09/24/14, 09:43 PM
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My name is not Alice
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: On a dirt road in Missouri
Posts: 4,185
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gone-a-milkin
Certain cows just always freshen pink. This is the reason I can NEVER drink strawberry milk.  <cringe>
That does look like a lot of blood, but I wouldn't worry until you have milked her a few times.
It is very rare for them to stay THAT bloody for longer than a couple days.
There are strains of mastitis that show bloody though.
Give it a couple days before panicking. 
Cute calf, what did you get there? |
Thanks, I hoped that you would weigh in. I planned on giving it a few milkings before intervening. She had excellent health last year, even in the early strawberry period. I maybe should add that she has been dry since January-ish. I don't know if that is a factor. I am trying to go 6 months on, 6 off.
Got another bull! Thats 21-6 in favor of the boys this year.
I did a big no-no tonight. He came a week early so I still don't have her halter on. She wouldn't come up, so I carried him in my lap on the tail gate of the mule as DW used us as bait to get her to the barn. No issues there, other than we both slid off the back going up a hill and he crunched my midsection when we landed. I did a fair amount of handling of him at milking to coerce her into the stall. Not a big deal, I'll pull him for good on Friday night or Saturday morning.
Well.....yesterday I moved the beef herd. They have been calving like crazy this week. The pasture they left was huge and thick. I had the feeling that I was leaving a calf behind. (Actually left 2 behind). After all of the dust in dairy barn had settled and I was finished cleaning, I heard a hoarse sounding cow that was obviously calling a calf at the fence. I went alone this time on the ATV. I tried to let her back into the prior pasture to march back to her calf, but she didn't get my plan. The herd was about to jail-break, so I shut the gate and went looking for him on the ATV. I found him at the extreme far fence of this huge pasture. He was a little day-old fella so snagged him and tossed him over my still-smelly lap and drove him back to her...where she took one sniff and head-butted him right back at me....it was an "oh-dang-what-did-I-just-do" moment. I forgot all about having the birthing fluids of the other calf all over me. He got sucked into the mob of the herd looking for anything that would stand still. Eventually, about 30 minute later, she ran in after him and tried to sort him out from all of the wrong teats. I was mildly entertaining to watch. I'll keep an eye on that situation, but I think it is going to be fine.
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