Increasing Production

[VC Rancher]

I just bought a cow calf pair. The calf is 7 months and is still nursing, though it seems just once a day in the morning. The calf is eating hay and drinking water so I know it will be fine to wean. I am planning on get a weaning ring.

I just got the cow into the stanchion this morning to start getting her transitioned to giving me milk. She did great in the stanchion being that she is three years old and two days ago she had never been handled before. The problem was that I only got one squirt of milk of her. She was a little stressed at first but didn't kick. She generally was pretty relaxed.

The question I have is: What is the best way to increase her production? My wife suggested trying to milk her three times a day at first. But neither of us have ever milked a cow before. I know that we are not in the ideal situation but this is the situation we are in. She has been bred but won't calve until November at the earliest so I should get a few more months out of her before I dry her up.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

[GMN]

If she is going to calve in November of 2011 thats a whole 9 months away-are you sure the calf that was with her is hers? Does she have a bag at all?

 

[VC Rancher]

I say that because she was just put in with the Bull on December 1st and was in there for 60 days. She is a Dexter so she has 21 day cycles so she was with the Bull for two cycles. They have 10 month gestation periods...I don't know if that is the same as other breeds.

She does have some bag left...though it is not that big. I have watched the calf nurse her for a good three minutes or so in the morning and it had milk all over it's mouth so she does still have milk. I can push on the bag and it is still there and I can feel it giving as I push on it.

If I just try to milk her, will that make her body want to produce more, even if nothing comes out?

 

[dun]

She's probably holding it up. You can massage her udder, maybe even wash the teats with a soft warm wet cloth, that may relax her some.
Gestation is probably more like 9 1/2 months. The norm for cattle ranges from about 282 to 289 days with 283-286 being more typical.

 

[VC Rancher]

Thanks! I will try that right now. She's been doing great for all the crap she has been put through over the past 3 days. She already getting pretty trusting of me.

 

[VC Rancher]

Tried it but got nothing. When I get nothing, should I just keep trying for a certain period of time?

 

[GMN]

Maybe you can try some oxytocin, thats a milk letdown drug, or take the calf completely off her, and see what happens. if you took a picture of her bag, and posted it we could see what it looks like to say for sure.

 

[VC Rancher]

That's the thing. There really isn't a bag like one would expect. I think because she's barely producing, but she is producing. The only reason I know she is milking is because I have watched the calf nurse her the last two mornings. I didn't see her this morning. If I took a picture, there wouldn't be much to see. I would like to avoid drugs, if possible. I want take the calf off but I have to get the weaning ring first. I don't know if they can be found around here.

 

[GMN]

if the calf is old enough, just take it off, if your worried feed it a different form of milk for a few days-then see what happens to the cows bag.From the sound of it doesn't sound like the cow has much milk. Makes me wonder if there wasn't a reason the people sold the cow, and maybe threw in the calf to make the sale.

 

[dun]

Pen the cow and calf next to each other but s that the calf can;t nurse. Very little noise form either of themsince they can still interact just without touching. It's commonly referred to as fenceline weaning.

 

[VC Rancher]

I will try separating them, though I only have a 4 rail corral pipe to keep them apart. I don't think the calf could nurse through that, but it might be able to....I am still wondering if it will help increase production if I keep trying to milk her through the day, even though nothing is coming out.

 

[Dixieangus]

what are you feeding her

 

[VC Rancher]

I'm feeding her three way wheat, oat, and timothy. I don't have any grain or sillage right now, but I was going to get some in the morning and that should help. But I will say she is doing good with just the hay. I just got some milk from her. It doesn't help that I haven't milked a cow before. So by the time I started figuring it out, she had had enough.

 

[regolith]

Rare to see a suckling dairy cow with anything of an udder at all while the calves have access. Twenty-four hours away from the calf tells a whole different story.

Milking frequency and feeding (high quality feed, not just quantity) are key to maximising production. You have to remove milk to get any result from increasing milking frequency though.

I think your calf will be due any time from mid-late September, if she was exposed to the bull from 1 December.

 

[TexasBred]

I'm feeding her three way wheat, oat, and timothy. I don't have any grain or sillage right now, but I was going to get some in the morning and that should help. But I will say she is doing good with just the hay. I just got some milk from her. It doesn't help that I haven't milked a cow before. So by the time I started figuring it out, she had had enough.

Do what the others recommended but if you want milk you have to feed for milk. Give her some protein. Good dairy rations seldom come in a bag so if it were me I'd probalby buy a good 16% textured horse feed and get her started on it. Another question. Have you hand milked cattle before?? It ain't as easy as it looks and someone that's never done it seldom gets much milk. ;-)

 

[novaman]

With a 7 month old calf she is probably well on her way to drying up. I've had a couple milk cows run as a beef cow supporting a calf. If they have just one calf on them they will be pretty well dried up by the time the calf is weaned at around 7 months. One calf doesn't take everything she can produce so she drops off in production early in lactation. My guess is what little she is producing the calf is taking it all. You can't make a cow produce better once she has dropped way off. She has to freshen again to bring the production up. Good luck

 

[VC Rancher]

For right now, because I am very new at this, I have started doing the following:

1) I have put the cow out to pasture with the calf during the day. Most of the grass is pretty new so the protein should be pretty good.
2) I put the calf in an electric fence pen that I built on the pasture at 4pm so he can be near the cow but not be stressed out...that has worked pretty good.
3) I go out at 6am and milk the cow. This morning it took me 1 hour to get 5 cups of milk.
4) After I am done milking as much as I can or have the patience for, I lead the cow over to the calf and let the calf out of the pen. The calf then immediately starts nursing.

The reason I started doing this is that I am not confident that I will be able to strip the cow and so I let the calf back on to finish off what I didn't take.

What do you think?

 

[GMN]

I think you need to keep the calf away from the Mom at all times and wean it, and if you dont want to do this, then stop milking the cow altogether and dry her up, and still wean the calf from the cow, as it is time for that calf to be weaned. It may beller for a few days, but the cow will do better without having the calf suck on her, get her body condition back to where it shoudl be, especialy if she is indeed bred.

 

[VC Rancher]

I ordered a weaning ring which will come next week. I was thinking that I would do it this way until the weaning ring came just to give me practice and not HAVE to strip her so I can avoid mastitis. Once the weaning ring comes, I will take full responsibility for milking her each day. I feel bad pulling the calf completely away from the cow.

Does this make sense?

BTW, how do I know when I have stripped the cow as compared to her just holding back?

Thanks!

 

[GMN]

I think this question is better answered by a beef farmer, I have dairy cows so I do not know, if the cow will get mastitis if she is not giving that much milk as it is, sounds to me she is drying herself up, and the calf is just use to feeding on her, but really isn't getting much to eat. I don't think most people use weaning rings, they just take the calves away when the time is right to wean them