Creamline in milk?

[kickinbull]

We have a family cow we milk and we are getting very little cream. She is eating all the fresh meadow pasture in rotation. She is a mix breed jersey swiss we bought. She is fresh about 6 weeks. I am giving her 16 % "heifer grower". mostly corn, soy distillers pellets and some oats. It's a mix from the mill they make up. What can we do to increase the cream without spending more than the cream is worth. Thanks.

 

[frieghttrain]

We have a family cow we milk and we are getting very little cream. She is eating all the fresh meadow pasture in rotation. She is a mix breed jersey swiss we bought. She is fresh about 6 weeks. I am giving her 16 % "heifer grower". mostly corn, soy distillers pellets and some oats. It's a mix from the mill they make up. What can we do to increase the cream without spending more than the cream is worth. Thanks.

Good question. We milk a jersy holstein cross she gets all the alfalfa she wants along with two gallons of feed a day and she give plenty of cream.

 

[TexasBred]

We have a family cow we milk and we are getting very little cream. She is eating all the fresh meadow pasture in rotation. She is a mix breed jersey swiss we bought. She is fresh about 6 weeks. I am giving her 16 % "heifer grower". mostly corn, soy distillers pellets and some oats. It's a mix from the mill they make up. What can we do to increase the cream without spending more than the cream is worth. Thanks.

Feed more roughage....grazing, hay, cottonseed hulls...whatever you have readily available.

 

[dun]

We have a family cow we milk and we are getting very little cream. She is eating all the fresh meadow pasture in rotation. She is a mix breed jersey swiss we bought. She is fresh about 6 weeks. I am giving her 16 % "heifer grower". mostly corn, soy distillers pellets and some oats. It's a mix from the mill they make up. What can we do to increase the cream without spending more than the cream is worth. Thanks.

Feed more roughage....grazing, hay, cottonseed hulls...whatever you have readily available.

Correct, roughage raises BF

 

[suzorse]

dose she still have her calf on ? and is she giving you a good letdown ? alfalfa hay will help with the cream line , and if she is holding up for the calf then you will get less cream till you wean her calf ,
I had a customer ask about my cream line right now , as it is skimpy , and I explained that I was calf sharing , and I was separating the calves at night and leaving 1/2 for the calves when I milked ,as the cream is in the hind milk, which means the calves get the creamier milk , and that once I wean calves the cream line will jump up , some people do not believe this but it is true , I had 1 Swiss cow that held up so bad ,that I had to pull her calf for 4 days before she gave me a good let down , another trick you can try is to separate the calf for a couple hours , and tie the calf where it can just
reach her side but not the udder , and when she lets down milk 2 or 3 quarters for the house and then let the calf have the other quarters that you did not milk ,and see if there is improvement in the cream line
Suzanne

 

[kickinbull]

dose she still have her calf on ? and is she giving you a good letdown ? alfalfa hay will help with the cream line , and if she is holding up for the calf then you will get less cream till you wean her calf ,
I had a customer ask about my cream line right now , as it is skimpy , and I explained that I was calf sharing , and I was separating the calves at night and leaving 1/2 for the calves when I milked ,as the cream is in the hind milk, which means the calves get the creamier milk , and that once I wean calves the cream line will jump up , some people do not believe this but it is true , I had 1 Swiss cow that held up so bad ,that I had to pull her calf for 4 days before she gave me a good let down , another trick you can try is to separate the calf for a couple hours , and tie the calf where it can just
reach her side but not the udder , and when she lets down milk 2 or 3 quarters for the house and then let the calf have the other quarters that you did not milk ,and see if there is improvement in the cream line
Suzanne

the calf is still nursing. I seperate them at nite and milk 3/4 in the morning. Calf gets one quarter and then is with her rest of the day. I don't have alfalfa and not sure buying any is worth it.

 

[TexasBred]

dose she still have her calf on ? and is she giving you a good letdown ? alfalfa hay will help with the cream line , and if she is holding up for the calf then you will get less cream till you wean her calf ,
I had a customer ask about my cream line right now , as it is skimpy , and I explained that I was calf sharing , and I was separating the calves at night and leaving 1/2 for the calves when I milked ,as the cream is in the hind milk, which means the calves get the creamier milk , and that once I wean calves the cream line will jump up , some people do not believe this but it is true , I had 1 Swiss cow that held up so bad ,that I had to pull her calf for 4 days before she gave me a good let down , another trick you can try is to separate the calf for a couple hours , and tie the calf where it can just
reach her side but not the udder , and when she lets down milk 2 or 3 quarters for the house and then let the calf have the other quarters that you did not milk ,and see if there is improvement in the cream line
Suzanne

the calf is still nursing. I seperate them at nite and milk 3/4 in the morning. Calf gets one quarter and then is with her rest of the day. I don't have alfalfa and not sure buying any is worth it.

Alfalfa really just increases production more than butterfat. Hay of any kind will also work if the grain ration already has an adequate protein level.

 

[dun]

Back when we did the DHIA thing with dairy goats, we had a couple of people that would always have sky high BF but only fair milk lbs. Found out that for a couple of days before test they would feed nothing but bean hay. The roughage was what goosed the snot out of the BF numbers.

 

[TexasBred]

Back when we did the DHIA thing with dairy goats, we had a couple of people that would always have sky high BF but only fair milk lbs. Found out that for a couple of days before test they would feed nothing but bean hay. The roughage was what goosed the snot out of the BF numbers.

:lol: :lol: Guess some folks enjoy fooling themselves.

 

[farmerjan]

Yes, roughage increases the butterfat. You also would be better milking her in the evening, butterfat seems to mostly be higher in the evening milk on most of the dairies that I dhia test. And milk all 4 quarters because when you milk only 3 she is holding milk and the highest butterfat is in the last part of the milking. The calf will really go after her but she will produce enough milk to feed it in a couple of hours. At 6 weeks the calf should be eating some grain, so feed the calf grain when you are sitting down to milk and when it goes out with the cow it won't be starving and although it will nurse alot for the first couple of hours it won't hurt her. I give my cows some grain and a flake or two of alfalfa hay when in the barn milking and it shows in the butterfat. Also, they make more milk and less butterfat early in the lactation; a cow that averages 4.5 or 5 % in her whole lactation will make 3.5% in the first 2-3 months and it will increase as her production goes down in most cases. My jersey makes about 4% early on and goes up to nearly 6% by the end of lactation.
I would also give her a 16-18% dairy feed not a grower ration. The mineral balance is different.

 

[farmerjan]

Back when we did the DHIA thing with dairy goats, we had a couple of people that would always have sky high BF but only fair milk lbs. Found out that for a couple of days before test they would feed nothing but bean hay. The roughage was what goosed the snot out of the BF numbers.

:lol: :lol: Guess some folks enjoy fooling themselves.

You would be surprised what some dairies have done over the years to skew the DHIA results. Especially some of the purebred breeders. MOST are totally honest, but there have been a few that have done some real "shady" stuff. :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[TexasBred]

Back when we did the DHIA thing with dairy goats, we had a couple of people that would always have sky high BF but only fair milk lbs. Found out that for a couple of days before test they would feed nothing but bean hay. The roughage was what goosed the snot out of the BF numbers.

:lol: :lol: Guess some folks enjoy fooling themselves.

You would be surprised what some dairies have done over the years to skew the DHIA results. Especially some of the purebred breeders. MOST are totally honest, but there have been a few that have done some real "shady" stuff. :shock: :shock: :shock:

I've seen some of the things some do to fool themselves into thinking their RHI is much higher than it really is.