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<blockquote data-quote="milkmaid" data-source="post: 153521" data-attributes="member: 852"><p>It is the timing and age of the calves, and stage of lactation for the cows that concerns me. I have no problem pulling older calves...had one of my bigger calves (5 months) cross the fence into another pasture once when I had the calves on pasture, nurse cow penned and was letting them together ever 12 hours. I didn't feel like going to get him, decided he'd come back on his own...and he did. He might have actually missed two feedings, if I remember right. LOL. Didn't hurt him.</p><p></p><p>Beef cows do tend to dry themselves off as the calves get close to weaning. My boss has the occasional angus/holstein cross cow in his milking herd (2 right now) that resulted from when the neighbor's bull crossed the fence. Those cows usually get culled for production pretty quickly...milk really heavy in the beginning, but by 6 months or so of being in milk, production is very low. Great for the beef folks, but on a dairy herd it doesn't work that well. LOL. If they breed back quickly - say a 10 month calving interval - it's not too big a deal and they can usually earn their keep for another lactation.</p><p></p><p>Now when my nurse cow showed up with mastitis in the example I listed above, she'd been in milk for 12 months already. She wasn't even milking that heavy; probably only 4-6 gallons a day (35-55lbs or so). I dried her off yesterday (16 months in milk) and she may not have been giving enough to feed one calf. She'll dry easily.</p><p></p><p>So to answer the question; yes, what worries me is 1) the age of the calf, and 2) the milk production and stage of lactation that the cow is at when you'd pull the calves. I can't see as it would make any difference when you're looking at that amount of time (24-48 hours) whether it's a beef or dairy cow. Under that amount of time any cow is...well, it's kind of a case of "milk produced" vs. "udder space and capacity". Call it an overload. Later in the lactating it's not a big deal, it's just right at the beginning when they're milking at their heaviest.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="milkmaid, post: 153521, member: 852"] It is the timing and age of the calves, and stage of lactation for the cows that concerns me. I have no problem pulling older calves...had one of my bigger calves (5 months) cross the fence into another pasture once when I had the calves on pasture, nurse cow penned and was letting them together ever 12 hours. I didn't feel like going to get him, decided he'd come back on his own...and he did. He might have actually missed two feedings, if I remember right. LOL. Didn't hurt him. Beef cows do tend to dry themselves off as the calves get close to weaning. My boss has the occasional angus/holstein cross cow in his milking herd (2 right now) that resulted from when the neighbor's bull crossed the fence. Those cows usually get culled for production pretty quickly...milk really heavy in the beginning, but by 6 months or so of being in milk, production is very low. Great for the beef folks, but on a dairy herd it doesn't work that well. LOL. If they breed back quickly - say a 10 month calving interval - it's not too big a deal and they can usually earn their keep for another lactation. Now when my nurse cow showed up with mastitis in the example I listed above, she'd been in milk for 12 months already. She wasn't even milking that heavy; probably only 4-6 gallons a day (35-55lbs or so). I dried her off yesterday (16 months in milk) and she may not have been giving enough to feed one calf. She'll dry easily. So to answer the question; yes, what worries me is 1) the age of the calf, and 2) the milk production and stage of lactation that the cow is at when you'd pull the calves. I can't see as it would make any difference when you're looking at that amount of time (24-48 hours) whether it's a beef or dairy cow. Under that amount of time any cow is...well, it's kind of a case of "milk produced" vs. "udder space and capacity". Call it an overload. Later in the lactating it's not a big deal, it's just right at the beginning when they're milking at their heaviest. [/QUOTE]
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