# Salty Jersey Milk...What’s Causing it?



## JirehFarmsTN (Aug 2, 2021)

Hi all! 
We recently added a 5 year old Jersey cow to our herd. She was being used as a nurse cow so she was still in milk, and we have been hand milking her. The only problem is when her milk gets cold, it’s salty!

Research online has told me that it can be 3 things:
Mastitis 
Been in lactation too long 
Something in diet

She hasn’t had any signs of mastitis...her udder isn’t hot, red or sore, and the milk isn’t chunky, watery or bloody.
She is fed a dairy ration from our local co-op store and is out on fresh pasture with our longhorn cattle. 
Unfortunately I’m not positive how long she’s been in lactation, but her calf was recently weaned before we got her so I’m assuming quite some time.

Any advice or help would be appreciated! We need to get her bred ASAP, but until then I will have to keep milking her...I hate having to waste her milk! Today when I milk her I plan to milk her quarters in to separate jars to see if it’s one quarter or all of them.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 2, 2021)

On my grandparents dairy farm if their 2 jersey cows(milked separate cause that was grandma's favorite milk) milk tasted salty every on the next milking they would do as you plan to do and milk each quarter seperately to see how many were affected then they would milk her 4 times a day and rub some kind of ointment into her udder each time until the saltiness went away. Salty milk is what happens before mastitis shows up, so the first signs.

I know milk can be affected by stress as well so if "recently got" was within a few days it might clear up on its own once she gets settled. Personally I would just milk her several times a day and give her a udder massage each time until it cleared up, better that then trying to fight full on mastitis.


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## farmerjan (Aug 2, 2021)

Congrats on the jersey.... love home grown fresh raw milk. 

Mastitis does not have to be obvious.  There are often sub clinical staph and strep infections that will raise somatic cell counts and still not show up as chunks or bloody or watery or anything.... maybe a smidgen thick in a quarter.... If you can, get a mastitis "paddle" ... it is a test kit with a liquid that will react to any mastitis... you milk a couple squirts in each of the 4 round circle/cups... from each quarter... and then use the liquid to squirt a little in each to see if you get some sort of reaction..... you going and milking each quarter into a separate jar is the same idea.....

I have never heard of milk being salty when chilled.... so I can't say I have experienced it.... but have had some off tasting that has turned out to be from what they were eating.... and once the milk went "bad" much quicker and that is a high scc.... due to a sub clinical mastitis infection.... 
Cows tend to have higher scc after being in milk for a long time.... it is natural for the cell count to go up with the longer lactations.... 

Is she running with your longhorn bull?  Hopefully you get her bred asap.... and then next time you can be pickier as to what you breed her to..... If her calf has been weaned you need to figure she is at least 6 months fresh and maybe more.... I would want to just get her pregnant at this point... and a longhorn cross would make good beef for you to eat.... then be able to plan on what you breed her to for the next calf....using a jersey AI and even using sexed semen to greatly increase your chances of a heifer calf....

I would think most likely it is a sub clinical case of mastitis unless there is something in the pasture that you think she is eating that might be causing it... in the spring here, they will often eat the newly greening wild onions and gives their milk an off flavor....


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## farmerjan (Aug 2, 2021)

What @misfitmorgan  said... and there is a peppermint smelling cream that many dairyman are using now... it is like a menthol type that causes warmth... peppermint causes a higher blood flow, which will help to get the udder to "clear out" the mastitis rather than treat it with anti-biotics.... frequent milking will help too to get the milk cleared out more frequently so the bacteria can't grow as fast....that is one reason why we often will put calves on a cow with chronic mastitis.... they are constantly nursing and can keep the swelling "butted out" and the bacteria constantly removed from the udder....  and  there might be a reason why they used her as a nurse cow.... she could have a chronic problem too and the calves will keep that at bay by frequently being sucked by calves....


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## Grant (Aug 2, 2021)

It could be stress of the move.   I would milk her out 3-4 times a day for a few days to see if it clears it up.


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## JirehFarmsTN (Aug 2, 2021)

Thank you for all the great information so far! 
Unfortunately our longhorn bull has yet to arrive as the current owner can’t get him into the trailer...but we *should* have him here soon and we will let him in the field with her and the longhorn cows as well.
I will look for the cream and try to test her milk to see if it is mastitis after all! Does anyone happen to know the name of it?
The previous owner says she was a nurse cow bc he didn’t need or have time to milk her...he lived off property, but obviously there’s no real way of knowing if that was true or not.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 2, 2021)

Pet Whisperer said:


> Thank you for all the great information so far!
> Unfortunately our longhorn bull has yet to arrive as the current owner can’t get him into the trailer...but we *should* have him here soon and we will let him in the field with her and the longhorn cows as well.
> I will look for the cream and try to test her milk to see if it is mastitis after all! Does anyone happen to know the name of it?
> The previous owner says she was a nurse cow bc he didn’t need or have time to milk her...he lived off property, but obviously there’s no real way of knowing if that was true or not.



California mastitis test is the name of it. Most feed mills or stores like tractor supply will have a test. The California one has a paddle with 4 spots and there is another type Mastitis Indicators that are paper things. 
https://www.google.com/search?q=cal...13i457j0i13.7943j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8


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## farmerjan (Aug 2, 2021)

Thanks @misfitmorgan ... I could see the paddle and could not pull the "california mastitis test" out of the memory....
He could be honest about her being a nurse cow... and if he lived off the property, he would not necessarily know if she had chronic or periodic mastitis with the calves nursing her... 

First thing is to see if you can isolate any mastitis... then treatment.... staph and strep  will be the 2 main ones and both can be sub clinical and chronic.... there are other kinds and the best way to go for that is to see if your state lab will do cultures on milk to determine what types/strains she has.  
I would go with seeing if she has any problem.... and if it is sub clinical, it will show up and come and go..... so it might not pick it up with just one test....and if she does show some, try the milking several times a day for several days..... and then consider using antibiotics to hit it hard.... and then see.


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## JirehFarmsTN (Aug 2, 2021)

A little update from today...
After milking into a different jar for each quarter, I DO have some results! 😁 Front left is slightly salty, front right is “in between”, and back is pretty salty. I’m guessing the front quarters are starting to clear up some, because there IS. Noticeable difference, but I will still be looking for the cream and test kit. The back is hardest for me to completely empty, I’m wondering if I just haven’t flushed out enough of the milk for her to start clearing up on her own. I’m going to start milking more, and, we are considering raising a calf on her to help keep her udder cleaned out while she gets over it. I will share another update as things go along!


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## farmerjan (Aug 2, 2021)

If you can't find a california mastitis test kit, let me know.  I will send you one as they are very easy to get here since there are so many dairies in the area.  You can pm me with your address and I will let you know what it costs... I know they aren't that expensive.


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## JirehFarmsTN (Aug 2, 2021)

farmerjan said:


> If you can't find a california mastitis test kit, let me know.  I will send you one as they are very easy to get here since there are so many dairies in the area.  You can pm me with your address and I will let you know what it costs... I know they aren't that expensive.


Thank you for being so kind and helpful! I will let you know if we can’t find it...we will be checking tomorrow as we just didn’t have the time today! There are a couple of large dairy farms in our area...I think is should be able to find it 😊


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## Baymule (Aug 2, 2021)

I don’t have a cow, sure don’t milk one, but I sure have learned something from this thread!


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## farmerjan (Aug 2, 2021)

If you are friends with any of the dairies... ask if they are on DHIA testing.  If so, you might ask if they would consider allowing you to get a sample of milk from your cow and ship it in with their herd when they milk test.  I have 2 "farmers" that send in 3 or 4 samples from their own cows...and  the farm that they send the samples in with.... "creates a cow in their herd...."  in other words.... they add a cow to their herd "on paper" and the milk sample gets tested with the rest of the herd.  Then the results come back in a couple of days, and it will tell your butterfat/protein/ and SCC... which is an indication of mastitis.... Your cow is not actually in their herd... you take a sample at home and take it to the herd when the milk tester comes.  It would cost you a couple of dollars....if they would do it.  You tell them how many lbs of milk the cow made..... and they create a "record" on paper... it is like they bought a cow and added it to their herd...just it is only on paper.  But it would give you access to regular testing if you wanted to do it....and the herd would be agreeable.  
You could get this done just for your cow but would be prohibitively expensive to create a new herd etc... there are minimums and all that... totally unreasonable for just one cow.  
If you are friends with one of them and they would be agreeable, they can tell you what they need etc and so forth.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 3, 2021)

If you dont end up doing the calf and if you are having a hard time milking her out completely you could look into something like EZmilker. It is not super cheap but will save your hands, back, time and be easy to milk out any animal at all. They last for many many years and are good for animals with any sort of problems with their udder.


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## JirehFarmsTN (Aug 9, 2021)

Update 2...
Great news! We did end up getting a young calf to nurse off her, and after giving him several days to clean her out well, we tried her milk again yesterday....NO saltiness at all, just creamy and amazing flavor that you just can’t get at the store. Super exciting!! And since we got a beef calf, it’s a win-win situation, we now have delicious milk, and future beef for the freezer 😊


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## Kusanar (Aug 9, 2021)

JirehFarmsTN said:


> Update 2...
> Great news! We did end up getting a young calf to nurse off her, and after giving him several days to clean her out well, we tried her milk again yesterday....NO saltiness at all, just creamy and amazing flavor that you just can’t get at the store. Super exciting!! And since we got a beef calf, it’s a win-win situation, we now have delicious milk, and future beef for the freezer 😊


I have read about a method of sharing milk with the calf where you leave them together for 12 hours, then pull the calf off for 12 hours and then milk right before putting them back together so you still get plenty of milk. Depending on how much you need, it may only take a few hours for her to bag back up enough for you to get a good milking out of her.


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## misfitmorgan (Aug 9, 2021)

JirehFarmsTN said:


> Update 2...
> Great news! We did end up getting a young calf to nurse off her, and after giving him several days to clean her out well, we tried her milk again yesterday....NO saltiness at all, just creamy and amazing flavor that you just can’t get at the store. Super exciting!! And since we got a beef calf, it’s a win-win situation, we now have delicious milk, and future beef for the freezer 😊



Awesome and great planning there....breakfast and dinner covered!


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## Baymule (Aug 9, 2021)

That’s great news!


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## farmerjan (Aug 9, 2021)

I do nearly all my cows on a "milk share" deal with calves because I have no intention to feed bottles if I can get away from it.  You lock the calf away from the cow... say for the night... milk what you want from the cow in the morning, then let the calf with her after that.  The calf gets 12 hours worth of milk, you get 12 hours worth.  Cows will seldom ever get mastitis that way..... can happen but not often.   
If you have to be gone, the calf just gets all the milk until you get it separated from the cow again.... very flexible for you as the milker.  I would only milk a couple times a week sometimes... 
The cow might not want to let the milk down for you as well as she will for the calf... but usually they get used to the routine... especially if you are giving her some grain and/or other treats... like I do with some alfalfa hay in the barn.....when you bring her in for milking.  They will get with the routine/program pretty quickly. 

Glad that she seems to have gotten the milk/udder cleaned out.


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