How long to dry up?

allenslabs · #1 05/08/05, 05:00 PM

I am on route to drying Annie up. How long should it take? I'm at milking her once a day. Yesterday I got 3/4 a gal and today I just milked out less than 1/2 a gal and left some in there, Is that the best way? How should I continue to go about it? Thanks!!

JeffNY · #2 05/08/05, 07:24 PM

Make her body think it does not need to produce as much. One thing that you dont want to do is skip days between milking. So by milking her, and leaving some will slowly dry her up. Another thing is protein intake, reduce that as well, but don't deprive her of any necessary nutrients for overall body conditioning. Best thing to do, continue as is, and monitor her, as long as she looks healthy, no mastitis etc, you should be fine. Im no expert at this, but its what we did with our Jersey, and NO problems.

Jeff

Ronney · #3 05/09/05, 05:39 AM

What you've been doing is fine but if she is down to 1/2 a gallon, you could skip a day, milk her, skip another day, milk her and then leave her. You don't have to take it to the last drop that she will produce and in fact you risk setting mastitis going if you do.

Jeff, when drying off it's ok to skip a day as part of the drying off process when their production gets down. It's no worse than skipping a milking and it's just stretching out the time between them so the body gets the message to produce less.

Cheers,
Ronnie

allenslabs · #4 05/09/05, 01:18 PM

But I don't want to milk her out right? Just leave some in there? Bless her heart she actually acts like she misses me milking her. She has really gotten to like me and wants to be scratched and stuff and will step in front of me when walking just so I'll have to stop and pet her. I just love her!

JeffNY · #5 05/09/05, 11:56 PM

Yes, leave some in there. You want her to "think" that its time to quit making so much, and as advised by ronny that will also help. Once it's time to stop, monitor her and as long as she is healthy, no mastitis you should be set so she has her break before the next calf

.

Jeff

MissKitty · #6 05/10/05, 06:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffNY

Yes, leave some in there. You want her to "think" that its time to quit making so much, and as advised by ronny that will also help. Once it's time to stop, monitor her and as long as she is healthy, no mastitis you should be set so she has her break before the next calf

.

Jeff

We are pretty new at this cow raising but I can tell you what the dairyman had us do with our Jersey...6 weeks before she was due to calf we quit milking her...he had told us to do it at 8 weeks but like you said she will miss it and we gave in...After the last milking we put what is called quartermaster in eash teat...it is a paste put apply into each teat...Oh we were scared,,,watch closely for extreme redness and excess swelling...there will be some but this is natural....Like Jeff said cut down on the protein intake...Ours is due to calf in Nov.....this time we will not be using quartmaster...in time you will discover what is good for your situation and what is not...WE found anything that is apply invasive might lead to trouble any if it is medicine...We try to keep things as organic as possible...Good luck....Let us hear..MissKitty