Milking a beef cow?

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Tracy740

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I want a family milk cow REALLLLYYYYY BAAAADDDDD, problem arises with costs of a milk cow, I just priced a 3 mo old heifer still on the bottle and she was $2000.00 the older heifer (jersey bred to a charolais :shock: ) he wanted $1800.00 and a nurse cow that was not tame he wanted $1500.00.
So I got to thinking, hmmm we have a beef show heifer that is really tame and due to calf wonder if I could milk her once or twice a week and still leave the calf on her just pulling him/her off the night before I wanted to milk? I of course would wait a good 3 to 4 weeks after she calved. Have any of you ever milked a beef cow? She is a Maine....

Thanks
 
Depending n the amount od milk she has and the amount of milk you want, there's absolutley no reason to not milk a beef cow. May even be easier then milking a dairy breed that's been specificlly bred for short teats to better fit the milking machines.

dun
 
Tracy740 said:
.............."So I got to thinking, hmmm we have a beef show heifer that is really tame and due to calf wonder if I could milk her once or twice a week and still leave the calf on her just pulling him/her off the night before I wanted to milk? "

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Just leave him.... S O M E.......in the morning or he will bawl all day..and that will induce stress with mom and less milk.

Better is to take half in the evening and half in the morning on the days you wish to milk. Start him on some dry feed to stop the hungries in mid day.
 
I just ran across this for your info;

"January 10th.....it will be all over on the 11th
« Thread Started on Dec 28, 2006, 3:01pm »

The school herd will be sold in Mount Hope, Ohio, in less than two weeks. There is an auction house there.
Close to 100 purebred registered Jersey cows and heifers.
I have a website just about done but have to wait the okay from Don to share it.

We will be bringing home only two to four head ourselves.
Priscilla, Quaff, and maybe Nike and/or Ren.
Don wants me to sit up next to the auctioneer during the sale to answer questions"..........
 
we milked a beef shorthorn last year when we had her in the stanchon was fine with the milker on her
 
I hope you can share the info, because just MAYBE if I can afford one I could have someone on their way down to NWSS bring it to Colorado!!
 
We always milked range cows when I was a kid, couldn't afford a milk cow, and I always thought the milk was just fine. My husband and I tried to get a first calf heifer (angus cross) broke to milk last spring. She was fairly gentle and had good milk, but her tits were so small it was a big pain in the :lol: to milk her even once a day. We turned her out. It wasn't worth the headache. I ended up buying a bred five year old brown swiss cow last summer for $1500. She came through a friend, but I think she was originally from a mennonite community. I would check with any local mennonites or watch the sale barn. Centennial in fort collins has a few dairy heifers/cows go through every now and then. I'm planning on AIing my cow to a brown swiss bull and using gender sorted semen. So hopefully in the future, I'll have some bown swiss heifers for sale...and to replace my cow when she gets too old. Good luck though, I love the "free" milk and butter and enjoy milking my cow every morning.
 
Check out Dual Purpose Milking Shorthorns. You can have your family milk cow and raise a calf for your freezer beef.

Several of our heifers have been used in both dairy, beef or family cow herd. Both sides of the fence. It is easier to break a 1st calf heifer to milk than a older cow, but one of our customers even used a six year old cow. Docile enough to milk by hand even after weaning 4 calves.

Nile Valley Farm Milking Shorthorns, checkout our website.
 
HI Tracy,

We are like minded, my son has a Brahma cross commercial show heifer, she just had her first calf this morning. I have been waiting for this moment! I am craving fresh milk, so we are going to give it a try. We have a grooming chute, so I figured we will put her in there to try it. I had a Brown Swiss growing up and milked her twice a day, had so much milk a lot of it went to waste, but I sold it to all the neighbors. Shh don't tell anyone, you can't legally do that you know! Anyway, I've been told that she will have colostrum for the first week and can milk after that, although some people think milk with colostrum is about the greatest thing you can drink, from a health point of view, but I would rather wait. So I'll let you know how it goes. Just make sure you clean everything properly. There is a lot of good information online about it.

But milk is milk from no matter what breed, you'll probably have a lot less cream than with a dairy breed is all.
 
Hello,
I'm new here.

We have family milk cows and a few beef cattle too. My husband and kids hand milk.

If you are planning on milking her, I would suggest that you start getting her used to you handling her udder now. Our youngest daughter has a Jersery heifer that is due to calve in March. My husband brings her in to eat and while she is eating, gently rubs her udder, handles her teats and gently pulls a bit on them. At first she would dance around, but now the feed is more important and she stands.

It would probably be best if you milk a little from her every day until she gets used to it. Separate her from her calf at night, and milk a bit in the morning, and then let her calf clean her out.

My DH milks in the morning. The calf never goes out with the cow. In the morning, she comes in, is fed, he milks enough for us, then turns the calf into the stall with her. When he is through feeding, the calf goes out into a back pen and the cow back into the pasture. When she comes up in the evening to eat, she comes into her stall and the calf is turned in with her while she eats, then they are separated during the night. Sunny, our main Jersey cow, is a crafty cow. If we let her calf go out with her at night, she won't come up in the morning, and vice versa for the evening. She loves her babies and knows that my husband will pen it.

Sorry I got to rambling. If you already know this, I hope that I didn't offend.

PS. I live in Texas and I am shocked at the prices of cattle where you are. We bought our daughter a registered Jersey heifer for $500.00. DD showed her once, and was reserve Champion. The silly heifer crawled the fence into a neighbors pasture and eliminated her show career for the major shows this year :roll: She will be calving in a few months.

What breed is your show heifer? Our son shows a Braunvieh heifer.
 
Gale Seddon":zv5lxpvz said:
Here's a previous thread about milking a Red Angus:

http://cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic. ... g+beef+cow

Don't know if Tod's still at it though...Tod?
We stopped when the calf was about 3 months old. She is a first calver and we didn't want to pull her down to much. I didn't want to end up having to feed her. We should be able to go longer next year.
BTW she is doing a great job of raising her calf. :D
 

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