A Few of My Favourites

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Loch Valley Fold

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While most have seen my Highlands I rarely post any pics of our dairy herd so here are a few of my favourite cows
Sharon she is a 1998 model still going strong at her peak she would produce 30+ litres day now she has dropped back to 20L she has given me 5 heifers & 2 bulls, several grand-daughters 1 grandson & 1 g'grandson, this is 1 cow I would love to flush
HighlandCows24.jpg


1 of her daughters Kava Sharon born 2002- the one thing I really don't like is the teat placement on Kava none of her sisters have the problem so have to assume it comes from the bull
Kava_Sharon_1.jpg


Annabelle born 1999, the only full sister we have to Sharon
Annabelle.jpg


Archie - Claydon Park Achiefabull Daisy was sold last year to finish off her days in retirement rearing calves
Archie2.jpg


Susan born 2000
Susan.jpg


Chrissy born 2002
Chrissy_3.jpg

Chrissy_2.jpg


2237 born 2002
2237_2.jpg

2237_1.jpg


Old Bull he is my favourite bull born 2001 he is an AI son of Glenpar Phantom -et (my first ai born son)out of my cow Betsy
Picture005.jpg
 
None of them are perfect but then we're still looking for that one. But they are nice. Looks like they milk good and have longevity which is great. Best Wishes.
 
Not trying to upset anyone, but the first two look to have poor udders. Then again it could just be the pic.
 
So flush the first one if you really like her so well. I had a cow flushed for the first time this year and I am pleased. We got 21 usable embryos on one flush. We implanted five of those. I am anxious to see how the embryo calves turn out on their recip mothers.
 
novaman":20zaezjz said:
Not trying to upset anyone, but the first two look to have poor udders. Then again it could just be the pic.

They're all blemished in one way or another but apparently milk well, breed back well and otherwise very sound. When I dairied I wanted to get my herd to the point that I could tell someone that if they found a cow they did not like I would give her to them....never got there. :lol:
 
No its the photos if I was to be really really picky about the udders it would be they may be a tad too long, but as I don't want the udder itself hanging below the knees these are fine. For Sharon being almost 12yrs she still in top condition feet, legs, udder are all perfect the 1 that does have the bad udder is Archie, weak centre ligements. I don't want teacup udders I'm looking for udders that are going to hold milk so have been working on rear udder height & width & teat length on some of the cows with good results in the heifers that are coming through now - nothing I hate more is standing there holding the cups on a heifer because her teats are too short to hold the cups on.
Temperament is another issue we've addressed, over the years we've culled heavily on temperament - heifers get 1 lactation to settle down completly the ones that go for 6mths than start kicking if they don't settle back down than they are marked for the next truck out of here if things get too bad they are dried off & sent out to the dry paddock until we have a load to go.
As for flushing the local vet that does the et work for this area won't return my phone calls - that is fine I have found another company that will do the et work + implant some embryos that I imported from Canada looking at doing that after Jan '10
 
the reason you see a cow that looks thin is this.every bite of grain grass an hay goes to making milk.an it isnt going to make fat.if you see a super fat dairy cow.its 1 thats not even paying her way.
 
S&WSigma40VEShooter":6su2o28l said:
Why is it every time I see a dairy cow it always has ribs stickin out or looks like it has johnes? I dont get it.

Just the difference between dairy and beef. That skinny high producingdairy cow probably eats a minimum of 55 lbs. per day of grain, hay, silage and other feed ingredients on a dry matter basis and is still thin. She's trying to do a balancing act of producing milk, breeding back and maintaining some acceptable degree of body condition. A heavy milker will seldom carry any fleshy cover until her milk production has declined considerably and then hopefully she is bred back and ready to dry off and put in the dry cow pasture to begin the cycle over again. I've actually pulled cattle from the milking herd and began the drying off process and they'd still be milking 65-70 lbs. per day but were bred had been milking 10-12 months and it was time for them to be dried off. You see a fat cow in a dairy barn she's not giving much milk.
 
I really like Annabelle. Interesting that full sisters can look so different.

Are you milking from the side, or do your cows' switches just stay clean? Most of my herd get plastered in filth this time of year if the switch isn't trimmed short.
 
No we put the cups on between the back legs. We keep the tails short we'll trim just below the end of the bone anything that is real dirty we trim off as much hair as we are able to. The only time the tails aren't trimmed is when they get ready to go to the dry paddock that & blue stripes down the back legs let us know if we have an extra in the herd that shouldn't be there.

Out of 200 head we can always pick out a Sharon or Annabelle it's something about their eyes you can see it more clearly in the pic of Kava Sharon(2nd pic) Annabelle is the only 1 that doesn't have the eyes.
 

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