Jerseys Cows

[FarmerIvan]

Anyone raise jerseys? How are they? I'm looking for a cow that doesn't produce a lot of milk but enough for a family of 4.

[barw]

FarmerIvan we have a Jersey cow and provide milk for two families of three.Nice cows to have around and easy keepers.

[FarmerIvan]

About how many gallons do they produce? We have 2 Holstein heifers and my boss at a dairy told me they produce about 8 gallons, so were looking for a different cow that'll produce less milk but enough for us. So were looking into jerseys since quite a few people have em out here.

[haypoint]

Just like all animals, they vary. Good ones and bad ones. If you have to ask your boss how much milk a Holstein produces, you might need an experienced person help you select a milk cow.
Lower the grain ration and milk production will go down/suffer.

[kycrawler]

Holstein first calf heifers. Make OK house cows don't pump the feed to them really hard and they won't make as much milk problem I have with first calf Holsteins is most have extremely small teats and are hard to hand milk

[Awnry Abe]

Mine have been pretty consistent at 6 gallons a day all season. Grass only, except the ration, which is a small scoop of corn+pile of alfalfa. Then generally would have tapered down to 4-5 gallons by now, but that danged grass wont stop growing this year.

[tab]

My first calf heifer angus/jersey cross fed her calf for about nine months and gave us from 3-6 quarts daily. I expect more with the next lactation. She is grass fed only.

[springvalley]

Originally Posted by haypoint

Just like all animals, they vary. Good ones and bad ones. If you have to ask your boss how much milk a Holstein produces, you might need an experienced person help you select a milk cow.
Lower the grain ration and milk production will go down/suffer.

While I agree with some of Haypoints post, not all of it however. Lowering grain given to the cow will lower production, and that is not all bad. We feed very small amounts of grain to our grass fed based cows. And yes they may give less milk, but if they have enough lush pasture, I find it better quality. And remember any cow will give milk, I milked a cross bred cow (hereford/holstein) for some time, and she would give three gallons per day, far more milk than we needed for sure.

[arnie]

I milked a cow for years and I used the old method used by many generations I kept the calf in the barn and lot and let the cow out on pasture , we and let it suck on one side as I milked on the other as the calf grows you can adjust the amount of milk you get = take what you need and let the calf have the rest you have to monerter the calf while its small not letting it scoure but soon you will be raceing to get your share , with this method the cow soon got used to the timeing and would be right on time for milking twice a day I never had to go searching for her to milk another plus of shareing with a calf is that if you are busy or need to leave town for a couple days you just let the calf have it all . I always used a angus bull so the calf would be beefier at butchering time takeing a baby beef to the butcher every year helped the grocery bill tremendsly , besides on a farm you really can't have too much milk if you raise your own pig it will make them grow great and healthy ; with children you can make ice cream butter, yogert , and cheeze ect , the pig is a great way to turn the skim milk and wehy into meat

[FarmerIvan]

Arnie; that's a good idea, me and my old man also thought of that too, having the calf have her share and we have ours. We are actually getting a jersey cow on Friday but without the calf, the folks want to keep the calf for themselves to eat. Although they said the cow was bred again, and will be due next year, we may just go with what you've done. Also I am thinking of getting piggly wigglies also and I like the thought of giving the pigs milk to put on weight. I'm sure it'd help keep some feed bill down a bit. Thanks for the Infos yall.

[Bubba1358]

I have a first-calf jersey, and have been getting from 1.5 to 2 gallons a day. I feed no grain (except a scoop of oats at milking), only pasture. She's a big sweetie, easy to handle and work with, and even that level of milk is way beyond what we can handle. We drink a lot of chocolate milk and eat a lot of yogurt. My wife makes cheese, and we feed extra whey and skim milk to our pigs.

Plus, the Jersey cream is outstanding.

[arnie]

I miss my milk cow ;a gentle giant brown swiss ,after loseing her this spring to age . my budget could not stand the cost of a broke cow .so i'm doing "ok " with a dairy goat 1/2 gallon a day is still enough for the pig and I . but plenty of pasture and a cow is a hard combination to beat . I still have a beef cow to raise my meat ,she is a heifer from my cow I kept but being 1/2 angus she doesn't make enough milk to share but grows a great calf and like her mother has a kind personality . just thought i'd mention that jersys are nice but if you get the opertunity don't pass up a swiss they produce a beefer calf and are built more sturdy

[arabian knight]

I have a two month old Jersey heifer that I am raising up. Not sure yet is I want to sell her or eat her. LOL
With the prices going insane on bull caves I bought this 3 week old heifer calf at half the price that bull cables are going for. Man some people up here are getting Holstein Bull Calves - $375 (Central WI) Price firm for a 1 week old ones.
Course that was for a Holstein. But still~ wow I paid 150 for this 3 week old Jersey Heifer. LOL And it was less then One mile away and from a jersey breeder I have bought from before.~ And Jersey are over 200 like these two ads.

Jul 30 2 nice 2 week old Jersey bull calves $250 (Hayward) map farm & garden - by owner

Jul 30 2 nice 1 week old beef cross bull calves $400 (Hayward) map farm & garden - by owner