Jersey

[Ky hills]

Saw the posts and pictures about Jersey cows on the bull thread so thought I'd share this over here.
Here is another picture of Maybell, with her Jersey dished face and big dark eyes.
The heifer is her last years calf said to be an AI calf. She's soon to be put with a bull.

 

[Logan52]

There is just something special about a Jersey that makes you want to have one around, and I have had several over the years, all called "Jers".
The last one was a high bred modern type with big bag and short teats that I had trouble keeping flesh on when she had calves on her. She was curious and always testing fences and gates for a bit of green on the other side. The other cows sort of bossed her around.
The old family cow type Jersey was a better fit to keep as a nurse cow.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Lovely cow with a trio of calves!! One of each kind too.

That heifer is beautiful!

I could pull Dapples calves now and start 2 new ones, just ain't been able to buy any babies. She may just raise these 2 until weaning time this go round.

How many has she raised for you this time around?

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Maybell sure has that classic Jersey face. How old is she?

Their temperament is not like other cows. On the Isle of Jersey for 100s of years they were 'house cows' that lived in the yard. They even try to come into houses.


These modern commercial Jers have short little milking machine teats, not a good handful. It is the way it is, so this year I got a milking machine.
"A cow's teat size is determined by her genetics In the dairy industry, small teats are helpful for milk production because the smaller ducts improve milk flow and are less prone to infection. As a result, geneticists have focused on breeding dairy cows with smaller teats". It is possible to select AI bulls that throw a longer teat length.

 

[Ky hills]

Lovely cow with a trio of calves!! One of each kind too.

That heifer is beautiful!

I could pull Dapples calves now and start 2 new ones, just ain't been able to buy any babies. She may just raise these 2 until weaning time this go round.

How many has she raised for you this time around?

Just these three, one is her's, there all by the same bull. I'll probably just let her raise these this time around. Kind of hard to find calves that wouldn't be taking a big chance with and too high to risk losing.
Used to be when I had a good supply of calves I'd wean them off and start a new bunch every 2-3 months. I got more complicated once I weaned the cow's own calves so I tried to leave them on longer.
This cow seems to claim all of them if I leave her with the calves very long she's licking on all of them.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

It is interesting that Jersey cows are so kind and motherly yet the bulls are aggressive and want to kill people.

 

[Ky hills]

Maybell sure has that classic Jersey face. How old is she?

Their temperament is not like other cows. On the Isle of Jersey for 100s of years they were 'house cows' that lived in the yard. They even try to come into houses.
View attachment 44124
View attachment 44125
These modern commercial Jers have short little milking machine teats, not a good handful. It is the way it is, so this year I got a milking machine.
"A cow's teat size is determined by her genetics In the dairy industry, small teats are helpful for milk production because the smaller ducts improve milk flow and are less prone to infection. As a result, geneticists have focused on breeding dairy cows with smaller teats". It is possible to select AI bulls that throw a longer teat length.

She's supposed to be 5 years. Her tears are pretty good length. The back quarters could ideally be a little longer, but they aren't too bad. They are hard to get to from the side, the way are positioned it's easier to milk the back quarters from behind.
She's the best disposition cow I've ever tried to milk. At one point I bought several aged dairy cows, Holsteins and a few Guernseys, for nurse cows most were handful to work with. I found the Guernsey and Jerseys to be the best to work with on average.
On the subject of dairy bulls. Mainly I tried to get my Jersey cows AI bred back then to Jersey bulls.
At one point I retained what I thought would be a good Holstein bull calf and a 3/4 Jersey 1/4 Holstein bull calf from a friends dairy that AI bred his cows.
I had always been used to beef bulls and hadn't had any real aggressive ones, by the time those 2 dairy bulls were getting around a year old they were really showing off and bellering and pawing. I sold them pretty quick, and just used my Angus bull again.
I was telling my dairy dairy friend about those bulls and he told me one of the dairymen around him had just took a young Jersey bull to stockyards for that reason. Said somebody at the yards asked him why he was selling that little bull. He said it don't look too little when it's trying to come come up in the skid steer after him.
We have a neighbor that just has a few cattle that are basically survival of the fittest feral Jerseys. We usually end up with one of their bulls on us a time or two a year. Always a mess trying to get them up and out. One time had to hire a cowboy to rope one into a trailer.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Why are Jersey cows are so gentle and motherly while the bulls are famously aggressive? It could be that the cows have more estrogen and the bulls have more testosterone than other breeds.

It sure is great to live in dairy country and not have to keep Jersey bulls. Because they arrive on the farm in tanks of liquid nitrogen delivered by a 'cow pollenater'. Not only that - a 90% chance of heifer calves.

 

[Lazy M]

Got tired of bottle feeding my 2 twin cast-offs and purchased some help this weekend.

 

[Warren Allison]

@coachg Looks like they have one in milk at the sale tomorrow in Calhoun. Video of her starts at about 1:36 . You ought to ride on over. Country fried steak gravy, mashed taters, green beans, slaw..... That's where I will be at noon tomorrow!

 

[kenny thomas]

I have to ask, why are so many animals brought in the day before? So much weight loss in the heat.
Cattle, hogs, goats and sheep look good.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Every thing from soup to nuts at that sale!

 

[Warren Allison]

I have to ask, why are so many animals brought in the day before? So much weight loss in the heat.
Cattle, hogs, goats and sheep look good.

Most people can't bring them day of the sale unless it is on Saturday. So, they bring them in after work the day before the sale.

 

[kenny thomas]

Most people can't bring them day of the sale unless it is on Saturday. So, they bring them in after work the day before the sale.

I hear that a lot. Lets consider something.
Lets say they have 10 500lb calves to sell. Unweaned calves can loose up to 8 to 10% but lets use.6% to be conservative.
So thats 30 lb per calf times 10 calves so 300lb. Figured at $3 a lb thats $900. More than i make at work in a day. Many of them will take a days vacation to go fishing or hunting but not to haul and sell cattle.
I love buying the overnight calves.

 

[gcreekrch]

I hear that a lot. Lets consider something.
Lets say they have 10 500lb calves to sell. Unweaned calves can loose up to 8 to 10% but lets use.6% to be conservative.
So thats 30 lb per calf times 10 calves so 300lb. Figured at $3 a lb thats $900. More than i make at work in a day. Many of them will take a days vacation to go fishing or hunting but not to haul and sell cattle.
I love buying the overnight calves.

Here they will discount those fat, full calves 30 to 50 cents.

 

[Warren Allison]

I hear that a lot. Lets consider something.
Lets say they have 10 500lb calves to sell. Unweaned calves can loose up to 8 to 10% but lets use.6% to be conservative.
So thats 30 lb per calf times 10 calves so 300lb. Figured at $3 a lb thats $900. More than i make at work in a day. Many of them will take a days vacation to go fishing or hunting but not to haul and sell cattle.
I love buying the overnight calves.

You have no way of knowing what a 500 lb calf weighed when it got there Monday night, They aren't weighed til they go into the ring. But I'd guess maybe a 5oo lb calf on Monday night, might loose maybe 10 lbs, if any. They sit there all night and the next morning, and eat good hay and have all the water they want. And, as you can see, pens aren't crowded and there isn't much stress. Back years ago when there was a Saturday sale in the next town over, they would dry lot the Friday calves, and use that as a selling point. A 500 lb calf that came in Friday nigh, k same quality and all, would bring say $3.10-$3.20 a pound, over the green one that came in Saturday and sold for $3 a pound. Right now it is not hot in there at all. But when it does get hot later on, there are huge warehouse fans in the ceilings, that pull the hot air out, and misters they will use in the 90 degree or more days.

 

[kenny thomas]

Here they will discount those fat, full calves 30 to 50 cents.

I see that also sometimes.

 

[kenny thomas]

You have no way of knowing what a 500 lb calf weighed when it got there Monday night, They aren't weighed til they go into the ring. But I'd guess maybe a 5oo lb calf on Monday night, might loose maybe 10 lbs, if any. They sit there all night and the next morning, and eat good hay and have all the water they want. And, as you can see, pens aren't crowded and there isn't much stress. Back years ago when there was a Saturday sale in the next town over, they would dry lot the Friday calves, and use that as a selling point. A 500 lb calf that came in Friday nigh, k same quality and all, would bring say $3.10-$3:20 a pound, over the green one that came in Saturday and sold for $3 a pound. Right now it is not hot in there at all. But when it does get hot later on, there are huge warehouse fans in the ceilings, that pull the hot air out, and misters they will use in the 90 degree or more days.

Over the years i helped unload on Sunday for a Monday sale at 1pm. We had a certified scale in a difference area of the stockyard where we weighed loadlots that didnt go through the sale. We would weigh some if we weren't busy and compare to the next day.
Most 500lb calves will loose at least 30 lb with some up to 50lb if they were fat and tender. I have weighed bulls at 2000lb that would loose 100lb.
Yes sometimes I will give more also because I know they have already lost weight.
Lets compare a 500lb calf at $3 to a 470lb calf at 3.10 and at 3.20.
1500 vs 1457 vs 1504. So the calf would have to bring almost 20 cents more to break even. At 10 cents extra you loose $43.

 

[kenny thomas]

And watching the video, you have to watch until the 4th pen before any of them are eating hay.

 

[Travlr]

It is interesting that Jersey cows are so kind and motherly yet the bulls are aggressive and want to kill people.

A couple of years ago I brought a Jersey heifer home to be raised for the freezer. I had a sheep with triplets I'd brought home the week before, so the sheep and her babies already in the pasture. When I turned the heifer out with the sheep she turned into four hundred pounds of bovine fury. She went after the sheep like a pit bull on a chihuahua. The lambs were trying to stick to their mother and were getting rolled and stomped as the ewe was trying to get away. I had to go out and protect the sheep with a flail so she wouldn't be killed. I finally got the sheep and lambs into another enclosure and the heifer paced the fence with blood in her eye until I sold her to the guy across the street that runs some cows.

I've never tried running sheep and cattle together before, so don't know if this was a thing that happens. I had a black Angus heifer that wouldn't tolerate a dog within a mile of her, but I was surprised at the reaction to a sheep.