Nurse cow or not. Thoughts

Gather App
MurraysMutts said:
Them are nice! That ho-jo is surprising
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He has neck and butt rolls! 😂 I thought we were ready to ship him (and replace him) but for some reason the buyer wants over 600 pounds right now. Used to be 400#'s. What was very shocking to me was drop holsteins were going for $1200 yesterday and 400#'s holsteins steers were going for $1000. Not sure what we will do with him at the moment.
 
Double R Ranch said:
He has neck and butt rolls! 😂 I thought we were ready to ship him (and replace him) but for some reason the buyer wants over 600 pounds right now. Used to be 400#'s. What was very shocking to me was drop holsteins were going for $1200 yesterday and 400#'s holsteins steers were going for $1000. Not sure what we will do with him at the moment.
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400lb holstein steers last month were 3.70 a lb here. $1480
 
We are currently working on moving. Worst time of year to be doing this but it's the cards we've been dealt. I've stopped milking this cow and leaving the two calves on her full time. It's only been 4 days of no milking (I was only milking a couple times a week and only 2 quarters) and i'm realizing why her condition is still deteriorating. Holy cow is she lactating still. She's so full she's leaking all over which means we run more of a risk of mastitis. Her two calves (now 5 and almost 6 months old) are on her full time and both have milk runs. So far seem to be doing ok just clearly overeating. Her calf seems to regulate far better than the holstein cross who just will not stop eating until she kicks him off. I've opted to not graft two new calves on currently as i'm going to be gone for at least 2 weeks with our first load. I need calves to keep up with her right now which I thought these two could easily do since they do fine for days at a time usually. I'm hoping she will slow in production with them drinking less and not get mastitis in the meantime. I would be happy if she slowed production a lot for the rest of her lactation anyways. I'm hoping she's pregnant now and will either be able to graft new calves on in between runs to the new property or dry her off but I really don't want her dry for that long. We have a jersey heifer getting ready to calve the end of january which is a whole other worry right now with me driving back and forth. Not sure how we are going to manage that one yet. We wanted her at the new place before calving but that's not looking like it's going to happen with winter in full swing and no one there to care for her.
Will post updates on how all this is going if anyone is interested in following this adventure.
 
NO GRAIN.... stop grain cold turkey... she will drop off in production faster.... Hold her water for 12 hours and only give her a 5 gal bucket twice a day for 2 days... it will help her to slow down alot... and do NOT go back to milking her for the house at all.... because that will stimulate her to increase again....
 
Thank you both. I'm really going back and forth on a plan at the moment. I'm not really sure what's going on with her right now. Both calves have overeating runs but are clearing up on their own as the days go on. She's as full as full can be. It appears she's not letting the holstein nurse at all. He goes up to her and she walks off. Can't tell if it's because she's so full and he's so aggressive she's kicking him off or whats going on. He also smells "funny" due to the runs but so does her natural calf and she let him nurse but he only nursed for maybe a minute and only 1/2 hearted. He was put off by the manure on the teats and wasn't interested enough to want to work it off and eat. She's so full it's ridiculous. I have big concerns of mastitis while I'm gone. I cleaned her udder last night, checked for clumps and put a dip on so at least she was clean again. I've been watching on the cameras and no one has nursed all day. When the holstein gets near she seems to move away from him and he's not being that interested anyways. Because his stomach is off or because she's flat out not letting him nurse anymore I don't know. I'll stop all grain gladly. Less work for DH while I'm out of town. I just worry about her condition declining anymore and we are expecting a week of substantial rain and flooding in the area. Thank you both for the advice. I'd love to get new calves on her but can't do that until I get back from this trip and calves are available. So far it's only been heifers for over a month now and they keep those for the dairy.
 
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Home scale weight before loading was 608#’s. He’s now just a few days shy of 6 months old. Time to go. Overdue. This guy has turned into a nightmare. Not only screaming all the time at the top of his lungs but never wanting to cooperate and go where he needs to go. Not sorry to see him go. He also is extremely hard on the cow. Probably won’t do to well on him because he’s a single but we’ll see tomorrow. I think he’s a little small for what our buyer is currently wanting. Going to try and pick up a calf if possible for our soon to calve milking heifer.
 
As expected cow got mastitis while I was on my trip. My better half did awesome in treating her and using the calves to get her fully milked out in that quarter. Both calves recovered from over eating and for the most part everything went ok while I was gone. Production is way lower thanks to @farmerjan s recommendation on cutting grain and water intake. Made all the difference while I was gone. Production is down and we now have two new grafts to put on her. They should be perfect to keep up with her by the time the next Jersey heifer calves in about two weeks.
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So far this grafting has been the easiest. Supervised nursing to prevent overeating scours but other than a few uncomfortable warnings from her she’s accepted she needs to let them nurse. She’s not quite comfortable yet but being good. We’ll see how she does tomorrow now that her older calves are gone/weaned. Hopefully they can go out to pasture together soon and just be cows for the rest of this lactation.
I do finally have her pregnant which is a huge relief. Tested her when I got home from my trip.
 
Lil baby holsteins! Nice.
Last black angus baby I saw in person went for 850. They're getting few and far between. Wondering what I'm gonna do come March.

I bet your big calf does ok. I'll guess around 1800 with all his color
 
MurraysMutts said:
Lil baby holsteins! Nice.
Last black angus baby I saw in person went for 850. They're getting few and far between. Wondering what I'm gonna do come March.

I bet your big calf does ok. I'll guess around 1800 with all his color
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Black calves were going for $1,250-$1,500 today here. There was a lot of them surprisingly. Lots of folks seem to be going out of business in the new year. Very sad.
He didn't do very well. $1,300. Lower than others that were similar. They swapped auctioneers to a young gal who I can't even understand right before he went through. She didn't see our normal buyer bidding apparently. On top of it some of the buyers thought his neck had an abscess at his jaw line. Gave me grief about it after he sold thinking I didn't lance it before selling him. He's had that fat there for most of his life. It's not an abscess but it clearly docked him. Crazy that holstein drop calves are going for $800 yet a near 6 month old only brought $1,300. Didn't help he was at the end of the sale either in the singles pen.
 
Fighting overeating scours something fierce. Making headway but golly what a pain. This cow currently has 3 calves on her now. Hopefully they keep up very soon.
Our oldest jersey heifer calved this weekend. A bull. So glad it was a bull. Been praying for one since she was bred to the bull. Got another holstein bull on her at calving so she's raising two now and doing a great job so far for a jersey. She's coming along really well on the milk training so far. Kick bar the first night and no kick bar after that. Very unexpected. She's been a kicker since she was little so I was expecting a rodeo. Hopefully I can not milk her soon (and get back to moving) but we need to get her trained to milk and milk the excess until the calves can keep up. She has a beautiful udder so far which is exciting. She milks less than her mother which was the hope all long. Really hoping to get our lines down to more home milking vs commercial milking. Her sister is due to calve the beginning of march to a beef bull. Hopefully I can pick up another calf by then for her as well. Got ourselves in a real pickle with trying to move while dealing with all of this but it will get worked out somehow. Hopefully a pen lot of calves and we'll be good to move them without milking every day.
 
Good news all around. At least at the moment. They are dairy cows after all. 😂
Our main cow's mastitis is cleared up again. Her 3 calves are all healthy and now thriving. No longer having to milk her either which is very much appreciated at the moment.
The heifer that just calved is doing fantastic. So far she's been shockingly good at milking and she's producing a more reasonable amount of milk for a home dairy cow. The two calves (her natural calf and one graft) are thriving. They are keeping up with her production now as well.
Now I'm only milking when we want milk for the house. God is good! Now I can focus back on moving. Last jersey heifer will calve end of march. I thought it was the beginning of march but I'm actually relieved it's the end of march. Not looking like she will be moved before she calves but I'm still trying to make that happen.
 
Been a bit since I've updated.
The 3 calves on our main milker are keeping up well. No more issues with mastitis. She's enjoying being out on pasture with her calves. Right after posting the last update the smallest of her 3 graft calves came down with pneumonia. It's been a battle ever since. We are still fighting it. Nothing is really knocking it out. Not giving up yet but it wouldn't surprise me even if we get him healthy he will likely have lung damage. I've never had one this persistent. Dairy cows are such a challenge. I'll probably wean him in another couple weeks and ship him once he's out of withdrawal. The other two calves are big enough to keep up with her production now. Especially with her being later in lactation.
The jersey heifer (main cows first calf) is doing fantastic. Not many problems with milking training. A complete shock. She's raising her two calves (her calf and 1 graft holstein) beautifully so far. They are already keeping up with her production.
The next to calve is another heifer in a few weeks on the dairy side. She's our main cows last heifer. I think she's going to be more of a milker than the last heifer to calve. I'm debating what to do with her. I have an older beef cow who I bred for a replacement heifer to replace her. The cow has joint issues. I'm really not sure what to do with her. I don't think moving her across the country is fair for her. Especially to then process her a few months later at weaning. I have concerns of her doing ok in the humidity also at her age. I'm debating calving her out and bottle feeding her calf until the last jersey calves. It would be about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks between them. Selling or processing the cow and then grafting her calf onto the jersey. That would make my life easier long term and still allow us to have her heifer as a replacement. The calf would be far heartier than another holstein calf. It would also be able to keep up with her milk better a lot faster allowing me to get back to moving quicker. Anyone have any thoughts on this thinking? So glad we didn't breed everyone we are taking on schedule last year so we only have a few to calve before moving. This is enough of a pain mid move. Will have to get everyone bred pretty quickly once we get there however. Hauler is waiting to pick the beef herd up. $3 a mile (don't know what it should run) to haul them all in one load. Calves included and hauling straight through. Then I'll haul the dairy herd myself. Timing is going to be a challenge since there's no one at our new home to watch them while we finish moving. Will have to time all the cattle moving close together. Challenging time but it will be so worth it in the end.
 

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