Check out my cow calf operation

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Three sleepy heifers with bellies full of milk. Cow is feeding them plus milk for the house. She's a first calf heifer finally gotten used to the milking machine


The plywood is to keep them from messing with the bee hive.





I let them all out together every day for exercise in the corral. It's like a calf riot. Keep them separate for feeding so they won't cross suck after a bottle. The mesh fence prevents this also. Its made of some corral panels and gates I had. Each calf is fed a gallon and a half per day plus calf starter.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Murray I was hoping you would see this

 

[coachg]

That's the heifer on this side ? She looks young !

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

She is 2 years old tomorrow. She's a first calf heifer. She has a bag now this was before she freshened.
This is her two years ago.

 

[coachg]

Pretty , if you like jerseys.

 

[MurraysMutts]

She is a very pretty girl. I'm glad she got the routine down for you. That bottle making and washing takes a lot of time and effort. 1 bottle ain't so bad, but 3 of em twice a day every day requires real effort.
That's why I much prefer the cow to be a mama and raise em. Your situation is different with you milking her for the house as well.

That's what's so nice about this stuff. There is so many ways to do it. And most times be productive and profitable too!

 

[Lucky]

That's a nice looking set up. I bet it's fun to watch when you turn them out everyday.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

MurrysMutt, I feed those heifers warm milk 3 times a day. That's 9 bottles

Plus the milking machine disassembled washed and sanitized twice a day, plus all the measuring devices, pots and milk storage jugs. Plus the yogurt, butter and cheese making. Yes it is fun but also a full time job.
I like this job.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Speaking of washing up, it is not good to pour butter fat down the sink. It can clog up the septic tank or even ruin the drainfield. Jersey milk is loaded with butterfat. I don't pour any kind of milk washings or rinsings down the kitchen sink. I made this set up on the back deck outside the kitchen door. Its a water trough where I rinse and wash the milker, buckets and pails and a garden hose takes the drainage out to the pasture. Green hose is water suppy, blue hose is drain. Any dairy items I rinse in the kitchen sink the water goes into a plastic tub and carried out and dumped in the trough.

Then I hang up the milker inflations so they can drain and dry next to the sink.




That brush is called an inflation brush. You stick it in the soapy inflation and turn it like a crank

 

[MurraysMutts]

Speaking of washing up, it is not good to pour butter fat down the sink. It can clog up the septic tank or even ruin the drainfield. Jersey milk is loaded with butterfat. I don't pour any kind of milk washings or rinsings down the kitchen sink. I made this set up on the back deck outside the kitchen door. Its a water trough where I rinse and wash the milker, buckets and pails and a garden hose takes the drainage out to the pasture. Green hose is water suppy, blue hose is drain. Any dairy items I rinse in the kitchen sink the water goes into a plastic tub and carried out and dumped in the trough.

Then I hang up the milker inflations so they can drain and dry next to the sink.

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That brush is called an inflation brush. You stick it in the soapy inflation and turn it like a crank

Very cool!!

My wife would have a screaming 2 year old hissy fit about the bottles. That always drove her nuts in a cramped trailer house such as ours. One more reason my calves started sucking cows.
It was much easier for me as well.

I like your set up. Very good!

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Lunch at fast food restaurant.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

I've been doing some figuring on this cow-calf operation

A 25lb sack of milk replacer costs $44.00 in SW Oregon. You mix 10oz of powder to make a 2 quarts to feed a bottle calf. Fed twice a day that's 20oz. I feed 3 times a day because that is what they require to not grow up to be screeby pot bellied underfed bovines that are weaned early. So that would require 30oz replacer powder a day. There are 400 oz in a 25.lb sack. So a sack lasts a calf 13.5 days, say 2 weeks. To feed a calf replacer costs $88 a month per calf. Feeding three calves replacer would cost $264.00 a month.

HoneyDew is producing 5+ gallons a day. A milking cow should be fed 1lb. of grain for each 3lbs of milk she produces each day. HD produces a little more than 5 gallons a day so that's 43lbs of milk. Divided by 3 thats 14.3lbs of dairy grain a day. Divided into a 50 lb sack a sack lasts 3.5 days. She eats two 50lb sacks a week. A sack costs $17.00 or $34.00 a week . So it costs $136.00 a month to raise those 3 Jersey heifers on milk for a savings of $128 a month. Plus milk for the house that becomes cold milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt, half and half and butter.

I plan to keep supplementing these calves milk when they are on pasture like a beef cow does until HD goes into her dry period before calving again. Seems like this would save on stocker grower. Not so much the heifers get fatty udders. There's surplus milk, might as well feed it.

Yes the daily milking, feeding, cleaning up is a lot of activity but I don't have anything else to do

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

I weighed the heifers by tape today at 2 months of age. They have gained 1.6 lbs a day. I used the Coburn tape for dairy cattle. It has weights for Holstein, Guernsey and Jersey.

I am bottling three times a day with high fat Jersey milk. Each gets a gallon and a half a day but I have fed them that much since about 10 days old. Also calf starter all they want which is about a pound a day. No hay but they pick at grass around when let out in the corral. They do chew cud.

This is calf #1, Winona, HDs own calf. Today she weighs by tape for Jersey calves at 163lbs. She's a week older than the other two and the tallest.


This is calf #2, FlowerBell, also weighs 163lb by Jersey tape.


This is #3, Buttercup. She weighs 152 lbs by tape today. She was smaller when I bought her from the dairy.

HD is milking just fine now, over 5 gallons a day at 2 months fresh. She does not kick anymore, because, well, she can't due to CowCan'tKick I'm waiting on her next heat to breed her back.

My old 12 year old pet Jersey has missed 3 heat periods. I sent for a preg test. But she wasn't having any heat periods ever since the night of attacking the lawn chair anyway.

These calves each live in 10'x10' outdoor pens and are turned loose every day for exercise. When they are old enough they can be turned out on pasture and still be fed milk like beef cows raise their calves.

This weight tape made by Coburn says on it the average weight for Jersey calf at 3 months is 140lb. Maybe back when they created this tape (it also has Guernsey and Holstein weights) Jerseys were smaller than they are now.

Farmerjan please see your PMs about a question.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

This giant ball is a focus of interest when the calves are let out and frisking. They buck, charge, butt, mount and try to ride it and while doing so another calf rams it broadside.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Last evening Honeydew was in the lot and she suddenly went off bucking and pitching. All 4 feet off the ground like a rodeo bull. This with an swinging udder full of milk. Thats weird I thought.

This morning she was trying to ride Daphne, she was in flaming heat. The AI guy came to service her and also palpated Daphne since is going on 13 years old and was 75 days bred. Daphne is pregnant AIed for a Jers heifer calf! It's a miracle! Honeydew if also bred for a heifer hopefully. This was her second heat since calf birth.

Including calves, cows and possible pregnancies my cow-calf operation contains 7 females.

The AI guy said don't sell those heifers as yearlings. Sell them as bred heifers, they bring a lot more $. Now that the dairies are doing so much beef on dairy purebred heifer calves are scarce.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

These heifers are getting big 300lbs. Good thing I got them all halter broke. Today we boostered their vaccinations. We don't have a squeeze chute. We are both in our 70s so no All Star Calf Wrestling. I led them out one at a time and tied low to a post in the barn. My cowboy husband dropped them to the ground with a rope by putting a bowline around their necks, then a half hitch around behind their front legs at the top of their withers. Leading to another half hitch around in front of their hind legs. Pulled it snug and down they went flat as pancakes. It was my job to lean back on the rope and keep pressure on. He said after this they will have more respect for us haha.

 

[MurraysMutts]

While I can appreciate the grandiose of all that, a halter broke 3wt calf is easy to tie in the corner of a gate and use the gate as a squeeze.

Glad ya got 'er done!

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Our gates don't open all the way like that. You can't mash the animal. We were going to use cattle panels for this but my husband said it's easier to just rope them down. He also drops full grown (gentle) cows that way. Well, one time he laid Daphne down so we could trim her feet.

 

[Lannie]

Have you ever tried just giving them a shot while they're standing tied? I would think a nurse would know how to give a quick jab. I never have to mash my cows or tie them up on the floor. I have them in the headgate (or tied to a stall post, however the situation is) and just stick them and it's over. They hardly know what happened. If you haven't tried that way yet, you should.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

My husband is the fastest quick jab I have ever seen. He's probably vaccinated 1000's of calves in the muscle of their necks. He requires a 12cc syringe and a 1" 16 guage needle. When Honeydew, a first calf heifer needed oxytocin to let down at first it was the back of her thigh and she never knew what hit her. I asked did you do it yet? because I did not even see it. Oxytocin is supposed to be injected low so it flows into the udder. But these are not IM injections. They are sub cutaneous injection which requires grasping and pulling up a tent of skin and injecting it there. Plus cutting off the ear tags and checking for extra teats. Tying these calves to a post would have been a real rodeo.

"Some vaccines allow for a choice between intramuscular and subcutaneous administration. Subcutaneous means under the skin, intramuscular means in the muscle."

According to the university of Oklahoma "All injections should be given in front of the shoulder, subcutaneously if possible, and in the manner indicated on the product label," Biggs said. "Proper restraint of the animal is necessary for human and animal safety."