Tale of two teats

[torogmc81]

We've had two bull calves in the last week. One was on the 26th of August, the other was Sunday on August 31. Both calved with ease. Barbara has a very tight bag and very cone like teats. The calf is milking ok, observing them often, holy cow does she have a milk supply! He will catch up to her eventually but for now momma is way ahead.

Queen calved on Sunday with no problems. Her bag is nothing like she had last year. So yesterday I noticed she's got a teat leaking at times, and is the obvious reason she's not as swollen as she should be. Probably carrying half the milk she should. Her calf is very active, peeing and pooping and nursing great.

How much of Queen's teat issues should I put on whether or not to cull her?? (One of our best cows, great maternal instinct, raises a big calf).

Thanks in advance.

Justin

 

[Nesikep]

If she's only leaking milk, I wouldn't consider culling her. I have a picture of my best cow Mega leaking milk from all *6* of her teats. All the calf has to do is touch the bag and the milk starts to pour out. Once the calf catches up to the milk supply boy do they ever take off. The way I look at it is that it's a good "relief valve" and prevents the udder from getting blown out of shape.

 

[Chuckie]

My best cow leaks as she has a full bag and there is more milk in the beginning than what a calf can drink. Sometimes there is a pretty good amount of pressure coming along with the stream of milk. Maybe the calf is leaving milk in that one quarter. I had rather it come out to relieve pressure than for her to get sick with mastitis. It won't keep doing it very long as the calf ages, it will keep her nursed down.

 

[torogmc81]

Does that teat eventually seal back up? I'm wondering too if she was leaking for at least a week or more before calving. She was very loose for three weeks and she really threw me off because I felt IMO that her bag size didn't match how loose she was getting, along with a Aug. 30th due date I had her tracked for.

 

[KNERSIE]

Sounds like Barbara is going to be the real problem next time...

 

[Nesikep]

It'll seal up as soon as that quarter gets emptied and the calf keeps up... sometimes the calves haven't figured out how to count to 4 until they're 2 weeks old.

I'm with Knersie though.. The other cow sounds like more of a problem... As long as the calf doesn't have a problem finding them, and/or she'll easily let you help, she might be OK, but if she's hard to handle and has a dumb calf, cone shaped teats will make life just that much harder.