bigbluegrass
Well-known member
I have a "jersey cross" who calved 1/17/13. This is her first calf. I left her calf on her and so far I just take what's left. I did this last year with my 4 yr old jersey cow, and she milked about 1 1/2 gallons a day plus took care of her calf. After about 3 months into her lactation, the calf would take pretty much everything, so I separated them at night and got about 2 gallons a day. The new cow, I am only getting about 1/2 to 3/4 gallon a day plus what the calf takes. I did split the calf off one night and the next morning I got 1 1/2 gallons. However, the calf had scours the next day and it took a week to get over that. The calf is still kind of young and I don't want to stress it too much. I realize the calf gets as much as it can drink, and is probably drinking 2+ gallons a day. That is fine, the calf is healthy and growing great. I don't want to feed milk replacer and I would like to avoid bottle feeding the calf. I don't really need more milk, I just wonder if the cow should be producing more or if I need to feed her better.
I was feeding her 14% sweet feed before she calved at about 7 lbs per day. After calving I put her on 18% CP and 7% fat feed I had mixed up with molasses in it. She eats it great. I started her at 7 lbs and worked my way up to about 12 lbs now. There has been no increase in production. I don't know if I should keep feeding her more if her production won't go up. I would like to put some weight back on her, since she does looks a little thin, but how much before I need to worry about getting her sick. Should I feed a bit less for longer? She got a little runny for awhile when I pushed the feed up above 10 lbs per day, but seems to be doing better now. Besides the feed she has access to grass hay. I have not had it tested, and I would imagine it will test pretty low. I am hoping to get enough protein in her from the concentrates to make up for the poor hay. How many pounds of grain should I feed her a day?
After calving she did have edema pretty bad. That seems to be mostly cleared up. But her production remains low. Maybe that is still slowing down production? I put that peppermint rub on her. Not sure if it helps. It is possible she is Jersey/beef cross and she just won't milk much. I don't know anything about her except she came from a dairy dispersal sale and she is a Jersey cross.I thought coming from a dairy dispersal she would be more milk cow and less beef cow. Her ear tag was removed when I got her.
I do believe she is letting her milk down. After milking her bag normally feels pretty loose. There have been a few times I think she held back on me, but not normally. After I finished milking her a couple times, I put the calf in and it was hungry. So while the calf was sucking I checked and I could hardly get a squirt out then either. Any ideas? I am not really that worried, just more curious what folks on here would say.
I was feeding her 14% sweet feed before she calved at about 7 lbs per day. After calving I put her on 18% CP and 7% fat feed I had mixed up with molasses in it. She eats it great. I started her at 7 lbs and worked my way up to about 12 lbs now. There has been no increase in production. I don't know if I should keep feeding her more if her production won't go up. I would like to put some weight back on her, since she does looks a little thin, but how much before I need to worry about getting her sick. Should I feed a bit less for longer? She got a little runny for awhile when I pushed the feed up above 10 lbs per day, but seems to be doing better now. Besides the feed she has access to grass hay. I have not had it tested, and I would imagine it will test pretty low. I am hoping to get enough protein in her from the concentrates to make up for the poor hay. How many pounds of grain should I feed her a day?
After calving she did have edema pretty bad. That seems to be mostly cleared up. But her production remains low. Maybe that is still slowing down production? I put that peppermint rub on her. Not sure if it helps. It is possible she is Jersey/beef cross and she just won't milk much. I don't know anything about her except she came from a dairy dispersal sale and she is a Jersey cross.I thought coming from a dairy dispersal she would be more milk cow and less beef cow. Her ear tag was removed when I got her.
I do believe she is letting her milk down. After milking her bag normally feels pretty loose. There have been a few times I think she held back on me, but not normally. After I finished milking her a couple times, I put the calf in and it was hungry. So while the calf was sucking I checked and I could hardly get a squirt out then either. Any ideas? I am not really that worried, just more curious what folks on here would say.