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ABR

ABR

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I am looking to add a milk cow to my herd. I think I have the possible breeds narrowed down to Jersey, Milking Shorthorn and Dexter. Does anyone have experience with any of these? I will be using the milk for butter and cheese as well as drinking milk. If anyone has a different breed that they would recommend I am open to suggestions. Needs to be heat tolerant as it gets very hot here. I would likely breed to our Brangus bull so need to be decent size breed.

Thanks y'all!
 
Just an FYI, Holstein bulls are a handful when they are young. I do know by experience and we do still have him. My preferred milk cow is a Jersey. I have worked with training since she was 6 weeks old so very hopeful once I get to start milking her. Very easy going and I really think I may let my grandbaby girl at 6 take her for a walk next time they are here. I have NOT worked with many breeds, but I can back a Jersey for a family milk cow.
 
I have no hands on experience with cows(worth mentioning anyway), but I've learned a few things over the years in the hopes of ever having my own farm and what animals to get. I've always loved Jerseys, cause, well.....those eyes can melt your heart. But what to do with all that milk & cream?

Holsteins can put out roughly 7 or 8 gallons of milk per day but not alot of cream and the animals are huge at 1500lbs
Milking Shorthorns are about 1100lbs and give about 5 gallons of milk
Jerseys are on the smaller end at 800-1200lbs,, about 5 or 6 gallons of milk with about a gallon of cream
Dexters are even smaller at 600-800lbs, and can give 2 to 5 gallons of creamy milk.



So it really comes down to just how much milk/cream do you want and can actually use
 
My experience with my Jersey that I have raised and halter broke since at 6 weeks old. She is now a little over 2 years old. . .

So Claire had her little bull calf a couple weeks ago with no problem. Since I was off, I started milking today. Claire did NOT want to leave her calf Winston, yes he has big shoes to step into with that kind of name, so we brought him along. Sorry, but after I tried to coax with basically every step I went, it was just not happening. Once we got her to the milking parlor she loaded right on up and started to eat her feed. After Hunny started up the milk machine, she got startled and pooped. Hunny turned on the water full blasted which freaked her out even more and she basically tried to climb out, breaking her feed bucket. This was her first day to experience everything. I calmed her down and then untied her. I think it was just too many changes for her at once. I took her back out to her pasture with little Winston following behind. Later Hunny and I went back out. I wasn't even sure Claire would let me halter her, but she did very good. I asked Hunny to just hold her so I could hand milk. She did AWESOME!! I did not strip her out since Winston is nursing but I did get about a gallon today. Her front teats are really well formed. Her back ones, not so much but hopefully it it gets better? I just don't know yet. My first girl Betsey, retired dairy cow, had all 4 really easy to handle teats.

I like to make everything as unstressful as possible, but my Hunny just tends to want the job done. . .
 
Well.... I'm picking up a 10 month old Jersey heifer tomorrow! Been scouring my state and just couldn't find any Milking short-horns but I finally found a Jersey that wasn't ancient or outrageously priced. I'm very excited!
 
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We had a sweet Jersey Claire on the farm, with three other cows, all brown, no black cows, so no chocolate milk.
The Guernsey gave 2.5 gallon per milking that 5 gallons a day.
If I was buying for home use, it would be a Guernsey.
My mother sold raw milk, butter with salt or with out salt, also some eggs & still feed eight people three meals a day
Mother never bought eggs, milk, butter or bread, she made biscuits from scratch everyday.
I learned to make plate size pancake & cat head biscuits from scratch from her.
 
Last edited:
ABR said:
Well.... I'm picking up a 10 month old Jersey heifer tomorrow! Been scouring my state and just couldn't find any Milking short-horns but I finally found a Jersey that wasn't ancient or outrageously priced. I'm very excited!
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Start training as soon as you get her home! It will make a BIG difference. Trust me here. The first cows we got we did not train with halter and those are much harder to control. Since then, we learned if you start out early in life, they do not forget that training. We have daily interactions at least twice a day at feeding time, but in the evenings, we do are walks. Hunny bought me a 6 weeks old Jersey for my birthday a few years ago. I started my training the first day home. Jersey's are very smart animals and should be able to get into a routine without too much trouble.
 
Dani said:
Start training as soon as you get her home! It will make a BIG difference. Trust me here. The first cows we got we did not train with halter and those are much harder to control. Since then, we learned if you start out early in life, they do not forget that training. We have daily interactions at least twice a day at feeding time, but in the evenings, we do are walks. Hunny bought me a 6 weeks old Jersey for my birthday a few years ago. I started my training the first day home. Jersey's are very smart animals and should be able to get into a routine without too much trouble.
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They love salt as a treat, later when she is trained, you can get her a mineral licks salt block.
 
Was a very long day. Left my house at 6am and didn't get back with her until 10:30pm. Due to heavy rain I couldn't get the trailer into the pasture where her pen is so has to unload her in a different one and try to lead her thru to the pen. Yeah.... she got off the trailer and said a big fat NOPE. Laid down and refused to get up. Finally decided after an hour of trying, to just leave her in that pasture. Filled water for her and put it where she could see it and left her bucket of feed. Checked on her before work and she was laying down again but had moved and drank some water. I think she's just tired/depressed because she spent about 7.5-8 hours total in the trailer alone. Doesn't seem sick or in distress. Had regualr bowel movement in trailer and when we arrived home. I'll see how she is when I get home.
 
ABR said:
Was a very long day. Left my house at 6am and didn't get back with her until 10:30pm. Due to heavy rain I couldn't get the trailer into the pasture where her pen is so has to unload her in a different one and try to lead her thru to the pen. Yeah.... she got off the trailer and said a big fat NOPE. Laid down and refused to get up. Finally decided after an hour of trying, to just leave her in that pasture. Filled water for her and put it where she could see it and left her bucket of feed. Checked on her before work and she was laying down again but had moved and drank some water. I think she's just tired/depressed because she spent about 7.5-8 hours total in the trailer alone. Doesn't seem sick or in distress. Had regualr bowel movement in trailer and when we arrived home. I'll see how she is when I get home.
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Looking forward to your update!!🐮
 
Vermont used to be a dairy cow state (now it is New Jersey North). The breed mostly depended on purpose. Whole milk was required to be at least 3% milk-fat. Holsteins delivered that and a smidgen more, in large quantity, so if your main product was whole milk you had Holsteins. Jerseys delivered milk with high milk-fat, but not a lot of it. Guernseys were middling, both in quantity and milk-fat.

I was a townie, with an uncle who had a 6 cow farm, none of the cows purebred. I spent a couple, maybe three weeks there every summer from age 10 to 15 or so during main haying season, helping get it in - and other chores, and having a fine time messing around in fields and woods with Cousin Lyle. A Shetland pony named Molly was involved some. She was a good-un.

Good times.
 
Pearl said:
Looking forward to your update!!🐮
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My grandma just texted that my grandpa checked on her and said she was up and standing near the water. Hopefully she'll start grazing as well. She's very calm. tolerated a lot of touching last night when I was trying to get her to stand up and move. We'll see over the next few days if she stays super chill. I know that she needs a lot of work before she'll be ready for milking but I have pretty much a year to work with her. She's 10 months old now, so I will wait until fall to breed her for a spring calf. During that time I'll be bonding with her and working on halter training and such.
 
I'll admit that even after having her totally halter broke after my Claire's first calf, she was hard to seperate for milking. She really did not want to leave her calf. I had to walk her like normal and then Hunny pulled up her tail on her backside and even had to coax her along with a stick on the back of her legs. Just keep that in mind. New Mommas can be hard to handle. Since my girls Winston has gotten older, she has no problems at all leaving him.
 
Went out to check her when I got back from work. She was up and chilling by the shed. Got curious but kept distance when I was pouring her some feed. I didn't try to approach her but she also didn't shy away like our beeves do when they see a human. Topped off her water too. Once I have a name for her, I'll create her a thread in the cattle section and update on her progress.
 
Finally got her moved to the pen she's supposed to be in. Much smaller area so I can start working with her. She's dropped some weight this week but that's to be expected with the stress of the long trailer ride and all new place and people. She just started actually eating her feed again last night. Shouldn't take long to fill her back out. She's a stubborn one. I've worked with donkeys that are easier to move lol that said, I'd rather her be a still stubborn than a bucker/kicker. Got names narrowed down, just need to get to know her personality more before deciding.
 
ABR said:
Finally got her moved to the pen she's supposed to be in. Much smaller area so I can start working with her. She's dropped some weight this week but that's to be expected with the stress of the long trailer ride and all new place and people. She just started actually eating her feed again last night. Shouldn't take long to fill her back out. She's a stubborn one. I've worked with donkeys that are easier to move lol that said, I'd rather her be a still stubborn than a bucker/kicker. Got names narrowed down, just need to get to know her personality more before deciding.
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I've never had a kicker in a normal situation, but when milking, it does happen sometimes. I have done both hand milking and machine. Even with my Claire and previous with Betsey when training with the milk machine. They both got used to it after a couple weeks. The first time I got experience with a milk cow was from a cousins other grandparents. He put cuffs on his milk cow just in case, but she was well trained and I got to milk my first cow at probably 8 years old. That was an experience that I will never forget. That right there is something I am hoping my grandkids will never forget.
 
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