Another new cow question

[melco]

Ok please help me formulate what to feed. I went shopping and I now have, a multi species non gmo soy free feed, alfalfa pellets, beet pulp, BOSS and waiting on kelp meal. We don't have a lot of grass( about an acre total) but she will have free choice hay and of course water. She also has pink Himalayan salt block.
From these things could you help me know how much to feed her. She is 10 years old, possibly 6 months pregnant (the vet will be out within a week or so) and soooo sweet.
She came from pastures of green grass and occasional beet pulp.
Also she has a little arthritis in a back hip. What can I give her to help with that. Doesn't seem to bother her during the day much but I can see her limp a little when she first gets up in the morning. I do that also. Haha.
And if there's anything else I need please let me know. Thanks!!

[melco]

Oh and her name is Miss Lucy. 💕 I am head over heals.

[comfortablynumb]

From what I understand, commercially grown Alfalfa is all GMO no matter what they say on the bag.

Cute little cow!

[willowgirl]

Aww, what a sweet girl! I have Holsteins now but my first family cow was a Jersey.

As far as what to feed ... hmm. Really, it depends on the cow. Some are 'easy keepers,' and some run to bony unless they're grained. Our milk cow, Marianne, can get fat on first-cutting. Some of my other girls, not so much.

I think good-quality free-choice hay should be the foundation of a cow's diet. Our girls also get TMR from the dairy where I work, and on weekends (when I don't work, and don't get TMR) they get Agway beef commodity blend pellets, a bagged grain product. I have never fed beet pulp or kelp meal, so I can't speak to those. She ought to love the alfalfa pellets; just don't overdo them. (Watch out for loose manure.) I also give the girls fresh chop (grass clippings) when I mow the yard (again, too much at one time will make them loose, so be judicious).

The biggest thing is not to let your cow get fat, since she's pregnant. A fat cow is a recipe for metabolic problems at calving! Also, if she has a bit of arthritis, keeping her weight down will probably help with her mobility.

[melco]

Aug 30, 2016 17:32:31 GMT comfortablynumb said:

From what I understand, commercially grown Alfalfa is all GMO no matter what they say on the bag.

Cute little cow!

Ugghh I knew this and forgot. I don't really want to feed her gmo if I can avoid it. Thanks for the reminder.

[melco]

Aug 30, 2016 17:39:34 GMT willowgirl said:

Aww, what a sweet girl! I have Holsteins now but my first family cow was a Jersey.

As far as what to feed ... hmm. Really, it depends on the cow. Some are 'easy keepers,' and some run to bony unless they're grained. Our milk cow, Marianne, can get fat on first-cutting. Some of my other girls, not so much.

I think good-quality free-choice hay should be the foundation of a cow's diet. Our girls also get TMR from the dairy where I work, and on weekends (when I don't work, and don't get TMR) they get Agway beef commodity blend pellets, a bagged grain product. I have never fed beet pulp or kelp meal, so I can't speak to those. She ought to love the alfalfa pellets; just don't overdo them. (Watch out for loose manure.) I also give the girls fresh chop (grass clippings) when I mow the yard (again, too much at one time will make them loose, so be judicious).

The biggest thing is not to let your cow get fat, since she's pregnant. A fat cow is a recipe for metabolic problems at calving! Also, if she has a bit of arthritis, keeping her weight down will probably help with her mobility.

I'm not familiar with tmr ? Would you mind if I posted a full body pic and you tell me your opinion?

[comfortablynumb]

I wouldnt worry too much about feeding her the alfalfa pellets. At her age good nutrition is more important for the cow than the iffy maybe concern over GMO hay pellets.

[willowgirl]

TMR is 'total mixed ration.' It's what's fed to the cows on the dairy where I work. The composition varies, but consists of stuff like corn silage, hay silage, soybean meal, fresh chop (in season), minerals, etc. It's a complete cow diet in one yummy package, lol. It's not something you can buy at a feed store (it spoils too rapidly to be bagged up and sold) but if you have a friendly dairy farmer nearby, you might be able to make arrangements to buy some (although beware of the GMO thing, unless the farmer is organic).

As far as the pic, sure! Would love to see more pics of your girl in any case.

A good shot for estimating body condition score is standing slightly above and behind the cow, so you see her hips, pins and topline.

[melco]

Here are a couple of pics I have in my phone. I will take a shot like you described at a later time.

[willowgirl]

She looks good! I'd try to keep her right where she is, weight-wise. For a 10-year-old cow, it looks like she has a nice bag ... good attachment. When is she due? Is she bred to another Jersey?

Inquiring minds want to know, lol. (I love cows.)

[melco]

I'm glad to hear she looks good. The vet will be out in a week or so to palpitate and verify but I'm told she was last in with a bull in March. So that would mean December? She's bred to a red angus. Im new to all this but I really think her udder is nice as well. She only has three quarters. She was injured very young. I know who had her several years ago. To my knowledge hasn't had mastitis. So glad about that. She is so good. She comes when I call her. Stand without food while I milk her and then I give her some feed. Shes so sweet. I have really lucked out with her. I hope I do a good job feeding her and keeping her healthy. I'm really nervous about that. We don't have a big place. We have a small homestead. My grass everywhere equals about an acre. I will have to move her around. Which I don't mind doing. I just wish I had a couple of acres of nice grass for her. She has free choice hay. It's nice hay so I hope that helps. That's why I'm really trying to put together a good variation of feed for her. Thanks for your help.

[melco]

Oh and those pics were taken straight out of the trailer after a three hour ride. I have cleaned her up since then. She was covered in poop. I felt so bad for her. So don't think bad of me. Haha. I brush her twice a day, clean her up where needed and sing to her. 💕

[willowgirl]

LOL, you are as bad as Numb -- he leaves a radio on in the barn because he swears Marianne likes to listen to the radio. lol

Don't worry about not having more grass. Marianne has less than an acre of grass, and she doesn't even keep up with it! She is lazy as all get-out, and likes for us to mow the grass for her, and dump chop in her feed bunk. (Hay is fine. In fact, once you dry your girl off, I'd feed nothing but good-quality hay until calving.)

It sounds like you have a gem of a cow there! My first Jersey was like that. I'd just milk her wherever she happened to be in the pasture (I was hand-milking then.) She never so much as twitched a hoof! It's good to have an easy-milking cow when you're starting out. I always cringe when I hear about people buying a heifer to raise up for their first family milker, as sometimes heifers can be real stinkers. lol

When did your girl calve last and how much milk are you getting out of her now?

[comfortablynumb]

We have the neighbor guy drop a round bale in the yard, it takes Maryann and 2 goats about 2 weeks to eat it. Plus it provided bedding and endless entertainment for them.

As willow said we have to mow the grass to keep it from becoming a hayfield. Her total grass eating area is only about 1/3 of an acre, and we have half that gated off to rotate it when the weather goes dry. The goats have access to another 1/3 or so acres of back yards where its not suitable for a cow but a heaven of weeds and brush for goats. Cows dont seem to be as such of a wrecking ball as horses on turf, the horse I had here turned all of the fenced in areas into dust from fenceline to fenceline. One cow on the same area doesn't damage the turf at all.

Maryann gets tied to milk but we spoiled her by making that feeding time so... there better be enough feed to last the milking or she begins to protest. She doesn't kick, the process goes like this...

Feed is given and milking begins. The cow is in a food trance nom nom nom....
Hula the goat tries to stick her head in the feed tub. Feeding pauses to scowl a the goat. Feeding resumes.

If the feed holds out there is no issue. When it does before milking ends...

The tub gets shoved around between dirty looks over her shoulder.
She stand very quiet for a few minutes waiting for more food....
then she pees in protest.
Then she looks back and scows a bit, snorts a little. A few head tosses for effect.
If milking is not over by this point, she takes a dump. Then she takes a deep breath and huffs.

Once these non violent protesting actions have been exhausted, she puts her head in her tub and pouts silently until milking is over and she is untied.

As long as there is food there she probably doesnt need tied but once the food runs out, no doubt she would just quietly walk away back to the hay roll if she wasnt tied there.

And she does like the radio. She likes the sports talk station and NPR. She likes classical and not rock. YOu know when the station is not to her liking, she goes back to the other shed and pouts.

[willowgirl]

Numb left out the part where she vigorously licks the inside of her empty feed tub to bring attention to the fact that she's run out of feed. lol

[melco]

Haha. I like hearing about yalls cow. Thanks for easing my fears. She last calves about 15 months ago. She is bred and due to calve in December. I will be drying her up very soon. I had actually thought of a radio for milking time. Haha. Setting one up permanent sounds like a good idea.
I'm so excited. I have wanted a cow for a very long time. This just popped up last Thursday evening and by Saturday I had a cow. I'm scrambling to get things in order for her. Haha.

[melco]

Oh and I didn't realize CN was numb until now. Y'all are cute. 💕

[comfortablynumb]

Willow is more fun than a barrel full of epileptic monkeys.

[melco]

Haha.

[willowgirl]

15 months in milk and still milking right along while carrying a calf -- that's a good cow! I don't know how much milk you are getting now, but be prepared for a lot more once she freshens, lol.

It looks like she was a commercial dairy cow at one time (I'm guessing the torn ear once held a tag) but did you buy her from someone else who was using her as a family milk cow?

So many nice cows get sold for slaughter because they don't make quite enough milk to be profitable on a commercial dairy. (A cow that loses production in a teat is especially at risk of this happening.)

[melco]

I'm getting about 1.5 a day. I don't know if she ever was at a dairy. I know the last two people to own her. Which equates for about 4-5 years of her life. I was wondering about those cuts in her ears. You think they were dairy tags? Well I'm glad I have her. She's really sweet. I know her production will pick up. I plan to make cheese and such and feed to our chickens, hope to get pigs in the spring. We don't even drink milk. Haha. I just love having a cow.

[comfortablynumb]

You can use the cream to make butter then convert the butter to shelf-stable Ghee, a very high quality cooking oil. If you are going to make cheese to feed out to other critters, simple paneer curd is easy and quick to make.

[willowgirl]

I would bet the house on those ragged ears being due to tags that got pulled out! Probably a plastic tag in one ear and a steel DHI tag in the other. I have seen it many times in the herd I milk. I'm guessing cows rub their head on something, the tag gets caught, and they panic and rip the tag out (ouch).

Nice that she was already accustomed to being a family milker. Numb makes a ton of cheese; I think he's posted some helpful hints in the cheese forum here as well as on our board. He makes butter, yogurt, cottage cheese and clarified butter, too. We have 3 deep freezers full of vacuum-sealed cheese bricks!

[melco]

Oh I plan on making butter and ghee. I use them both and have made both just not with my own cream. I haven't made much in the way of cheese yet. comfortablynumb would you mind sharing your cottage cheese recipe? I buy tons of that stuff and want to start making it now. I have everything needed to start making hard cheese. Now I even have the milk. Woohoo. Freezers full of it is a great problem to have, Willow. We are really enjoying her. Evening milkings are hubby and I tag teaming. Even more fun!!

[comfortablynumb]

Cottage cheese is something I don't have a knack for making..... go figure.
The closest I can get is to fake it, and make a very soft paneer then add some cream to it to replicate the slimy texture.

Its not proper cottage cheese..... but nobody seemed to notice. I'll have to work on making proper cottage cheese.

[willowgirl]

It tastes like cottage cheese to me! (Numb won't touch the stuff, lol.)

Numb and I always milk together ... he sets up the machine and keeps an eye on it while I wipe Marianne's udder, put the milker on and manually pulsate it. We milk into a 1-gallon glass jar, so periodically we have to pause and empty the jar into a covered bucket. (And give milk to the waiting cats, lol.) Milking is like a "time out" in our busy days ... I will miss it when it's time to dry her off. :-(

[comfortablynumb]

we'll go sit in the barn with her and pretend.

[melco]

Sorry I haven't responded. My mom had been diagnosed with cancer and that has been consuming my days. I appreciate all of yalls help and insight. It's been very helpful!!

[willowgirl]

I am so sorry to hear that. :-(

[Deleted]

To the OP:
I'd add to what she's getting per day free choice loose minerals. She might eat it like she's starving for a while and then step away for what seems like forever. They have a good knack for knowing when their body needs it.

Good looking cow. Body condition is exactly what I'd like to see for a cow her age in milk.