Maybell bout ready to pop.

[Ky hills]

Been thinking she was going to calve for over a week.
Her udder is getting real tight. I'll milk out and freeze some colostrum, then I'll have to try to find 2-3 calves to put on her.
She stays skinny but she is getting feed everyday and when she's raising calves she'll get 25 -30 lbs of grain a day, now she's getting probably around 20 lbs a day since she's been up.
Her daughter calved a few weeks ago and looks like her calf will be able to take her milk.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Holy smoking jehosafat! Now THAT'S AN UDDER!!

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Her suspensory ligament is not that good. This is what my old ag teacher back in the hippy days called a swing bag . Then he said You know, there's women in this class now and maybe I shouldn't say this . . . . but there's swing bags on this campus.

Has she been wormed?

 

[Double R Ranch]

Holy smokes you'd better get a machine out if you can't get a herd of calves quick. That's a whopper milker. Does she usually get a lot of edema or is that all production? Can't wait to see what you end up with. Does she graft easily? What's she bred to?
Did I miss a thread or post on her daughter??? Is her daughter full jersey?

 

[Ky hills]

Her suspensory ligament is not that good. This is what my old ag teacher back in the hippy days called a swing bag . Then he said You know, there's women in this class now and maybe I shouldn't say this . . . . but there's swing bags on this campus.

Has she been wormed?

Yes she was wormed about 3 weeks ago.
She is said to be 6 years old, according to when I bought her through a stockyards at 4.
Udder may not be grand, but she has raised several calves in the 2 years she's been here and has been the best dairy cow to work with taking calves I've ever had.

 

[Ky hills]

Holy smokes you'd better get a machine out if you can't get a herd of calves quick. That's a whopper milker. Does she usually get a lot of edema or is that all production? Can't wait to see what you end up with. Does she graft easily? What's she bred to?
Did I miss a thread or post on her daughter??? Is her daughter full jersey?

She milks fairly heavy at first, but she would not be considered a high production cow in a dairy. The swelling will go down, and it won't look that big after a while. I had to hand milk her last year for a few weeks, with just her calf nursing. Then got 2 other heifers calves on her.
This year looks like I'll have to buy some calves for her. She can raise 3-4 with the calves eating supplemental feed as they get older.
I've raised dairy calves years ago and at one time used several nurse cows. This one is the best I've ever worked with. Dog gentle, and seldom even raises a leg to kick. She may a little at first where she's tight and sore, but very easy cow to work with.
She is in a crossover point as far as what she's bred to, possibly bred to my 3/4 Angus 1/4 Hereford bull, but the longer it goes its looking like it could be to our new registered Angus bull.
I posted about the daughter a couple weeks or so ago I can't remember if it was its own thread or just in with another one about new calves.
The daughter is supposed to be a full stock AI sired Jersey. I believe she is Jersey but kinda doubt the AI sired part.
I bought the pair at a stockyards a couple years ago this month, the daughter was probably 2-3 months old at the time. They said she was the cows own calf, but that may or may not have been true.
Here's the daughter with her calf by the 3/4 Angus bull.

 

[Warren Allison]

She milks fairly heavy at first, but she would not be considered a high production cow in a dairy. The swelling will go down, and it won't look that big after a while. I had to hand milk her last year for a few weeks, with just her calf nursing. Then got 2 other heifers calves on her.
This year looks like I'll have to buy some calves for her. She can raise 3-4 with the calves eating supplemental feed as they get older.
I've raised dairy calves years ago and at one time used several nurse cows. This one is the best I've ever worked with. Dog gentle, and seldom even raises a leg to kick. She may a little at first where she's tight and sore, but very easy cow to work with.
She is in a crossover point as far as what she's bred to, possibly bred to my 3/4 Angus 1/4 Hereford bull, but the longer it goes its looking like it could be to our new registered Angus bull.
I posted about the daughter a couple weeks or so ago I can't remember if it was its own thread or just in with another one about new calves.
The daughter is supposed to be a full stock AI sired Jersey. I believe she is Jersey but kinda doubt the AI sired part.
I bought the pair at a stockyards a couple years ago this month, the daughter was probably 2-3 months old at the time. They said she was the cows own calf, but that may or may not have been true.
Here's the daughter with her calf by the 3/4 Angus bull.
View attachment 56178

Will you use this daughter as a nurse cow, too?

 

[Ky hills]

Will you use this daughter as a nurse cow, too?

Years ago I would have when I was raising dairy calves. At one point back then I had 12 nurse cows with 8-9 in production at once. but I was getting a steady stream of all calves from 100 cow dairy and sometimes bull calves from another dairy of about 80 cows.
I bought Maybell because we were having a run of heifers with no or little milk and were having to bottle calves.
Now hopefully we got that sorted out, culled and the last group of heifers calved out with only one not milking enough, sold her and the rest have done well.
This Jersey heifer doesn't appear to have an excessive amount of milk and so it looks like her calf is keeping her nursed down good enough that we won't have to do anything else with her.
If she would have not been able to keep her nursed down then I'd probably had to try to get one more calf on her.
We'll have to try to buy some calves for the cow. I got the calf to nurse, and milked a probably around 1 1/2- 2 gallon out her rear quarters this morning.

 

[Ky hills]

Well found Maybell with a calf this morning.
Pretty sure it's by the new Angus bull, as all my Jersey and JerseyX have had red calves by the 3/4 Angus bull.
It's a lively and forward heifer calf.
I think it may have already nursed, had a little blackish poop on it, but was hungry and I got her to nurse both front quarters a some. Her little sides filled out pretty quick.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Looks like an Angus sired baby to me!
These girls are just the best IMO. Buy a couple babies and make some money!!

I hope your heifer comes in milk better next freshening and can raise some more for u as well.

Yeah. U know me...... I like em a lot!

 

[Ky hills]

Milked out some colostrum and in the process of freezing it.

 

[Double R Ranch]

Years ago I would have when I was raising dairy calves. At one point back then I had 12 nurse cows with 8-9 in production at once. but I was getting a steady stream of all calves from 100 cow dairy and sometimes bull calves from another dairy of about 80 cows.
I bought Maybell because we were having a run of heifers with no or little milk and were having to bottle calves.
Now hopefully we got that sorted out, culled and the last group of heifers calved out with only one not milking enough, sold her and the rest have done well.
This Jersey heifer doesn't appear to have an excessive amount of milk and so it looks like her calf is keeping her nursed down good enough that we won't have to do anything else with her.
If she would have not been able to keep her nursed down then I'd probably had to try to get one more calf on her.
We'll have to try to buy some calves for the cow. I got the calf to nurse, and milked a probably around 1 1/2- 2 gallon out her rear quarters this morning.

12 nurse cows?!? Holy wow! I can barely keep up with one or two. But I guess it would be easier if they were as good with taking calves as you and @MurraysMutts have. I'm hopeful for the next two to be a bit better than their mom but I suspect one for sure that's wishful thinking on.
Edema makes sense. That's kind of what it looked like in the picture.
I think you got yourself a really good deal in this one for sure.

Well found Maybell with a calf this morning.
Pretty sure it's by the new Angus bull, as all my Jersey and JerseyX have had red calves by the 3/4 Angus bull.
It's a lively and forward heifer calf.
I think it may have already nursed, had a little blackish poop on it, but was hungry and I got her to nurse both front quarters a some. Her little sides filled out pretty quick. View attachment 56180View attachment 56181

Gee thanks a lot! I'm getting baby fever over here now! Really cute and healthy lookin calf. That's fantastic. Now go buy you, I mean her more calves! I'm headed to the stock yards tomorrow to hunt for some replacement heifers and will have to sit on my hands when the calves come through. I'm drying up our currently lactating nurse cow.

Milked out some colostrum and in the process of freezing it.View attachment 56185

That's a glorious site right there!

 

[Ky hills]

12 nurse cows?!? Holy wow! I can barely keep up with one or two. But I guess it would be easier if they were as good with taking calves as you and @MurraysMutts have. I'm hopeful for the next two to be a bit better than their mom but I suspect one for sure that's wishful thinking on.
Edema makes sense. That's kind of what it looked like in the picture.
I think you got yourself a really good deal in this one for sure.

Gee thanks a lot! I'm getting baby fever over here now! Really cute and healthy lookin calf. That's fantastic. Now go buy you, I mean her more calves! I'm headed to the stock yards tomorrow to hunt for some replacement heifers and will have to sit on my hands when the calves come through. I'm drying up our currently lactating nurse cow.

That's a glorious site right there!

I was a lot younger then and had a dairy that I was getting all of their calves, and selling back the heifers to them as yearlings. Then had a couple other dairies that I got some of their bull calves from time to time.
I got my start with dairy cows, when I bought the 10 last milk cows in our county after that small dairy quit milking.
3 Guernseys and the rest Holstein cows they were old and I had high cull rate on them fairly soon. Might have had 5 or 6 after the first lactation. Then I added a few others along that I d buy or some that raised.
It was work getting most of those cows to take calves. I had a couple that were better at letting new calves nurse so I'd start them out on them and then as I brought in more calves I'd move the older ones to a more high strung cow as they were stronger and more persistent at that point.
This cow I have now is better to work with than any of the cows I had back then, I did have a few that were not too bad though.
Her back quarters are hard to milk, it's a thumb and one finger and they point backwards so literally have to milk her from behind to get to those. The good thing about it is when calves are nursing they can get to those easy from behind and makes it good where the calves can be spaced out for each quarter instead of all wanting the generally easier to get to front quarters of most cows.
Good luck on finding some good replacement heifers, I hope you can find what you're looking for and that they do good for you.

 

[Logan52]

My last nurse cow, now about four years ago, was a registered Jersey. She was a heavy milker and had a great disposition. The trouble was her very short teats (like yours the back ones seemed to point backwards), that made her very difficult to milk by hand. She was also very prone to staying thin and hard to put flesh on.
The old family cow Jerseys are getting hard to find. They had longer teats for hand milking and kept flesh on much better.

 

[Double R Ranch]

I was a lot younger then and had a dairy that I was getting all of their calves, and selling back the heifers to them as yearlings. Then had a couple other dairies that I got some of their bull calves from time to time.
I got my start with dairy cows, when I bought the 10 last milk cows in our county after that small dairy quit milking.
3 Guernseys and the rest Holstein cows they were old and I had high cull rate on them fairly soon. Might have had 5 or 6 after the first lactation. Then I added a few others along that I d buy or some that raised.
It was work getting most of those cows to take calves. I had a couple that were better at letting new calves nurse so I'd start them out on them and then as I brought in more calves I'd move the older ones to a more high strung cow as they were stronger and more persistent at that point.
This cow I have now is better to work with than any of the cows I had back then, I did have a few that were not too bad though.
Her back quarters are hard to milk, it's a thumb and one finger and they point backwards so literally have to milk her from behind to get to those. The good thing about it is when calves are nursing they can get to those easy from behind and makes it good where the calves can be spaced out for each quarter instead of all wanting the generally easier to get to front quarters of most cows.
Good luck on finding some good replacement heifers, I hope you can find what you're looking for and that they do good for you.

That sounds like it was a good deal back then. I have one currently that has a thumb and pointer finger set of back teats. Miserable to hand milk. I've been selecting semen with teat improvement. Time will tell if it's working. I like the idea of starting with the easier cows for grafting them moving them onto harder ones. I'm going to keep that idea in mind.
Thanks! I have the trailer hooked up just in case. Sitting at the stock yard as I'm writing this. I have a budget. The question is can I stick to it.

My last nurse cow, now about four years ago, was a registered Jersey. She was a heavy milker and had a great disposition. The trouble was her very short teats (like yours the back ones seemed to point backwards), that made her very difficult to milk by hand. She was also very prone to staying thin and hard to put flesh on.
The old family cow Jerseys are getting hard to find. They had longer teats for hand milking and kept flesh on much better.

That is very much the truth! I'm slowly trying to select semen for getting back to more old school family milk cow type replacements. Time will tell if it's possible.

 

[Ky hills]

That sounds like it was a good deal back then. I have one currently that has a thumb and pointer finger set of back teats. Miserable to hand milk. I've been selecting semen with teat improvement. Time will tell if it's working. I like the idea of starting with the easier cows for grafting them moving them onto harder ones. I'm going to keep that idea in mind.
Thanks! I have the trailer hooked up just in case. Sitting at the stock yard as I'm writing this. I have a budget. The question is can I stick to it.

That is very much the truth! I'm slowly trying to select semen for getting back to more old school family milk cow type replacements. Time will tell if it's possible.

We just leaving a stockyards now, trying to find some calves for Maybell,
They only had 4, one decent looking one that brought over $1000, and the other 3 I wouldn't have brought home brought from $500-700.
We'll go try it again Saturday.

 

[Double R Ranch]

We just leaving a stockyards now, trying to find some calves for Maybell,
They only had 4, one decent looking one that brought over $1000, and the other 3 I wouldn't have brought home brought from $500-700.
We'll go try it again Saturday.

Calves are going through now here and $1,000 is average so far for wild young calves. Crazy prices.
Hope you find some good ones Saturday!

 

[MurraysMutts]

We just leaving a stockyards now, trying to find some calves for Maybell,
They only had 4, one decent looking one that brought over $1000, and the other 3 I wouldn't have brought home brought from $500-700.
We'll go try it again Saturday.

If you want a couple and want to make the drive, I'll pick some up tomorrow!

 

[Ky hills]

If you want a couple and want to make the drive, I'll pick some up tomorrow!

Maybe by this time next year we'll be within 3-4 hours of you and I'll take you up on that.
We made the trip to southeast OK a couple weeks or so ago.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Maybe by this time next year we'll be within 3-4 hours of you and I'll take you up on that.
We made the trip to southeast OK a couple weeks or so ago.

Its a bit of a drive!!

Calves around here are high as well. I've got 650 each in my babies. There have been a few sell cheaper here recently tho. They'll still make money at 700. Especially on a nurse cow. Hope ya get some good ones and post more pictures! Love it!