# Salty Milk



## mommyfor5 (May 3, 2009)

Hello Everyone, I am relatively new to milking. I have a Jersey that came fresh about 3 weeks ago. This is her first calf. My husband and I started milking her once a day by machine a few days ago and the milk is very salty. What could be the cause of this and how do we treat it? Thanks!


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## WildRoseBeef (May 3, 2009)

Location would help a tonne.


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## Farmer Kitty (May 3, 2009)

Where are you located?

Is she drinking water good? Excessive?


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## mommyfor5 (May 3, 2009)

I am in southeast Texas. She has plenty of fresh water and I see her at the water drinking several times a day.


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## Farmer Kitty (May 3, 2009)

I'm wondering about an immune issue--DH's suggestion. He doesn't believe it could be to much salt--I asked him as he has been in the feed biz for around 30 years now.


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## mommyfor5 (May 3, 2009)

The first cow I ever milked was our brown swiss and we didn't start milking her until about 4 mths after she calved. Her milk was delish. I googled my problem a couple of days ago and found info saying that it could be due to the calf not emptying her udder fully and the milk for whatever reason becomes more salty when it is "stagnant" in the udder so to speak. This did not make much sense to me as we are milking her everyday and I didn't want to milk her twice a day with a calf on her also. 

Could you elaborate on "immune issue" for me please?


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## Farmer Kitty (May 3, 2009)

He was thinking something with her immune system. 

We milk our cows from the time they freshen until they dry off and hand feed the calves so, I couldn't answer as to whether it could be from the calf not having emptied her udder. If that were the case though I would think it should clear up with milking her.


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## Imissmygirls (May 3, 2009)

She should have her udder emptied twice a day regardless of whether you or the calf are doing it.  I believe it will be healthier for the cow to milk her completely by machine and bucket feed the calf. JMO, but the average Jersey cow makes much to much milk for a single calf. ALso, the calf is likely to bump the udder and possibly bruise it causing mastitis.

How much is she producing? How much are you getting when?

Also, are you accustomed to drinking raw Jersey milk? It IS different!  There is a lot of butterfat in it and my kids much preferred partially skim Jersey milk to the whole milk.


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## Thewife (May 3, 2009)

Is there anything she could be eating that would affect the flavor?

We could always tell when dad tied the milk cow too close to the buttercup!(yuk)
Also, if the milk was cooled in plastic containiers, it made it taste funny.


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## kstaven (May 6, 2009)

We had two new cows here last year that the milk was salty. I can tell you for fact they where pigging out on the licks and as soon as we took them away the issue disappeared. Put the licks back two weeks later and the same problem arose. It took transitioning the licks in and out of the fields for 6 months before we could leave them in place.


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## Gatorpupsmom (Jul 28, 2009)

On this subject....

We give our dairy goats a mineral supplement, and we give it to them free choice.  No problems with our milk taste and we've been giving it to each of them since before they kidded.  However, we sent some home with my father in law recently, and he swears that it is making his doe's milk taste salty.  He took her off of it because of that.  However, about the same time he started giving the Nubian doe the mineral, he weaned her four bucklings...

Do you think it more likely that the mineral is making her milk salty, or something else, like taking the babies off her?  

Probably doesn't matter, he'll NEVER be convinced that anything other than the minerals caused it, but I am just curious.

Kim


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