# I almost have hubby convinced!! :D



## Wolf-Kim (Aug 24, 2009)

So I have been reading the "Homesteading" books from the library and have been sharing them with the husband. I have him very interested in getting a family milk cow. I've just started searching the classifieds, just pricing and checking availability. Found some "Jersey milk cows" for $600 and up and other deals along those lines. 

I do have a few questions. 

Would we be able to pasture a single cow and maybe a calf with our two horses?(two geldings)

I know some people buy grains straight from the farmer and mix them and I think others buy a complete ration from the feed store. So, I was wondering how you feed your dairy cows?


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## chook pen jen (Aug 24, 2009)

Hi  I wes just wondering , how much land you have, as it can be expensive if you need to feed hay a lot, and they need more than a horse. Cows and horses usually get on OK, but you would need to keep an eye on them at first.
When you go to buy your cow make sure she is easy to handle and dont get carried away, and buy the first one you see {    like who would do that}as you will need to handle her a lot.
I buy my grain from the feed store and mix it ,but it depends on what is available in your local area.
Good luck ,Jen


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## Wolf-Kim (Aug 25, 2009)

We currently have about a 5 acres pasture split into a small and large pasture. The two horses we have now, aren't supplemented with grain. They are fed purely from their pasture, we throw hay in winter when needed. Even with both of them eating full time from the pasture, the pasture still has to be mowed down. We also have about 1-2 acres behind these pastures of wooded area, but it would need to be fenced before we let any animals back there. It has a cattle fence as the perimeter but has a couple spots that are broken. Most of it has been maintained bordering our neighbor, who has 2 angus cows and a bull. ((I hope to speak with the neighbor about letting his bull service our cow))

-Kim


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## Imissmygirls (Aug 25, 2009)

Figure a minimum 5 # of grain per day with a dairy cow... and 10 would be better if she is milking.  Dairy cows are designed to put energy into milk not meat. you can regulate how much milk she produces by how well you feed her-- up to a point.
For instance, my Jersey family cow I fed about 5 lbs of grain a day and pasture/hay to keep her in just enough condition to breed back. She milked 40 lbs a day when fresh. I handmilked, so that was MORE than enough! When she went to a dairy herd in her 3rd lactation, they fed her for production and she produced 80 lbs a day. Some of that increase was due to her aging, but not that much could be attributed to age.


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## jhm47 (Aug 25, 2009)

Having your own milk cow is a great idea.  Just remember that the cow must be milked on 12 hour intervals EVERY DAY from the time of her freshening to the time when she needs to be dried off.  Most people (except dairy farmers, who are a special breed) soon tire of being tied down, and go back to purchasing their milk.  It's different if you are doing it to make a living, but taking an hour every single day to milk soon becomes a tiresome chore, especially if you're doing the milking by hand.  Then, when the cow is fresh, you will be drowning in milk, soon you run out of places to store it, and you try making butter, cheese, etc. but that also soon becomes a chore.  

Been there done it.  NEVER again.


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## Imissmygirls (Aug 26, 2009)

LOL jhm, I will likely do it again after retirement, the way this economy is going!
It took me about 20 minutes to milk 15-20 lbs out of our Jersey. She wasn't a bad handmilker. Add another 15 minutes to clean the bucket and strain/transfer the milk to the fridge.
More things I did with our milk cow: After the first 3 months or so of her lactation, I adjusted her to MY schedule, not hers.
I used the condition of her udder to determine my milking interval, i.e. I only started moving the interval when her udder could handle the pressure of more hours. I would milk 8 in the morning and 6 or so at night-- or as late as 10 or 11 if I had to be somewhere with the kids. Is this commercially viable?  NO.  Did it matter for a family cow whose production was not critical? Nope, worked fine.   
I looked at it like nursing a baby-- adjusting to what is needed within a time frame. So technically speaking, she was on a strict schedule only about 3 out of the 12 months. The last month or so before drying off, we even went to one milking per day.  She gave enough for us to drink and I didn't need any extra.
The hard part of all this is that I was experienced with lactation management ( nursed 5 of my own kids) and 30+ years of dairy cows.
 To expect a newbie to deal with this is a LOT of trial and error on their part and that is why those with experience sometimes discourage newbies from breaking any *rules* .
 You have to know the rules before you break them!
- You have to know a cow's udder to know when it's too much!
-You have to recognize mastitis ASAP-- or SOONER!
-You have to feed for conditioning and her health
-You have to know her cycles and how it affects her feed and condition
-You have to know the particular cow! Some are bombproof. Others bomb. _It's not right to damage a cow for your convenience! _ I have done things with some cows that I NEVER would put a different cow through because I knew a particular cow's personality could handle the stress or even thrive on it.


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## jhm47 (Aug 27, 2009)

Imissmygirls:  What you said is totally true.  However, I have seen people who planned to save lots of $ by milking their own cow.  They seemed to be under the impression that they could just milk the cow when THEY needed milk, and not on any set schedule.  We both know that this is a prescription for disaster for the cow.  I hate to see animals suffer, and was just trying to inform the OP on some of the drawbacks in owning a cow for household purposes.

I was a much better informed parent and knew a whole lot more about how to raise a child till we had 4 of our own.  Found out just how much I didn't know real fast.  Same deal with owning cows.  You can read every book in the world, but till you actually do it------!


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