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Vaccination question about dairy heifers
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<blockquote data-quote="farmerjan" data-source="post: 1545047" data-attributes="member: 25884"><p>I surely hope that you don't think I was trying to discourage you from raising calves. It is just that the dairy industry has changed so much in the last 10 years, but especially in the last 5. I have never in 35 years heard or seen so many dairymen as discouraged as they are now. The milk prices are bad....$14 to $17.00 per hundred weight. In 1989 when I was milking for a farmer, it was $17.50 and the input costs were half or less. Just think of the increase costs of fuel, fertilizer, and such compared to today. The marginal farmers are long gone, and the good ones are struggling. A small dairyman used to be able to raise up a half dozen or so extra heifers and get some added income from them. Now they are putting more into them than they can ever recoup. It is sad. </p><p> </p><p>There are a few other farmers/ranchers on here that were dairymen and I think they will tell you the same thing.</p><p>I have calves on 2, 1st calf jersey heifers; one has 4 one has 3. Both have their calves out with them full time. Have a 2 teat jersey that is a witch, with her last calf, because getting her to take a 2nd one is a constant fight. Have one of my jer/hol x, with only her calf this time, because after I dried her up, caught a beef calf that had started stealing and she didn't get a dry period and did not come into her milk. I don't know if it ruined her udder. She raised 6 last time. She will get a long break this time and hopefully things will go better. She will take anything you give her. She's got a great disposition and will let me milk also. </p><p>There were several things going on this fall that prevented me from doing them like I normally do. I hope that by their next time around things will be better and I can give them the time they really deserve again. I like fooling with my dairy cows, and I enjoy milking by hand. But it is our beef cattle that we concentrate on. The nice thing is I often can pull a calf off a beef cow to put over on a nurse cow, or off a nurse cow if a beef cow loses a calf.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="farmerjan, post: 1545047, member: 25884"] I surely hope that you don't think I was trying to discourage you from raising calves. It is just that the dairy industry has changed so much in the last 10 years, but especially in the last 5. I have never in 35 years heard or seen so many dairymen as discouraged as they are now. The milk prices are bad....$14 to $17.00 per hundred weight. In 1989 when I was milking for a farmer, it was $17.50 and the input costs were half or less. Just think of the increase costs of fuel, fertilizer, and such compared to today. The marginal farmers are long gone, and the good ones are struggling. A small dairyman used to be able to raise up a half dozen or so extra heifers and get some added income from them. Now they are putting more into them than they can ever recoup. It is sad. There are a few other farmers/ranchers on here that were dairymen and I think they will tell you the same thing. I have calves on 2, 1st calf jersey heifers; one has 4 one has 3. Both have their calves out with them full time. Have a 2 teat jersey that is a witch, with her last calf, because getting her to take a 2nd one is a constant fight. Have one of my jer/hol x, with only her calf this time, because after I dried her up, caught a beef calf that had started stealing and she didn't get a dry period and did not come into her milk. I don't know if it ruined her udder. She raised 6 last time. She will get a long break this time and hopefully things will go better. She will take anything you give her. She's got a great disposition and will let me milk also. There were several things going on this fall that prevented me from doing them like I normally do. I hope that by their next time around things will be better and I can give them the time they really deserve again. I like fooling with my dairy cows, and I enjoy milking by hand. But it is our beef cattle that we concentrate on. The nice thing is I often can pull a calf off a beef cow to put over on a nurse cow, or off a nurse cow if a beef cow loses a calf. [/QUOTE]
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