Dry Her Up?

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I

I luv herfrds

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In the last couple of weeks my milk cow has gotten into a bad case of PMS attitude.
She has to be chased into the barn to be milked now before she just came in no trouble. this morning she came in and then tried to run back out again. Got the door shut before she got out. Refused to go into the milking pen. Had shut her in the pen and then she refused to put her head in the catch; I use it to keep her there while milking; I had to close the squeeze gate on her to get her ready.

Been milking her for almost 11 months. She is due to calve in May. Just wondering if she is just ready to be done and relax.
Her body condition has gone down a bit but not much. Our vet had checked her a few months ago and rated her a 5 out of 5 I'm guessing she is now a 4.
 
Drying her may well solve the problem of dealing with her behaviour.
But if a previously placid cow starts misbehaving the *first* thing I do is check her udder for mastitis. Then look at her eyes, coat shine &c on the presumption that she's behaving like that for a reason. It usually means she's in pain generally or discomfort at milking time. The cause might not be easy to identify, they can't tell us what's going on.
Cows that are ready to dry up simply dry up. Either the milk drops suddenly or they simply stop producing... and cows that do this are in the minority, maybe less than 5% of the herd in late lactation if feed conditions are good.
 
No mastitis. I check her every day.
Still eating her feed, but her production has dropped a bit. Gone from 3 gallons down to just around 2.5 gallons.
Eyes are the same, her coat is wooly because of the cold weather.

I was wondering since it was getting close to the time she calved last year she might be expecting to calve around the same time and figures it is time to be done.
 
Could she have had a scare in the barn and is now afraid to enter? Chasing her in against her will will worsen the matter, she needs to be coached in and the trust re established. The drop in milk could be due to stress or she may slowly be drying off. If her condition is dropping and you continue milking her you probably need to up her food if she is due to calve in May. Gently does it ;-)
 
some milk cows get to where they wont come in tobe milked when their production falls way off.an im betting thats your case with your cow.id go ahead an dry her up.
 
I bribed her in this morning with a bucket of cob with molasses.

Alison she was really good up until recently. She gets the cob with bull developer pellets and soy bean meal high fat.

BB that is why I was wondering if I should dry her up. I will get the Cow Dry stuff and dry her up. i think we can both use the rest.
 
check your milking machine's pressure. we had one cow become reluctant and found out that some how the pressure had increased. she became better once it was adjusted.
 
I would chippie but with the cold I cannot get it to go without tripping the breaker. That is even with a magnetic block heater on the oil tank. I have it covered with a feed bag and my wool saddle blanket. (Just didn't want any oil on my good blanket.)
Too blasted cold!
 

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