Drying off

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Medic24

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Well, I am tired of fooling around with my dairy princess nurse cow, I have had 4 calves on her sucking their little hearts out , but none seem to want to take the extra effort to get on the two back cylinders that hang a bit lower then the front..so that means four calves on two teats..... ain't gonna work, so two came off and went into hutches, and leaves two calves for two teats.(heavy milker)
Anyway, gonna dry the two back ones off...............plan is to load her up with 'Tomorrow' and some long acting penicillen, and see what happens... no doubt they will get as big as a house before she starts drying........ any one else have a better suggestion for a plan? :cboy:
 
If it were me...during the winter a nurse cow at my place has to have four calves on to pay her way. During the summer she can get away with only two...but if she milks enough for four there's no sense in just having two on. If it were me I'd make her take four calves.

I'd cut back her grain - I assume you're graining her? - and pen the calves separately for 12 hours, which'll make them hungry. She'll also give less milk on less grain so they'll be looking elsewhere for milk than the front quarters. Then I'd tie the cow up if you have to...makes them easier to work around, and spend a little time forcing those calves to drink off the back if they want any milk. With four calves, only two can take the fronts...means the other two HAVE to go to the back quarters.

I'm not really sure if it'd work to dry off JUST the back quarters. It's usually "all or none"...although I do recall studies done regarding how much dry time dairy cows needed, and they compared cows with no dry time to cows with quarters on one side dry, other side milking, to cows with all quarters dry - so I'm sure it can be done.

There is a cow on the dairy where I work that has a blockage in the front quarters and only milks out of the back two. She stays REALLY full of milk in the fronts the entire time she's lactating, and only when she's close to calving (when we stop milking her and dry her off) does she even begin to dry up in the fronts - so lactating for 10, 12 months without drying those quarters off, and I promise you we are unable to get milk from the front quarters. She's not milking out of them at all.

Given that, I'm not sure it would work to just dry off the back quarters on your nurse cow. As long as she's lactating - from the front quarters - she's going to have milk in the backs. Might make those back quarters hang lower anyhow; I know this cow I described above is almost lower in the front than the back, and her udder is already down by her hocks, if not lower. She milks really heavy.

Sorry for rambling so much...hope that makes sense and helps you anyhow. :lol:
 
Yup - do nothing!

Do not know how old these calves are, but they will get there eventually. As they age their appetite will grow - then thye wll hit the back quarters.

Am assuming you put more than one calf on this cow at one time.

Bez
 
Four calves is usually what she carries... just that I cannot keep them on her back two cylinders cus they are so much lower then the fronts.... they keep the fronts cleaned out.... and yup, Milkmaid...your right......didn't think of it till a bit ago... whether or not one can dry up just two quarters like that...... being from a dairy farm as a kid, I shoulda known that, but pop says not likely , as well as you and Bez, and my neighboring Dairyman... ( and I respect all the opinions given) :cboy:
 
M24

Just leave well enough alone -they will sort it out on their own - guarantee you I am right in this!

Bez
 
Food for thought...are you keeping those back quarters milked out...by hand or something? if she's just recently calved I wouldn't be worried, but if she's been lactating for some time and her system is used to being completely milked out, she may come down with mastitis if you leave those quarters alone, even for one milking.

My nurse cow here was giving way more than her four calves wanted to drink for a few weeks...and they were drinking off all four quarters. I know she was giving at least 6 gallons/day, suspect maybe 7 or 8. Meant I had to milk her out by hand after calves were done, put them away...what a lot of work. I'm considering leaving this set on until she's ready to dry in December. LOL. Messed up one day and thought one quarter was "close 'nuff", it was late, cow was being mean...left her and she had mastitis next milking. Not real bad mastitis, but not good either. Loaded her up with antibiotics until the quarter came back to normal. I shoulda known better...seen that happen before in heavy milkers if they don't get milked out completely, or miss a milking and go 24 hours.
 
so right there milkmaid... have done just that... she did just that.... started getting a bit pre-mastitis going.......I am hating milking by hand every day. was looking for a shortcut out......
may have found it... a few weeks from now taking a load of dairy calves and cattle to the sale in Lancaster Pa... Hate it, as she is more like a pet....but me thinks it time for her to grow wheels... she will do so much better getting milked out in a commercial herd I think :cboy:
 
Medic,

We have a big old Hereford that had her rear quarters almost dragging on the ground when she calved in April.
The new calf had a heck of a time trying to get down to them to nurse, so we dug a little hole for him to stand in so he could nurse those monster quarters. We had to "giude" him for about 5 days and then he got the hang of it and now finds a hole to stand in. Of course its easier when you have alot of very uneven ground like we have here in Vermont.
 
I must have lazy calves........ I did the hole thing, and one took to it, but outside of that one hole, he wont go to the rears at all...............Spoke with the Vet last nite (once again I praise your name Dr. Jeff!) he said if one is very carefull, you can dry up just two quarters.... fill it with "tomorrow" several tubes at least and keep an eye one her, the down side being that if the calves suck those quarters, they get a stomach full of medicine, and I get a cow with mastitis...... flip of the coin........ I see the wheels growing under our poor pet cow...............guess it's time to take the pain, cry a bit, and be shed of the problem. :cry: :cboy:
 
Someone'd probably be really happy to have her in their dairy herd. ;-)

Food for thought...there's a product, think it's called "Stronghold", for dairy cows at dry off time. Seals the ends of the teats to prevent mastitis. Not sure just how well it'd work if the calves DID decide to suck, but I do know I've never seen a cow leaking milk with that stuff on!
 
milkmaid":15ex1mxz said:
Food for thought...there's a product, think it's called "Stronghold", for dairy cows at dry off time. Seals the ends of the teats to prevent mastitis. Not sure just how well it'd work if the calves DID decide to suck, but I do know I've never seen a cow leaking milk with that stuff on!

Its calles Orbseal in the UK. Its like a kind of soft putty. Its non toxic but can be difficult for a calf to suck out, we strip the cows teats at calving to give them a hand.
 
No...stuff I'm thinking of is a thick liquid. And it's PINK. Think of syrup...Kao-Pec...molasses (sp)....that sort of consistency. If it spills, the stuff won't dissolve for days. Last time we used it there were still traces of pink on the barn floor for nearly a week afterwards.
 
Hummm food for thought....... of late, after milking her out we have been sludging iodine paste against her teats...... perhaps works for a short while anyways......
But the last few days, we have noticed the rear udders are not so full..... so that leads me to think one of two things are happening.........the short period of illness has knocked off her production, or (as I hope it is) at least one of the calves has figured out that there was a gold mine of milk available if only they could reach..............or perhaps a bit of both. :cboy:
 
Medic24":3oyvyqqj said:
Hummm food for thought....... of late, after milking her out we have been sludging iodine paste against her teats...... perhaps works for a short while anyways......
But the last few days, we have noticed the rear udders are not so full..... so that leads me to think one of two things are happening.........the short period of illness has knocked off her production, or (as I hope it is) at least one of the calves has figured out that there was a gold mine of milk available if only they could reach..............or perhaps a bit of both. :cboy:

She must be a powerful milker with multiple udders!

dun
 

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