galloway as a milk cow??

[Nite Hawk]

I have milked all sorts of critters and cows. but has anyone out there used a "mini" belted Galloway as a milk cow? I have seen some pictures of their udders and it looks like they could produce quite a bit by looking at the size of the udder..
Just wondering...

 

[farmerjan]

Had a "normal" belted galloway heifer that lost her calf and I milked her for awhile. Couldn't find a calf to graft on her at the time. She was a pet so fairly tame to work with. Not alot of milk but very rich. Don't see why not. Won't get the milk as from a dairy animal, obviously, but no reason why not. He//, they milk water buffalo......

 

[Nesikep]

Long time no see, how's this weather treating you?

you won't get a whole lot of milk but sometimes that's a good thing, depending on how much your family needs...

I found this picture of a very nice old school Gelbvieh cow, I'm sure she'd give you lots of milk

 

[Nite Hawk]

Well life is sometimes too busy to do much more than eat-work-sleep--- Have a cold front in, was minus 5-- F scale on the barn thermometer -- - not sure what it is on the C scale-- The wind though makes a wicked wind chill though, and it is supposed to drop on down, predicting minus 39C in town, so if it hits that in town will probably drop to minus --45 here as we are higher and bit closer to the mountains...
My Dexter cow, which I was hoping would replace my Jersey --didn't have enough milk the first year. After we tried to dry her up, she decided to be a self sucker, so we tried putting a crown weaner in her nose, and she still got around that.. Was seriously ticked off with her as I actually had to buy colostrum for the calf she dropped last summer. NEVER had to do that before..She paused self sucking for a small bit, and started again, so I locked her in a stantion, and would let the heifer calf out several times a day to milk her out. Well the bugger figured out how to twist around in the station and suck herself even with the nose ring and being in the station! At 2 months the calf wasn't getting any milk basically at all because of her mother self sucking, so even though it was early to wean her off, we butchered the mother. The mother was young and registered, so that was a not good situation, but she was good for nothing.. She wasn't feeding her calf, and I didn't want her teaching any of the other cows that habit at all... so in the freezer she went.. Put the calf on grain and a bit of milk replacer. After a few months she wasn't doing that good and in spite of being de-wormed- grain and milk replacer was quite skinny, but that whole family tends to be skinny any ways. One evening she had a small amount of the runs, nothing that was severe, one wouldn't even really call it the "runs." it was almost not enough to even basically get noticed.
In the morning she was down and wouldn't get up. later in the day she was gone
After checking more of the poop later in the day, there was a bit of blood in the stool, so am leaning towards Coccidiosis or possibly one of the bigger cows knocked her around and maybe there was an injury.. Although she seemed almost completely normal, and usually I can spot an animal that is even slightly "off".
Couldn't believe how fast she went down and out. Had goats and sheep do that, but never calves, they usually have more resilience than sheep or goats.. Anyways, so even though I still have the Piedmontese here, I am thinking about something that can give me a bit of milk and can handle the colder climate- dual milk and meat. I have seen some of the "belties" that have incredible sized udders, although sometimes they just have a fatty udder when it is large, so wondered if anyone had milked one...
That is nice Gelbvieh in the picture, but remember Gelbvieh cattle come from the same breed as the Brown Swiss- just the meat strain of Brown Swiss basically--nice cattle but pretty large, I don't needs 8 gallons of milk a day, so am looking for something smaller...

 

[farmerjan]

Any cattle up that way with normande in them? They are used here on some of the dairies and the calves are real chunks and the females milk pretty good. I've got some semen I am going to use on some of my dairy cows next year. Don't know how jerseys would hold up to your cold up there. I'd maybe try a belted, the double hair coat ought to take those winters in stride.

 

[Nite Hawk]

I cannot say that I have seen or heard anything about Normande cattle in these parts. Now I have heard of them in Alberta, but not around here, but then that doesn't mean there isn't a few hiding in the bush somewhere!! If you are looking for Canadian Normande--contact Canadian livestock corp in Ontario, they deal with most of the registration of cattle in Canada, and if they do not register Normande cattle, if they are around they would probably know where to look.. Canadian livestock corp registers' almost all the different breeds in Canada, but I think there is a few registries that are not under their umbrella so to speak..
The reason I am even considering a "Beltie" is because of the weather consideration and having had Jersey's for approximately 28-30 years, and some of it was in this cooler climate, and I know that most of them DO suffer from the cold because they don't have the fat under the skin, and a very thin hide. Some of the older style jersey's that do not produce as much milk, some of them do have better fat under the skin, but most dont.

 

[farmerjan]

Also, montbeliarde are used on some of the dairy cattle. They also produce a real meaty animal that milks good. There were a few years that the bull studs here were promoting all these f-1's and f-2's and doing 3 way crosses and such. I like the monts too. Swedish and norweigan reds are used also. Most are using them on holsteins.
Glad you are getting that weather and not us!!!!!

 

[Redgully]

Consider trying red poll, handle the cold really well and produce good milk. The milk i am told is very similar to goats milk and people who can't tolerate cow milk but can tolerate goats milk will tolerate red poll milk. They produce good meat too. A while back here they did a blind taste test of different breeds, red polls came out on top of that test and second the year before.

 

[Nite Hawk]

Cant say that I have heard of montbeliarde cattle at all, and I am not sure that Red Poll actually exist in this neck of the woods, but have thought that Red poll are an interesting breed. The problem with rare breeds is first obtaining breeding stock, and then fresh blood and/or semen... Cold hardy is one definite that has to be considered. Last night it was minus 34 F and I have seen it as low as minus 54F years ago, and cold hardy helps the cattle not burn as much up in feed trying to stay warm.

 

[gcreekrch]

Any dairy cow will produce and stay in shape if they are fed enough and have a bed. We have an Ayrshire, 2 Jersey x Holstein, a straight Jersey and a couple of beef cross nurse cows here. The straight Jersey is struggling but is also still feeding a calf. They are on bale feeders of grass hay and 6 lbs of pea screening pellets a day. Mixed in with 15 other older or thin beef cows.

 

[farmerjan]

Jerseys actually have a higher metabolism ( can't find the report right off) and they do need a fair amount more feed. But gcreekrch is right. Pour the feed to them and a dry bed to lay in. I see a couple of the jersey x beef cows that run out with the regular beef cows lose a little condition over the winter. 1/4 crosses do better if out. But we don't have any temps like what you get up there.

Do you have a beef cow that is a real heavy milker? Use some sexed dairy semen on her to get a heifer calf that will be acclimated to the conditions that you have there. Of course that isn't going to help you right now.

Hey, Nesikep has some super friendly pet cows, get him to breed one to a dairy cow, then buy the heifer.... or get a cow off him and you breed it... You are both in BC.... LOL like it is a small area..... Surely there must be some dairy animals that are more accustomed to that weather. I think that you just had some plain s#@t luck losing that heifer calf and the cow being a self sucker. I'd gladly sell you a dairy cross if you were going to be in Va. I have about 8 that I raised on nurse cows that are going to be bred now to an easy calving angus bull that we have used for several years. Several hol x jersey, and jer x angus and jer x simmental.

 

[Nesikep]

Cant say that I have heard of montbeliarde cattle at all, and I am not sure that Red Poll actually exist in this neck of the woods, but have thought that Red poll are an interesting breed. The problem with rare breeds is first obtaining breeding stock, and then fresh blood and/or semen... Cold hardy is one definite that has to be considered. Last night it was minus 34 F and I have seen it as low as minus 54F years ago, and cold hardy helps the cattle not burn as much up in feed trying to stay warm.

How about a shorthorn? they're pretty hardy, lots of breeders in Alberta and up north.. This one here is from a fellow in Saskatchewan?.. Scot Muri of Muridale Shorthorns.. I love this cow

 

[Nite Hawk]

Well it got down to minus 40 last night, same in F, and in C and this morning I had a calf with Hypothermia. brought it in and warmed it up, still struggling abit, that is what I am referring to- something that is cold tolerant

 

[gcreekrch]

Well it got down to minus 40 last night, same in F, and in C and this morning I had a calf with Hypothermia. brought it in and warmed it up, still struggling abit, that is what I am referring to- something that is cold tolerant

A newborn? Don't calve in the winter!

 

[cbcr]

We represent the International Dairy Cattle Registry where we register many of the "non-traditional" breeds, Fleckvieh, Montbeliarde, Viking Red (Swedish Red & White, Red Dane and Finnish Ayrshire), Norwegian Red, and we have developed the North American Red (any combination of the Ayrshire breeds, Viking Red and Norwegian Red), also the ProCross (a 3-way rotational cross of Holstein, Montbeliarde and Viking Red).

We have members in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom. To read more about these breeds go to our website http://dairycattleregistry.com and click on the pictures of the animals along the top as we are making a few design updates to the site.

Along with being the registry for these breeds we also process the registrations for the American Lineback registry, and as of January 1st, we are processing registrations for the Heritage Shorthorn Society. We are also involved with and will be doing the registrations for a new US Normande registry.

If you are looking for a dual purpose animal you have 3 really good choices, Fleckvieh, Normande and a Heritage Shorthorn. The Heritage Shorthorn are a more dual purpose animal and they do not have any outside breed influence as many of today's modern Shorthorn do. To find out more about the Heritage Shorthorn go to their website https://www.heritageshorthorn.org/ and to learn more about the Normande breed go to this link http://usnormandebreeders.com/normande-breed/

 

[Nite Hawk]

The calf wasn't born in winter, he was an august calf, but what you have to remember is that by October usually all the green grass is gone unless we have an unusually warm fall. It is not uncommon for snow to come and stay in October. When the green grass is gone calves just don't grow as well on dry grass and hay, and this calf is from a heifer that does not have as much milk as a grown cow

 

[gcreekrch]

Interesting, there are a few fall calves here that were born to some purchased cows I bought cheap. They are all fat, sassy and have never been in a barn. I really think you need to consider your feed situation instead of an animal that lives on snowballs and promises and keeps producing...... they don't exist.

As an old friend once said, " That Malnutrition Disease is a bad one, it gets the big ones and the little ones too!"