Milk Cow Advice Needed

[I luv herfrds]

I bought a Jersey calf at the end of October 2006. The people I got her from suggested I have the vet preg check her because she was just brought in from the pasture with a bull in it. When we had our herd bangsed in November she was found to be 4-5 months bred.
Should I have gone ahead and Lutilysed her?
We were concerned that she would not be able to expell the calf at that stage of gestation.
Should I let the calf nurse her for a few days then dry her up?
How is the best way to do that to avoid mastices?
She was born in either Feb. or March.
Any suggestions on feeding her to get her to grow more is greatly appreciated.
She was bred by a black bull. Possibly Angus.
She has started to drop her bag. The vet checked her recently and is planning a c-section.

 

[rainie]

I Luv HRfds. What are your long term plans for this heifer? I have heard that a jersey's pelvic opening really opens up during calving, way more than most breeds of cattle. Unless she was bred to a real hard calving Angus she might be okay, just keep an eye on her.As far as mastitis, with her being that young, she won't have a very big bag. If you are concerned about mastitis talk to your vet, but I can't really see it as being a problem.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Biggest plan is to be a family milk cow. My kids love fresh milk.
The vet said she could calve in about 30-45 days.

 

[rainie]

Our kids are raised on fresh milk to. They prefer it to store bought. Lot more long term health benefits for your kids too. Checkout http://www.eatwild.com for more info on this. I wouldn't get to stressed out about your jersey heifer. Hopefully you'll go out one morning and she'll be licking off her new calf. I aI'd to an angus bull one year. We got 6 heifer calves off him which we overwintered. About january other heifers in the pen were bulling and I couldn't figure out why these one's weren't. Well to make a long story short, these heifers came into heat between 4 and 5 months old, got bred and stuck. I was planning on 6 caesarians because they were so small. The first heifer to start calving, I backed up to the chute, called the vet and said I was on my way in.I noticed she had 2 small feet coming so I thought maybe if I didn't have to pull too hard we could calve her out. The last 5 heifers were the same. I'd hook onto the trailer expecting the worst, and they were all the same ... easy to medium pulls and all were good mom's. Extremely fertile, but good mom's. I didn't use this bull anymore because I didn't want any more of his heifer calves getting bred. Good luck with your heifer.

 

[milkmaid]

How big is this heifer now?

You were right not to Lute her in November; a calf that's 120-150 days is too big to Lute and will likely cause internal reproductive damage to the cow. I saw a big hereford cow that had been given Lute while carrying a 80-90 day pregnancy, and she had scarring on the uterine horn and a broken cervix. Lute causes smooth muscle contractions (uterus) without opening the cervix first; you can guess what kind of problems that would create with a large fetus.

At this stage of pregnancy, feeding the heifer more will likely only result in the calf growing bigger, not the heifer. You're better off to just cross your fingers and hope for the best.

 

[I luv herfrds]

She's not very big. Our scale is not working so I will make a stab in the dark and guess that she is under 800#, I wouldn't even put her at 750#.
The reason I am so concerned is I can see everyday the stress that this prenancy is having on her.
Other then oat and grass hay she is getting no grain.

 

[milkmaid]

She's not that small for a Jersey. They're usually bred around 600lbs and calve around 800-900lbs.

I'm not sure you're feeding her well enough for a growing heifer in the 3rd trimester... it's a little late to change it though. She should be (or have been) getting grain; why weren't you giving her any?

Best of luck with her.

 

[I luv herfrds]

She was getting ground barley.
We were told to not give her too much because of causing her to get too much fat around her udder and causing a difficult birth.
She looks like she swallowed a beach ball.
I got some 12% dairy grain. Is it alright to give her some? She is still getting oat hay and grass. She is now in a pen behind the barn so we can keep an eye on her.
She had been with our replacement heifers and we always feed them as much as they can eat, along with (4) five gallon buckets of ground barley a day. Total of 16 head, including her. During an extreme cold snap they were also getting alfafa.
We have pretty much been pouring the feed to her.

 

[milkmaid]

I wouldn't worry too much about fat in the mammary tissues -- a heifer with a perfect udder who's dead because she was too small doesn't make anyone any money. Fat in the udder doesn't affect the calf coming through the birth canal either; they're too different locations. Feed her well but don't overfeed her -- I think it's 70% of a calf's BW is attained in the 3rd trimester. Grain should be fine and 12% isn't too high IMO.

 

[I luv herfrds]

How much should I be giving her? I have her at about 3lbs of dairy feed.
What about drying her up after she calves?

 

[milkmaid]

Remind me again why you'd dry her off after calving?

3lbs/day is fine... it's less than 0.5% of her body weight; even 1% of her body weight could be fed w/o problems.

 

[GMN]

How much should I be giving her? I have her at about 3lbs of dairy feed.
What about drying her up after she calves?

Why would you want to dry her up, if she is going to be a family cow to milk? No reason I can see why you couldn't turn her into that after this calf, if she has a nice bag, there should be plenty. I would not dry her up after she calves, really there is no way to do that, she has to be either sucked on by the calf or milked out, or else she will get mastitis, and you don't want to go down that road.

GMN

 

[I luv herfrds]

It was suggested due to her small size and the fact that she is so young.
She is probably about 13-14 months old now.
I know the Jersey breed is small, a friend had one, and she is not even half the size of that full grown cow.
I would like to get some more growth on her by getting the calf off of her shortly after calving.
Her bag is small, but filling.
We are watching her closely.
There are no plans to breed her until we can get some size on her, hopefully the spring of '08.
I know I'm like an old mother hen.

 

[milkmaid]

She'd be a two year old then... I'd keep her lactating, then breed her later than usual (maybe 5 months after calving?) and dry her off early.

You could dry her off after calving if you really wanted; heifers are certainly easier to dry off immediately than mature cows, but IMO it'd be best to keep her lactating. She's going to calve anyways; make the best of what you've got. I've seen 800lb holstein heifers calve (bred to a holstein bull), and they were run with the milking herd and did alright. Sure it would have been better had they been older and 400lbs heavier, but they did OK. Feed her well, let the calf on some of the time, take the milk you need, and pamper her a little. Let her calve again next May or June and she'll have some growth on her by then, will be milking well, and she'll do good for you.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Thanks for all of the advice milkmaid.
Keep your fingers crossed that she calves easily.

 

[milkmaid]

Will do. Keep us posted. ;-)

 

[I luv herfrds]

The front of her bag is now dropping and is starting to fill, it is not filled completely. She is getting spoiled rotten right now.