Christine at 12

willow_girl · #1 04/12/14, 05:24 PM

It was a nice sunny day, and I just happened to snap this pic of her.
She turned 12 in February.
Next month will make 10 years I've been feeding this fat girl!

G. Seddon · #2 04/12/14, 05:52 PM

She looks rather "entitled" doesn't she? A grand matriarch, I'd say. Nice photo!

**gone-a-milkin** · #3 04/12/14, 06:00 PM

She does have a bit of a smug look about her, standing in her fresh wood chips.

I wonder how long a pampered and stout Holstein cow can live?

Keep up the great work.

MO_cows · #4 04/12/14, 06:07 PM

That's the fattest dairy cow I have ever seen. If she can hold her flesh like that at 12 and coming out of winter, I'd guess you'll be her faithful servant for a long time to come.

willow_girl · #5 04/12/14, 06:31 PM

The Krishnas at ISCOWP, with whom I partner in cow rescue, had a Holstein who lived to be 25. I think she spent her entire life on their farm, though, and never underwent the stress of being a commercial dairy cow.

I bought Christine as a first-calf heifer ... she was only milked for about 3 months, and had 2 calves after that. I haven't bred her back since she gave birth to Lillian in April 2007. She's always been kind of a tank!

Twister lived to be 15, and she went through 4 lactations in a commercial herd. Bitey was a 5th-lactation cow when I bought her in 2006, which makes her approximately 15 this year. I have a hard time keeping weight on her; she's lost all of her front teeth. I'm not sure about the back ones ... she's not too cooperative about letting me look at them. We kept a stable blanket on her and a heat lamp over her through the subzero nights this past winter! One reason why Teeny and Lil are so fat is that I really pour on the feed to keep Bitey's weight up.

Bitey is the sweetest cow to have ever walked the Earth.

I didn't get a good pic of Lil today, but you can see her fat rump in the background there. LOL

topside1 · #6 04/12/14, 06:39 PM

Triplets for sure, kidding of course....Topside

willow_girl · #7 04/12/14, 06:56 PM

She's not even bred!

genebo · #8 04/12/14, 10:18 PM

Pretty!

Spamela · #9 04/17/14, 02:48 AM

When I was a kid my dad had a cow in his herd that he milked until she was 17 years old! She was the same age I was

Don't hear of many dairy farmers doing that now-a-days.

Sorry, I see that this is an older thread but i just had to share!

Madsaw · #10 04/19/14, 06:06 AM

We had on small frame Holstein reach roughly 25-26. She calfed with in a year if her during. Another Holstein swiss cross wsd close too 25. We tend to keep the girls around a few yrs.
Bob

Spamela · #11 04/19/14, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Madsaw

We had on small frame Holstein reach roughly 25-26. She calfed with in a year if her during. Another Holstein swiss cross wsd close too 25. We tend to keep the girls around a few yrs.
Bob

Whoa! Those are some hardworking girls!

willow_girl · #12 04/21/14, 06:57 AM

Brown Swiss are supposed to be long-lived.

We had a cow go 11 lactations on the farm where I work, which would have made her about 13. I don't think she ever had a heifer calf, though! When the heifers freshen in, I generally look in the records to see who their mothers are, and I can't remember ever running across one of her daughters.