Breeding For a Homestead Dairy Cow

[Tex-]

We used to have several straight Jersey cows, but they were just a little too delicate for this region. I was convinced they were like a sheep and born just looking for a reason to die. They did not do good in this area at all. We had one die in 6 inches of water. Someone offered way more than I thought they were worth and I couldn't get the ---- things loaded in the trailer fast enough.

For quite a while I was looking for something a little bit tougher that could handle our extreme winters and ur dry summers. I decided that I would have to eventually start crossbreeding to get exactly what I was looking for, but I wanted to start with a Milking Shorthorn.

This past winter I found a first calf heifer that had calved in late fall of last year. She is a very nice cow, though she is a little big, in my opinion, for a homestead type dairy cow. I had two others here at the ranch that I wanted to bring into my process of breeding for a good crossbreed. One was a Jersey snd Angus cross and the other is a straight Angus. I call her straight Angus, but as you can see below, she had to get that yellow color from somewhere. We have had the cow's maternal side for several generations and they have all came out yellow for some reason and they have all had super great milking ability. Somewhere in there, I think there is a dairy cow.

Anyhow, I sold the Jersey and Angus cross because that cow had the worst traits of both breeds. The Milking Shorthorn and the Angus will both be getting AI'ed as soon as they come into heat. Going through the Accelerated Genetics catalogue, I picked out two of the best Jersey bulls I could find. I don't want a pure Jersey, but I do think a Jersey cross might work. In the catalogue, they had many criteria that a person can pick or choose from in order to get the traits a person wants. I want to end up with a smaaler type animals, but I want good and heavier bone structure, plus I want good teat length.

I went ahead and spent a little more to get the sexed semen in order to wind up with a heifer calf. I dairy bred bull calf isn't worth much and I have little need for one. Once I get the calves from these two crosses grown, I will try and figure out at that time which direction I may need to explore in order to further enhance my cross.

The two calves in the pictures will also be involved in this crossbreeding program too. The red calf is a registered Milking Shorthorn and she is out of the cow we bought. When we went to buy the cow and the calf, I wanted to buy another calf to graft onto the cow as she had more milk than one calf could eat. The gray calf is 3/4 Brown Swiss and 1/4 Holstein. She is going to make a big cow, so her calves will be by a bull from a smaller breed.

I don't know yet how this will all turn out, but I still feel like I need to try in order to get something that will better me the needs homesteaders in this region.

There are several aspects in this little program I am probably skipping over, but I didn't want to make this post into a novel. If anyone has suggestions or questions, I would love to hear them.


Tex

[G. Seddon]

I don't know much about milk cows, but I'd say you got a great start!

[arnie]

I agree that the jerseys need to be pampered or are just not tough enough to handle life out on the range . as dairy type cattle are bred to make milk they will if not fed well enough; as in on a rough pasture ;rob from there own bodies to fill the bucket .using the milking shorthorn is a good choice .and I wish I had one myself not only to milk but to raise the calf for beef and fill my freezr every year with high quality beef it may be hard to improve on a short horn but if you are adding smaller body size and good teat size couple with forageing ability 'I hope you succeed and I get one some day
. in my youth I remember many horned herferd/ jersey crosses as milkers on the local small farms . I think this was because family armers just used the neighbors bull that was available and free ;but these crosses were kept because they were tougher and could get by on little grain. I had a brown swiss for years and found her to be a gentle giant with the best temprement .

[moohorn]

I love hearing about different peoples breeding strategies. My family is tired of hearing me talk about it! LOL Our first Jersey was a walking health time bomb. I decided to breed to an angus to get a cow that was heartier, a more full bodied creamy milk, and could maintain her weight well. Since she was my jerseys calf, and was in with her full time and we had to pour the food out their for the Jersey, the angus cross became obese. She was not milk aggressive like the jerseys calves so I always had to make sure the Jersey was milked out the entire time. I guess she was just too fat to need extra calories like the scrawny jerseys. Sadly she didn't enjoy being petted. Had more of the angus temperament and being fat I didn't know if she would breed back. So I butchered her. I have done the same experiment with goats. Breeding meat with dairy. I find that the offspring do maintain their weight well, the milk is richer, and the first generation make great milk goats that produce beefier offspring. Most teat sizes have been fine but occasionally will get some that are short. I do breed to a goat with mile long teats. LOL

[kycrawler]

I have jerseys and like them. You may want to check into the normande breed. I am strongly considering crossing my jerseys with normande bulls

[Tex-]

Originally Posted by kycrawler

I have jerseys and like them. You may want to check into the normande breed. I am strongly considering crossing my jerseys with normande bulls

Please don't take me wrong, I'm not knocking Jerseys. They just don't work well around here. It takes forty acres per cow/calf pair out here on a good year. Where we are, we can get by on a little less because we have a river right behind the house. That creates a whole new set of problems though. We really like Jersey cattle, but having winter temps that can get down to -30 and needing so much ground just to graze a cow/calf, they just don't do well here.

I have done a little research on the Normande cattle and really like what I have found out so far. Unfortunately, they are just now making their presence known out here. Just in the last few months I have come across people advertising them. A few weeks ago, I spoke with a man who had a cow and calf for sale. He is one of those who goes back east and picks up used cattle from the dairies and brings them out here to peddle off. I really didn't want to buy my first cow of a certain type from cow a jockey or trader. I seriously think a cross to a normandy would work out really well on the Jersey calves I get out of this very first cross.

There is one thing I am always stressing to new homesteaders or people on small plots of land who want to get into cattle and it seems that many folks overlook this avenue. Although they can't start raising a herd of beef cattle, they can buy a good milk cow or two and they can raise calves off of them for beef and sale. They can also raise dairy heifers to sell for a good profit.

I use the heck out of a milk cow and I make them work for me. This is why Jersey cows don't work for me. They have the milk, but for this area, they don't have the toughness for what I do. Once a cow comes fresh, I start looking for bum calves, or heifer calves from a dairy. In my opinion, if a cow can't raise a few bums, plus provide milk for the house, she needs to go. I will put three calves at a time on a cow. I usually try to time the cow freshening so I have easy access to calves so that I can make my timeline work out.

When the cow has been in milk for five months or so, those calves should be five months old. I pull them off to wean at that time and then I put on a few more calves. When the cow has been in milk for ten months, the second batch of calves should be five months and ready for weaning. So, by the time ten months has rolled around, I have raised six calves on one cow. Now keep in mind, I do feed the cow during all of this. There would be way too much stress on the cow to expect her to do so much while having nothing more than what the pasture offered.

One of the main reasons I am getting into this cross breeding thing is to try and develop a cow that can do more with less input. This would really help the people on smaller plots of land who want to raise cattle, but simply don't have enough room to raise a beef herd. Going this route, a person can raise enough beef for their own needs and have plenty to sell in order to cover feed costs as well as make a profit. They can also raise dairy heifers to sell and there is good money in that out here.

Forty acre ranchettes or small homesteads may not have alot of land, but people can still make the ground pay for itself. My work on crossbreeding may or may not work, I don't know yet. I will keep trying though. When people think of a family milk cow, the first thing they think of is a Jersey, but folks out here are learning they don't work out too well in this area. In order to make a family cow work out here and not be cost prohibitive, it is going to take something different than is currently available. We make all of our animals and livestock work for us to make a profit. When they cost us more than what they produce is worth, we can't afford to keep them around. In my opinion, a good family cow is one of the best things people can invest in. There are many ways to utilize her and what she produces and if a person can't figure out ways to make profits from her, they just aint looking hard enough.


Tex

[southernmom]

Hey Tex!
What do you think about a hereford or santa gertrudis for a milker?

[kycrawler]

Yes I understand where youare coming from completely I milk 15 head of jersey cows and feed calves with the milk we wean at 3 months . I bred a few of my jerseys to normande and a few to Hereford trying to get cows that would hold better condition on grass and need less supplemental feed .Those heifers. Are getting close to breeding age now so iwont know full results for a while yet

[tommyanunnaki]

I think that little red calf will get the job done for you. Good strong lines, feet look square and sound (tough to tell without watching her walk) and she looks calm. She won't be a small cow, which means that you can breed her to pretty much whatever you like. If you want a calf for the freezer every year you can put a beef bull to her. I don't think you will have anything to complain about.

[Awnry Abe]

I met someone once that said he milked an angus for over a decade as a family cow because he didn't know any better when he started, and saw no reason to stop once he had her trained. Teats is teats, he said.

[arnie]

lookin at that shorthorn I thought why cross that beuty with a jersey .they used to be more common as the 3 purpose cattle milk beef and oxen

[fullmetal]

my goal (when i have the land for a cow or two) would be a highland / jersey cross. tough, multipurpose, and from what ive heard docile

[wogglebug]

Highland, Galloway or Dexter are small and multipurpose. Angus are fairly small, and while not traditional dairy animals they have excellent quality milk. Angus x Jersey makes good beef and good milk, in large but not overwhelming quantities.

Personally, I like the original shorthorns as multipurpose cattle, but they aren't small. The breed was split into milking shorthorns (tough cattle that developed in Australia from feral cattle), and beef shorthorns (which also went into developing Herefords). A cross of the two shorthorns makes an excellent milk and beef cow, and the ancestral type, now present as the Durham, is nearly ideal as smallholder's multipurpose cattle.
Note that they were also bred as draught animals, and hence are docile and tractable, but again they aren't noways nohow small. It takes about twenty minutes to train your shorthorn or Durham milk cow to be a bareback riding animal, provided they are used to being bribed with a curry brush. They'll stand patiently for hours, chewing their cud, if you go to sleep against their flank while you're milking them. Warm and cuddly. Mind you, you'd probably end up with mucky legs and mucky milk, but the animal itself hasn't moved - just its bowels and its bladder.

[Wintersong Farm]

I have three - great milkers. Do well in Wisconsin winters.

[~Tomboy~]

You might want to look at the Tarentaise breed

http://www.americantarentaise.org/

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/b...aise/index.htm

Although I partial to Dexters myself

[Tex-]

Originally Posted by fullmetal

my goal (when i have the land for a cow or two) would be a highland / jersey cross. tough, multipurpose, and from what ive heard docile

I realize I will get flamed for this and I am very likely to tick a few people off, but in my opinion, the pics below best describe all that a Highlander cow is good for. I absolutely hate them and I do not have one good thing to say about them at all.

The Hostile Native bought two several years ago, because she likes to have an oddball or two in the main cow herd. Both of these things were wild as a bucksnort and could not be tamed. We run cattle on over 6500 acres, so we do not make pets out of our cattle, but we did try to tame these two down. Never again. There is still one out in the pasture and she has a calf every other year, just like clockwork. Running a beef outfit though, a calf every two years aint good.

I have fed out some of the calves that were by an Angus bull and they were tougher than hell. I feed out very good and know how to raise a beef for the freezer, but they were never as good as the straight Angus. Like I said, I know some folks on here really like them, but I will never let another Highlander on this place.

The cow below was the meaner of the two and everybody who ever saw her that, knew about cattle, would not trust her. She came after me and hoked me sending me over a fence in the corrals. Thank goodness the fence was there, because she put the brakes on and came back trying to get to me. Lucky for her, she was bred or I would have shot her and left her laying right then. As soon as the calf was born, I grafted it onto the milk cow. Even that little ******* was mean and hard to deal with.


Tex

[G. Seddon]

Wow, Tex-, you having a bad day or something? We might each have our favorite and least favorite, but I could have done without this. It's the weekend, chill out.

[Tex-]

Sorry, not a bad day at all. As a matter of fact, we had the butcher out this morning to process two more that I have been feeding out and they both looked really good. It is a good day, to say the least. After having to deal with the two Highlanders we had though, I have a justified hate on for those things.

I did not mean to offend anyone though. Every breed has its positives.


Tex

[Tex-]

Originally Posted by wogglebug

Angus x Jersey makes good beef and good milk, in large but not overwhelming quantities.

We have had a few Angus X Jersey cattle over the past several years and they did ok. They never really did either the beef or the milk that great though. We have a herd of beef cows, so I'm not really trying to develop a good beef dairy cross. During calving time, having a good milk cow around is very handy in the event a bum calf comes along needing a momma. It saves us from having to bottle feed it.

That being said though, one of the cows pictured above is Angus, with something else in there way back that gives her the odd color, and she will be AI'ed to a Jersey. She has the temerament and milk production I want along with the toughness and sturdiness I am looking for. Her heifer Angus X Jersey heifer calf will be crossed with another dairy bull when the time comes. I will have to see what she looks and acts like before I determine what breed to go with.

Originally Posted by wogglebug

The breed was split into milking shorthorns (tough cattle that developed in Australia from feral cattle), and beef shorthorns (which also went into developing Herefords).

http://www.milkingshorthorn.com/breedhistory.html
http://www.herefordcattle.org/about-us/history/

It would not surprise me to find out that Hereford cattle can trace some of their lineage back to Durham's. The Durham cattle were developed almost 200 years prior, the best I can determine.

I haven't really seen anything that would lead me to believe that the Milking Shorthorn cattle we have in this country came from Australia. The first Durham cattle in this country came over from Britain in 1783. They later got renamed, Milking Shorthorn.

Durham cattle were the first outcross made on the old Longhorn cattle to try and improve the quality of the beef as well as the temperament. Next came the Hereford crosses. Some of the old-time cattle ranchers paid very large sums to import bulls in hopes of getting better prices at sale time.

Originally Posted by wogglebug

They'll stand patiently for hours, chewing their cud, if you go to sleep against their flank while you're milking them.

I'm sure they will, but I would be very leary of falling asleep around here. Some of the stock around here might try to take advantage if they see an opening. LOL


Tex

[Tex-]

Originally Posted by ~Tomboy~

You might want to look at the Tarentaise breed

http://www.americantarentaise.org/

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/b...aise/index.htm

Although I partial to Dexters myself

Like alot of other people, I always considered them to be more of a beef cow than dairy. They have an interesting history though.

One thing I did see that I didn't like was, they are brought in and kept in a barn from October to April. Having been raised that way, they do not really have the genetic predisposition to get out and hustle through the winter. That is one trait that I am working toward and it is even more important for the area I live in.

There are some interesting aspects though that certainly bare a little thought.


Tex