To shave or not to shave

[Christina R.]

Do any (or all) of you shave your cow's udder? I haven't been shaving, just cleaning meticulously before I milk. Does it make it easier to clean? Any tips (other than using an electric razor, I assume)? Thanks!

[Haggis]

I thought maybe you were talking to the guys!!! :haha: :haha:

I haven't scraped my face in of 27 years, and then only on a $100 bet; I needed the money; kids and all. I hadn't shaved in 3 or 4 years and someone who had some money made me a bet. I got the money and threw the razor away.

As for cows, my Jerseys don't realy need it and when/if I ever have a Milking Devon freshen, I will have to trim them a bit.

I often say of myself that, neither whiskers, nor weeds, nor uncastrated pigs bother me.

[evermoor]

At our dairy I prefer to clip udders and flanks on the cows that freshen in the winter with shaggy coats or whenever the hair gets really fuzzy. It does keeep the cows cleaner. It cuts down on the manure balls that cake up during the winter on their backside. If the cows are outside during cold weather I wouldn't do it, since that long hair protect the udder from frostbite. We use standard large animal clippers, Oster, Andis brands. You can use the electric pet or beard clippers but it will shave extremely close and take a long time. If the hair is really thick and long dirty you can forget it. If nothing else just take scissors to those long guard hairs on the bottom of the udder. Sorry haggis some fuzz is manageable but the wife doesn;t appreciate the little discoveries when it was full blown. Besides nobody has dared me or offered the cash

[DaleK]

I singe udders with an Udder-Singe (they have a website somewhere). It takes the hair off nice and clean and I find the cows react better to the low-heat flame than they do to clippers buzzing around their udders. Makes a big difference in both bacteria and SCC's in the milk, particularly when it gets humid in the summer. I let it grow long for the cold in the winter.

[Christina R.]

Corabelle is a holstein (otherwise I'd let her never shave, Haggis) and the hair on the udder is not unmanageable or bugging me. It doesn't get crap balls in it or around her flank. She can come and go in a shed to her heart's desire. If she lays in manure somewhere, I use rags to clean her and then finish up with paper towels. Even though we are in AZ, it does snow and get cold (the average nightime temp this week will be in the teens), so I guess I'll leave well enough alone for the winter. Thanks again!

[dosthouhavemilk]

I don't think we ever shave our cows' udders. Belatrix had a very hairy udder but we didn't shave it.
We have Jerseys and Jersey/Norwegian Red crosses, so they don't have very long hair on their udders. In the winter they are kept inside and bedded. Milking takes over twice as long because to keep them completely scraped down is impossible so you spend a lot of time getting them washed before milking.

[Horace Baker]

I don't normally worry about udder hair, but sometimes a cow will have hair long enough to "pinch" when she is hand milked. In those cases, I'll trim it with scissors or my hand powered clippers.(Wahl).

[cloverfarm]

We didn't clip udders. We had HOlsteins. We kept them in teh barn and concrete lot in the winters and on pasture in teh summer. Usually bedded on wood shavings. When they were on straw they did get dirtier faster and generated a lot of complaints from teh help (me -- LOL)

Ann