey was one that someone had planned to milk but they had it in thier backyard and it was not trained and they had no way to get her bred. She is now compleatly tame and takes extra calves for me.

[Donna from Mo]

If you go to Kansas City Craigslist, there are some people who buy mostly Jersey calves from a large dairy twice a year and re-sell them. I've bought three calves from them and they are healthy as can be. One is now almost two years old and has her first calf. You can tell she isn't full Jersey, but her heifer calf will look very Jersey. I also have a five-month-old mostly Jersey heifer I got from them. These people sell good calves that have had their colostrum, and they take all measures to make sure the calves do well while they have them. The picture here is of the five-month-old.

Here's a link to the ad on Craigslist: http://kansascity.craigslist.org/grd/3673726780.html

[BlackWillowFarm]

I called around to the Jersey dairies in the area to find mine. They sometimes will sell their milkers who aren't making enough milk to pay for themselves. I started with a trained cow because I had zero experience with cows. It was the right move for me. She gave me a heifer calf who later calved here. The heifer was sweet as could be but once she calved, the hormones kicked in and she wasn't so nice the first week or two. If that had been my first experience trying to milk a cow, I might have thought twice about what I'd gotten myself into. It all worked out and she is a sweet milker now.