Family milk cow

rockyridgefarm · May 4, 2004

Any ideas about getting a good deal on a milk cow? We have dairy goats, now they wanna cow. What breed, and how to get one. What about miniatures?

I am now told we want a Jersey, I have been there - wait - that's New Jersey...

Robert_in_NY · May 5, 2004

Jerseys give more butterfat in their milk. My in laws have over 30 head and 5 are Jerseys just for that reason. They won't give as much milk as a Holstein but the butterfat from the Jerseys helps raise the rest giving them a higher price per gallon. I don't know much about all the different breeds as I have never paid attention. I only know this because of my in laws explaining to me why they have a few Jerseys in the sea of black and whites.

If you get a decent cow you will get an easy 3-5 gallons a day milking once in the morning and once at night.

Bird · May 5, 2004

( I am now told we want a Jersey )

I reckon everything I know about milk cows is from so long ago that it might not be valid, but my Dad's best friend worked Guernsey dairies all his life, my Granddad had Guernseys and we had Jerseys. I always understood that you wanted a Jersey for the high butterfat (richer milk), Holstein for volume, and Guernsey for a compromise. Now I hope to never have a milk cow again because that's a twice a day, every day, job; no such thing as being too sick to go milk the cow or going out of town overnight, unless you have a friend or someone to do the milking.

However, IF I had to have a milk cow, the Jersey would be my choice. When I was a kid, one Jersey milk cow would provide more milk than was needed for a family with 5 kids, And in my limited experience, the Jerseys were smaller, gentler, easier to handle than any of the others.

Poppa · May 5, 2004

( Now I hope to never have a milk cow again because that's a twice a day, every day, job; no such thing as being too sick to go milk the cow or going out of town overnight, unless you have a friend or someone to do the milking.
)

Oh yeah, A lot of my family are dairy farmers. My dad wasn't and I used to think that was a bad thing. When I was out of high school I told Dad I wanted to work on a dairy. He sent me to one of his cousins for two months. It was great the first couple of days, getting up every morning and having a commute of two hundred yards. Then the cows got out one night around midnight. Spent two hours getting them back in and at that time (about two am) the milkers I had seen each afternoon showed up to start the second milking. I asked why they were there at that ungodly hour and they laughed at me. I spent my two months there and then I came home and enrolled in college and never asked dad why he didn't work on a dairy again. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Mike

Bird · May 5, 2004

Yep, Mike, any milk cow's a lot of trouble, but a dairy is another matter entirely. We milked our cows at about 5:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., but when we visited Dad's best friend's family, we'd help with the milking at the dairy, and of course that was in the days when it was all done by hand, and they milked at noon and midnight; something to do with delivery schedules, I think. And for 3 or 4 guys to milk over a hundred cows was not something I'd want to do regularly. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I understand the dairies now milk 3 times a day instead of two; i.e., every 8 hours. Does anyone know whether that's true everywhere now?

And one thing I do remember well is that each cow has her own personality, just like humans and many other animals. My Dad bought a Jersey cow named Popeye when I was 5 years old. Popeye was a good milk cow, and Dad did most of the milking, but at the time, he was driving a truck selling and delivering welding supplies and spent one night a week out of town, so Wednesday night and Thursday morning Mother had to do the milking. Now Mother was a city girl, who had learned to milk cows and goats as a teenager, but never got over being about half scared of the animals, and Popeye would fight and terrorize her. When Dad asked the guy he bought the cow from, the guy said the only thing he could figure was that Popeye had never seen a woman wearing a skirt or dress, and my Mother never wore pants or slacks in those days. But with men and kids Popeye was gentle as a lamb. So when Mother had to milk Popeye, she'd wait out of sight while I went in the barn, put feed in the trough and had Popeye in there eating, then I'd stand beside her head and pet her so she couldn't turn her head and see Mother come in, do the milking, and get up and leave. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Popeye produced a heifer calf that grew up as a family pet, and naturally got the name of Sweet Pea. So when Sweet Pea started producing milk, Dad sold Popeye, much to the delight of my Mother. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Robert_in_NY · May 5, 2004

A lot of the large dairys are running 3 shifts but the smaller ones are still at two. You need to be able to have enough hired help to milk 3 shifts and the smaller, family farms tend to not hire extra labor unless needed so they stay at 2 milkings which they can handle easier.

Airedale · May 6, 2004

If there ever /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif was a cow suited for the one cow farm it has to be the Irish Dexter. I can highly recommend an Irish Dexter. They are small, one third to one half the size of other breeds. A cow will provide more than enough milk for a family. They are tough easy keepers and will eat forage other breeds pass over. You can not ask for a more gentle breed, even the bulls are no problem to handle.

Egon · May 6, 2004

I'll echo your comments Bird. Exspecially the one about twice per day every day. We were fortunate that my Grandfather was there for a backup to allow away time.

Thing I miss least is that swipe across the face with the tail.

Egon

rockyridgefarm · May 6, 2004

Excellant answers. My wife is behind this plan, and she tells me she is thinking about milking ONCE a day, in the morning. The calf gets to do the other milking.

Jersey and Dexters are the short list, for now...

EastTexFrank · May 6, 2004

I once thought it would be kinda fun to have a family dairy cow just like the small farmers/crofters used to have when I was a kid growing up. I quickly went off the idea. That twice a day, every day routine would get to be a whole lot like work in a hurry. You've got to admire those that do it for a living though. All of the dairies around here still milk twice a day. I used to make an annual visit to one of them to collect manure for the compost pile, until all these horse farms started springing up around us. When I was in my "family cow" phase I did a lot of research on both Jerseys and Dexters and one thing I remember was that, although both cows were almost ideal for a one cow operation, sometimes the bulls of both breeds could be a problem. I suppose it would depend to some extent on how they were handled and treated as youngsters.