Jersey Heifer

[myersfarm]

ok when my jersey has her calf starting out my best jersey produces 3 gallons of milk at a milking thats 6 gallons a day the calf only needs a gallon a day at first then maybe 2 gallons as it gets older so as you can see it starts backing up then the calf will only suck one or maybe 2 teets and gets full before sucking on the other side.......so you have to get the milk out someway machine or by hand or another calf if not it will ruin the quarter of the bag not drainded ......mastis .......then that quarter will produce scar tissue ............but yes they are right on the cow will only produce as much milk as calf needs as it grows older needing more milk the cow will try to make more ....but if calf or calfs need more then she can make then she starts losing wieght and then less milk also will not breed back as soon but you can not just throw on another calf one day and expect the cow with one calf to make 2 gallons then the next day put on a 2 nd calf and expect her to make 4 gallons the more you take the more she will make but not in large swings

 

[jerry27150]

takes them a week or so to come up to full milk, so if you can get another on early enough you will be fine. if you are going to take longer to get a calf i would milk her out each day. you can feed her a high protein feed & raise 2 or 3 calves easily

 

[milkmaid]

Not sure on the Jersey heifers - I did see a Jersey nurse cow, gave 3 gal/day, in the paper recently for $1400.

I've seen some nice Holstein/Brown Swiss cows that milked r-e-a-l-l-y well. The kind that you put the milker on, and then sit back and wait...and wait...and wait.

With the Holstein nurse cow I have now, I'm keeping a close eye on her because she does give 6 gallons a day, and the four young calves I have on her don't always want all that milk. They get full, and I get worried about the cow when I see one side is completely milked out, the other two quarters full. What I've been doing is penning the calves up separate from the cow, and then letting them out twice a day. That way I can watch and make sure the cow gets milked out and that all the calves are getting enough.

A lot of how much milk a cow gives is related to feed. That's why the dairies are constantly hunting for feed that will make cows produce more milk. If it was all related to supply/demand, the cows at the dairies would be producing over 10 gallons/day. And then some of it, of course, is genetics. There are some cows that just aren't going to give even 6 gallons a day no matter what they're fed or how often they're milked.

My cow is getting 15lbs of grain per day + good alfalfa hay to produce 6 gallons of milk/day. Occasionally I've wanted her to produce less because I've had fewer calves on her - I dropped her grain down to 10lbs/day and she went to about 4 gallons/day.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Chuckie, meyersfarm and milkmaid have pretty much summed up how it is with my Jersey in my situation. When my Jersey freshens, I let the calf have at it and what it does not finish, I strip out by hand. The first day I strip out some colosrtum and freeze it (in the deep freeze) the rest of the milk for the next five days goes to the hogs. Then I continue to milk her by hand what the calf doesn't take, (milk for the house), until I put another calf on her. In the past I have had 3 on her at a time, but it was slowly bringing her down and needing to feed her quite a bit more in order to maintain her condition. Generally I only keep 2 calves on her and still get a quart from time to time for myself. All the while feeding her several pounds a day of a good "dairy" feed. This method works well for me and my situation. The amount of feed I put into her during this time is not a huge expense, and I get it back and a bit more at "selling" time.

Katherine

 

[Chuckie]

Well, that sums that up. I don't have enough cows to justify having a Jersey cow as a nurse maid.

 

[sidney411]

I jersey dairy down the road feeds 7 calves bottles from one cow at a time morning and night. But they get bottles so the amount they get is regulated.