Dairy Cattle??

[Ellie May]

Howdy,
I was wondering if it was worth the trouble--we want to buy a dairy cow to milk & pasturize the milk so we can drink it instead of buying it all the time? :?: Does anyone have comments on that or advice? :?: We currently raise Polled Herefords, so we have never delt with Dairy cows. 8) We have a cousin who does though. Any help?? :?:
Thank you,
ELLIE MAY


:cboy:

 

[Jay]

Dairy cows put out alot of milk per day (I've read up to 5 gallons total) PLUS you have to have a 'set' schedule at milking EVERY DAY at about the same times. We milked a Jersey/Gurnsey cross when I was a kid & we had sooo much milk we gave alot of it away & the night milking we would generally give to all the barn cats & dogs. You can't take off & go anywhere; like on a weekend or a vacation unless you have some one to come & milk the cow for you. Try & milk one of your Herefords....what the heck?!! I'm sure it's been done before! :lol:
We never did anything to it but sometimes seperated the cream to make butter; or use it for 'creamed' veggies. I still want to shake the milk to this day as the cream will rise to the top. Pretty yukky to see cream going 'glop glop' onto the top of your cereal or oatmeal in the morning!!
Good Luck on your venture---I'm sure if you did a web search you'd come up with lots of info.

 

[A. delaGarza]

it worth the trouble, not only for milk, instead you will have butter, cream cheese & sugar milk candy.

Howdy,
I was wondering if it was worth the trouble--we want to buy a dairy cow to milk & pasturize the milk so we can drink it instead of buying it all the time? :?: Does anyone have comments on that or advice? :?: We currently raise Polled Herefords, so we have never delt with Dairy cows. 8) We have a cousin who does though. Any help?? :?:
Thank you,
ELLIE MAY


:cboy:

 

[Anonymous]

As has been mentioned, dairy cattle will need milking daily, but if you have an orphan calf, you can put the calf on the cow and still have milk. A good holstein will milk over 100 lbs of milk a day, a jersey less but richer. (1 gal= 10 lbs milk, imperial gallon. US gallons weigh less)

Watch for infection--importing disease isn't really a good idea. Some of them would be neospora, johnes, brucella etc...

Good Luck

 

[Ellie May]

If we were to, how would we pasturize it? :?:
Thank you for all your help!
Ellie May



:cboy:

 

[rick1500]

Pasturizing is easy to do. Although I don't remember exact details, it's something like; a few minutes at 160 deg on the stove top in a pan.

If you have access to the internet it's very easy to get the details, if not I or I'm sure someone can get it for you.

We have been milking our Jersey/Angus/Longhorn cross for about a year now. At first with the calf she came with we were only milking in the morning. When we had the calf processed the milking went to twice a day.

Our cow has a great amount of butterfat, close to 3 inches in the gallon jar when it settles out.

We pasturized at first and we quit once we decided our cow was healthy. The benefits of raw milk are really good. If someone is lactose intolerant they will stand a chance of being able to drink it raw.

We make butter, it has a strong scent but it taste great (can't go back to store bought ) the cream has an excellent after taste and it's great in coffee.

We clean the udder with water and a little vinegar in it prior to milking .
We then filter it into a jug with a funnel and milk filter when we get back in the house. We keep our milking utensils as clean (bacteria free) as possible. We see a difference in our milk lasting for days and our friends who don't keep their's as clean, they're milk starts going bad in a couple of days.

It doesn't take any more effort to have cleaner equipment, it's just a matter of how one views germs.

Our schedule is hectic so we haven't been able to stay with a certain milking time of day. It hasn't affected our cow or the milk. But I'm sure each cow can be different. In a way I guess our varied milking schedule is a schedule in itself. It's what our cow has come to expect.

I would guestimate we get 2 gal in the morning and 1 1/2 gal at night. The only reason we milk at night is to keep her supply going so she won't dry up. She is being serviced by our neighbor's bull now and so when we get her calf we'll go back to once a day milking. She hasn't allowed an orphan calf we have to nurse since we took her calf away.

What we found out is this, if our cow is healthy our milk is healthy so we don't have a problem drinking it raw. We use natural medicines instead of chemical ones to keep them healthy. Also, drinking raw milk is a 'selective squeamish' event, all that say they want to try our milk, once they think about it being raw they rethink it.

We all love our milk, it taste great. We graze her with only a little grain during milking.

 

[A. delaGarza]

you boil it for a few minutes, if you curdle it you could make cheese too, if you curdle it hot you could make another type of cheese

If we were to, how would we pasturize it? :?:
Thank you for all your help!
Ellie May



:cboy:

 

[Oldtimer]

If we were to, how would we pasturize it? :?:
Thank you for all your help!
Ellie May



:cboy:

Ellie May

Why would you want to pasturize it? I was born and raised drinking warm milk squirted out of the teat- warm skim milk out of the seperator - and whole cream and milk. If you know what you feed your cows and how the milk is handled, I can't see why to pasturize it.- I had a doctor many years ago that said that the main reason people got so many illness's anymore was because of all the pasturization and sterilization going on- they never built up an antibodies to any illness's. Nothing better then fresh milk with a the big chunks picked out of the bucket and the rest strained out through a dish towel.

 

[Anonymous]

What we found out is this, if our cow is healthy our milk is healthy so we don't have a problem drinking it raw. We use natural medicines instead of chemical ones to keep them healthy. quote]

Just curious, but how do you know you cow is negative for all diseases...like brucellosis, tuberculosis, etc? Have you tested her or are you assuming she is because she looks healthy?

Pasturization works because you seldom know what diseases you cow(s) are carrying that can sicken or kill you!

JMHO
Vicki, riding her broom...

 

[Christina]

A while ago I posted this question on the health board, but addressing it here may help me and anyone considering buying a dairy cow. How important is it to fiddle with their udder and teats while they are young (to get them used to being milked someday).

My 19 month old holstein was always very agreeable to this until about 5 months ago. She's 3 months bred now and wants nothing to do with being touched. I can rub her under her belly, but when I touch her udder, she balks. There isn't anything sore with it. Should I push the point or trust instinct kicks in when milking time comes? Are there dairy cows that will grow up to never allow anyone to milk them?

As a side note, I'm getting used to this board now and see a few advantages.

 

[dun]

Some of them are always witches about being milked. Some settle down after calving. I would continue to mess with her just a little, not pulling but just handleing rubbing, etc. Might help if she had a little grain to get her used to the idea that to get the grain she has to put up with the foolish humans. If after she calves she still kicks, you can put a kicker rope or a kicker like dairys use to keep her from doing it. If she keeps up after a week or so, send her down the road. It's amazing how quick they can be with a foot and how long it takes a broken arm to heal.

dun

A while ago I posted this question on the health board, but addressing it here may help me and anyone considering buying a dairy cow. How important is it to fiddle with their udder and teats while they are young (to get them used to being milked someday).

My 19 month old holstein was always very agreeable to this until about 5 months ago. She's 3 months bred now and wants nothing to do with being touched. I can rub her under her belly, but when I touch her udder, she balks. There isn't anything sore with it. Should I push the point or trust instinct kicks in when milking time comes? Are there dairy cows that will grow up to never allow anyone to milk them?

As a side note, I'm getting used to this board now and see a few advantages.

 

[Ann Bledsoe]

We use our milk raw, personally I can't stand the taste of pastuerized milk -- it tastes "cooked".
Before I'll use milk from a particular cow though, I do have the cow tested for TB and Bangs. While we're waiting on test results, I also will put a quart of the cow's milk in the fridge and leave it for a week. If it sours in that week, there's something wrong -- milk from a healthy cow, kept cold, should stay fresh for 10 days to 2 weeks. Also during that time that we're waiting on test results, the cow is treated as if she had the "plague". Kept separated from other animals with no contact allowed; fed, milked, etc. after the rest of the animals; clothing changed & washed + shower before handling other animals, and milk is discarded so that other animals cannot get to it -- just in case, it's always better safe than sorry!

You don't have to be quite as strict about milking twice a day as most people think, you can vary by a couple of hours either way without any major upset to the cow -- but you can't milk at 6 am one day and noon the next. Small variation is okay, but lack of consistency will drastically reduce the milk production.
It is also possible to milk once daily, some people swear that they get less but the milk is richer when the cow is only milked once a day.

I've never had any trouble getting cows to accept milking -- if nothing else, bring the calf up alongside her front leg, right beside you where she can see and smell it, and she'll think that the calf is nursing. After a week or so, you can start moving the calf farther away during milking and after 2 weeks you should be able to milk with the calf out of sight.
An even better method of getting a cow to accept being milked is to be present at the birth and make a point of getting all that nasty slimy birthing fluid on your hands and arms, then let/encourage the cow to lick it off of you while you stay with her for a while after the birth -- she'll bond with you, you become the calf to her and she'll willingly give you her milk.

Ann B

 

[Ellie May]

It's gotta taste & smell different right? If it's raw can't ya catch things??
Ellie May

 

[Ann Bledsoe]

It smells and tastes like milk is supposed to! The main difference that most people notice is that you have to keep stirring or shaking because the cream keeps coming to the top.
Holstein milk is almost exactly like the milk at the store, but Jersey milk is richer -- thicker, creamier, even after it's had most of the cream removed.

The only way that you can catch anything from raw milk is if the cow is sick OR if you don't handle the milk in a sanitary manner. A healthy cow that's milked in a clean & sanitary manner produces milk that is clean and very good for you. But milk is highly perishable and an ideal medium for bacterial growth, so has to be handled properly.

My grandson wasn't a milk drinker at all, but since he was introduced to raw milk he loves it. I know another little girl who swore that she hated milk, but give it to her warm, straight from the cow, and she loves it.

Ann B

It's gotta taste & smell different right? If it's raw can't ya catch things??
Ellie May

 

[rick1500]

Vicki,

The cow and calf had all their shots and testing before we bought her. The owner decided to sell her because the dogs in his neighborhood kept her going out the fence and into other's yards.

She was 5 yrs old when we got her and we've had her for about a year now. She eats only a little feed while we milk and grazes on non-fertilized grasses. She hasn't been around any other animals since we've had her until now, since the neighbor's bull is here 'a-courtin'.

We'll be doing better intensive grazing this year, but until now she and the calf had access to the full 3 acres. With this amount of area and our chickens keeping the patties 'instantly' tore up (chickens are unique to put it mildly aren't they) we haven't been concerned with a parasitic buildup.

This next week I'll be getting a fecal test done for a check on worms, it'll be a good baseline for any future parasite treatments.

Our milk has no problems lasting a week in the fridge before we use it. But it would be interesting to do a longevity check with a bottle of it to see just how long it will last before going bad.

Using the natural suppliments that we have works well to keep parasites/viruses/bacteria in check and we've had to administer them occasionally for a couple of weeks at a time.
i.e.... she got a cut on the end of her teat and got mastitis from it, which we cleared up along with giving her with the supplements for an extra week or so for good measure.

Once she split the meat between her hoof (my fault for not breaking up some new dirt rocks) and she received a couple of weeks of supplements, along with salve to keep the outer infection down.

As far as visual inspection goes, compared to other cows I've been around her coat is clean/healthy looking and her hooves and eyes look very healthy also.

To help me be more aware/educated have you seen many/any instances where a disease/problem hasn't manifested externally over time, i.e.... eyes changing, coat dulling, a change in behavior, bowel changes.

Have you found any of the critical/harmful diseases to not ever show up visually or will they always manifest visually in one way or another.


Thanks

 

[dun]

A slightly elevateed somatic cell count SCC doesn't alwasy show up in significant perishability of the milk. There will be a normal range that is just part of the forage/weather/ change of mood. Other then regular testing I don't know how you could detect the change if it should tip over to unfavorable.
But, if you're happy with the product, keep drinking it. It's all part of being allowed to do our own choosing without outside interference.
I personally feel that udder and underside prep is more important for hand milking then it is for machine milking. Too many people feel that just a couple of hairs falling into the milk bucket are no big deal. But that's just another opportunity for contamination, doesn't matter that it's strained off guickly, it's already had it's opportunity to do it's evil business.

dun

Vicki,

The cow and calf had all their shots and testing before we bought her. The owner decided to sell her because the dogs in his neighborhood kept her going out the fence and into other's yards.

She was 5 yrs old when we got her and we've had her for about a year now. She eats only a little feed while we milk and grazes on non-fertilized grasses. She hasn't been around any other animals since we've had her until now, since the neighbor's bull is here 'a-courtin'.

We'll be doing better intensive grazing this year, but until now she and the calf had access to the full 3 acres. With this amount of area and our chickens keeping the patties 'instantly' tore up (chickens are unique to put it mildly aren't they) we haven't been concerned with a parasitic buildup.

This next week I'll be getting a fecal test done for a check on worms, it'll be a good baseline for any future parasite treatments.

Our milk has no problems lasting a week in the fridge before we use it. But it would be interesting to do a longevity check with a bottle of it to see just how long it will last before going bad.

Using the natural suppliments that we have works well to keep parasites/viruses/bacteria in check and we've had to administer them occasionally for a couple of weeks at a time.
i.e.... she got a cut on the end of her teat and got mastitis from it, which we cleared up along with giving her with the supplements for an extra week or so for good measure.

Once she split the meat between her hoof (my fault for not breaking up some new dirt rocks) and she received a couple of weeks of supplements, along with salve to keep the outer infection down.

As far as visual inspection goes, compared to other cows I've been around her coat is clean/healthy looking and her hooves and eyes look very healthy also.

To help me be more aware/educated have you seen many/any instances where a disease/problem hasn't manifested externally over time, i.e.... eyes changing, coat dulling, a change in behavior, bowel changes.

Have you found any of the critical/harmful diseases to not ever show up visually or will they always manifest visually in one way or another.


Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Vicki,

Our milk has no problems lasting a week in the fridge before we use it. But it would be interesting to do a longevity check with a bottle of it to see just how long it will last before going bad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To help me be more aware/educated have you seen many/any instances where a disease/problem hasn't manifested externally over time, i.e.... eyes changing, coat dulling, a change in behavior, bowel changes.

Have you found any of the critical/harmful diseases to not ever show up visually or will they always manifest visually in one way or another.


Thanks

All that the milk lasting in the fridge indicates is bacteria within the udder and the degree of cleanliness in obtaining it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And yes, usually diseases can be there for quite a while before showing any signs. For example, TB has to be pretty far along before any clinical signs are ever seen. It is usually found at slaughter as a few nodules in the lung. The other way it is picked up is a TB test.

Brucellosis has a carrier state in which seemingly healthy animals can spread disease. Since it's not in this area, I can't recall how long that can last. There's also listeria monocytogenes which can cause fetal damage and abortion in humans, from cow's milk (generally silage but can occur without it)

Frankly, it's your decision. I have children, and I have drank unpasturized milk before, but I won't let them. Why do I want to take the chance?

JMHO
V

 

[rick1500]

Yes, I can agree with you on the point of children. I have 4.

It does come down to choice, how each of us approach things from different angles due to each of us being different, our views can be changed but our basic way of seeing things will be the same, i.e... if one has a materialistic nature, all things will be filtered through a materialistic point of view.


i.e... A lady I know, if she had to choose, would rather have 100 swimming pools in her neighborhood without fences, instead of 1 tiger in a cage in someone's backyard in the same neighborhood (the tiger comes from a real story that happened), the tiger malled a little boys arm when the little boy got too close to the cage. She sees the tiger episode and fears it, instead of the fact that drowning is one of the top killers of children. So in her mind she sees the tiger as a greater danger than the swimming pools.

I don't agree with her, I choose to believe that 100 unfenced pools are still more dangerous than 100 tigers in cages. We're different. (I'm not pointing this at you, just using it as a personal example)

My side of this choice is from the harm that processing and pasturizing does to the body, especially in growing children.

If it came down to drinking pasturized milk, I would have to choose not to drink it at all, the down side of pasturized milk outweighs the benefits of if.

Your choice has come from an educated decision on one side, mine has come from an educated decision from another side.

 

[rick1500]

Ooops, I forgot to say thank you for the disease information.


Thanks.

 

[rick1500]

Interesting facts on Listeria Monocytogenes,

the bacteria can be as easily caught after the pasturizing process if (I know, I know... IF) the pasturizing equipment gets contaminated with the bacteria.

And the FDA put out information awhile back about catching it in 'Ready to Eat' foods.

Information like this are some of the reasons we choose to drink the milk raw.

To me if I; 1) keep my hay, feed etc... dry, 2) keep my animals area dry/clean, this bug likes moisture 3) keep ourselves and equipment clean, 4) keep our immune systems working properly, this bacteria usually affects those with lowered or weakened immune systems, 5) be as familiar with the other animals around my animals as I can be.

then I feel that we stand a lesser chance of catching this bug than if we consume 'Ready to Eat' foods or have no knowledge of the cleanliness of the places that process the milk.


Thanks again,