My lady wants a milk cow

[Redgully]

My grandfather had a milking cow most of his life, he was a horse trainer and kept his cow in a stable at night and tied out during the day. In the eighties he got upset as she was drying up and there were no more bulls in the area he lived. So my mum organised her to be A.I d. To simmental, she was a guernsey. My grandfather gave the hiefer calf (margo) to us and she was a nasty thing. We had a jersey my parents milked but we had just sold her and this hiefer had just calved so became our new milking cow. My memories of the jersey are vivid as i was about 4 when we sold her but i know she was a gem. We used to tie margo up in the orchard and us kids job was to untie her and let her run the 200 metres to the milking shed. She would kick pretty much everytime and mum and dad were good at avoiding it. My parents never swore but when they were near finished milking and crap or urine would land in the bucket i got my education that saw me through school.

We nearly always had raw milk unless mum was concerned of contamination. Biggest thing is the first few squirts on the ground to clear the plug. Once we got to busy she went into the herd, wouldn't accept another calf and went down the road. I seriously miss fresh raw milk. One day i will milk again.

 

[wbvs58]

I have it on good authority that LVR is pictured below on the right. Rumour has it that he is seated with CB. Perhaps someone can confirm?

View attachment 13085

That does look like CB.

Ken

 

[collegeboundgal]

Never mind Lee. He's just an emotionally constipated male. I like long winded college gals that get up early to milk.

My college days are 15+ years behind me. I have just used this handle since I began getting on forums on different sites. I keep it simple.

 

[Dsth]

My college days are 15+ years behind me. I have just used this handle since I began getting on forums on different sites. I keep it simple.

I like your handle. it reminds an old fart like me that at least a few younger people still enjoy working with cattle. GO GIRL

 

[suzorse]

I use a kick stop every time I milk , and have had to drag / push heifers into my stanchions , I do machine milk as my arthritis will not allow me to hand milk any more , milking is always my quiet time to just unwind
Suzanne
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQ4W758/?tag=cattletoday00-20

 

[Travlr]

I've had the idea from time to time to buy a jersey x beef heifer to milk. Leave the calf on all week, put the calf up Friday night, milk cow Saturday morning then put calf back in until next Friday. I've heard of a few people do it that way with one that don't milk too heavy. One milking a week would be enough for my wife and I.

That's what they did back in the day. If you're running out of milk separate the calf for the day and milk at night, then put the calf back.

I knew a guy in northern California that milked angus/holstein cows and sold direct to the local ranchers.

 

[lithuanian farmer]

I use a kick stop every time I milk , and have had to drag / push heifers into my stanchions , I do machine milk as my arthritis will not allow me to hand milk any more , milking is always my quiet time to just unwind
Suzanne
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQ4W758/?tag=cattletoday00-20

Using the same thing here too. My husband has 13 milking cows at the moment and uses it for almost all. I, on the other hand, use it only for one. Noticed that you really need to keep your temper and have a good energy while milking and overall working with cows, as they are very fast to catch your mood and they won't be nice to you if you have bad emotions around them. I always try to treat them with patience and as gentle as possible. The result is that my husbands cows like me way more than him and are way calmer when I'm the one milking them.

Oh, and if you want to be hand milking, cow better be, so called, "soft". That means that her teats are soft and milk flows easily. Way faster milkers and way easier for your hands. The ones with "harder" teats are slow milkers and their milking is harder for your hands.

 

[suzorse]

Using the same thing here too. My husband has 13 milking cows at the moment and uses it for almost all. I, on the other hand, use it only for one. Noticed that you really need to keep your temper and have a good energy while milking and overall working with cows, as they are very fast to catch your mood and they won't be nice to you if you have bad emotions around them. I always try to treat them with patience and as gentle as possible. The result is that my husbands cows like me way more than him and are way calmer when I'm the one milking them.

Oh, and if you want to be hand milking, cow better be, so called, "soft". That means that her teats are soft and milk flows easily. Way faster milkers and way easier for your hands. The ones with "harder" teats are slow milkers and their milking is harder for your hands.

my cows come in without a problem, the kick stop is loose and is only a reminder, as I do not move as fast as I use to, I also have short teated cows, and am a strip milker by hand as having carpal tunnel in both wrists I cannot milk large teated cows, I love hand milking, but it is impossible for me in the last few years, my cows are gentle 3/4 Jerseys out of the cows in my bottom part and were born here, and I am milking a Jersey that I got as a 300lb heifer, they all know their names and I can call up 1 or 2 cows when needed
Suzanne

 

[Warren Allison]

About 15 years or so ago...heck. may have been 20.... I had a 15 acre bermuda field rented with a pole barn on it. Beside it was a 5 acre place with a mobile home on it, and a family lived there. They had a fence around their place, and they'd get 1 or 2 bottle calves a year. The man helped me with the hay (Around here, if the rains are right, you can get 4-5 cuttings off Bermuda if you lime and fertilize to specs). I'd [pay him plus let him get hay for calves during the winter. One day he wanted to ride with me to go look at some Corrientes that I wanted to buy. When we got there the man had a half Watusi- half Jeresey heifer--bred to a Corr bull, that he insisted I take, too. Ugliest bovine I have ever seen in my life. I told him I wouldn't give $10 for it! I ended up buying the man's Corr herd out, so he "threw in" that heifer. When we were loading out the trailers, the man led this ugly heifer to the trailer and loaded her like a horse! On the way home, Matt (the neighbor) kept talking about how he liked that cow! Even asked me what I'd take for her. I told him we'd just take her to his place, and we'd work it out come hay season.

Well, she had her calf, and about 3 weeks later he bought a Jeresey calf to go on her, and 3 weeks after that he bought another. She never ran out of milk, and his kids got her to where they could milk her. and even ride her!! He had 2 kids, and they'd get enough milk to make a little butter with, and use it to make ice cream etc. They just fed her grass and hay, too...no feed at all. I know they were still doing this the last time I rented the field, and that heifer was probably over 12 years old then. `She was as gentle as any dairy cow I have ever seen. He'd breed her every year to the neighbor on the other side's bull...usually an Angus or a Hereford, and the 2 he'd buy, staggering 3 weeks between them, were Jeresy or Jeresy-Holsteins.

Until I saw it, I would never in a million years have thought of a danged Watusi as a nurse cow or a milk cow either one!