# Meet the oldest cow in our herd :)



## minimoo86 (May 13, 2012)

Meet Darla. She is 10.5 years old. She completed her 7th lactation, as we just dried her off on 5/3. She is due 7/18 to 1HO09543 Kolton.


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## SmallFarmGirl (May 13, 2012)

WOW! She's lovely! I love to see more cow people on here! Got a lot it looks like from the pic. How many do you have total???


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## minimoo86 (May 13, 2012)

We average around 575-600 from oldest to youngest. Mostly all registered Holsteins. Have a few Jersey x Holsteins crosses and a few Ayrshires. Have our first Jersey x Holstein x Ayrshire cross due next month


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## Royd Wood (May 13, 2012)

Now thats a proper set up with big numbers. She looks really well and not all ribs and hips. oh and


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## minimoo86 (May 13, 2012)

Where she is standing is the lower part of the holding area that is connected to the parlor, which would be to the right. The pic was taken on her dry off date, a few minutes before we dried her and 10 others off, which would be behind her to the right. Behind her to the left would be our high side group, which contains our high producers and our fresh cows. Fresh cows get moved from the hospital pen to the main milking herd about 10 days after freshening, as long as all systems are go.

Darla has done very well for us. She has produced just over 210,000 pounds of milk in her life so far.


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## Cricket (May 13, 2012)

Hi, and welcome!  I'm pretty new here, too.  I live in VT and have 2 yearlings and 1 3 week old bull.  I milk part time on a family farm--a mutt herd with more Jersey and Jersey crosses (we run Jersey bulls).  I love it.  We're milking somewhere just short of 200 right now.  Holsteins as a rule aren't my favorite breed, but my absolute favorite cow on the farm is purebred Holstein that was born here.  (Probably has a lot to due with how they are raised, eh?!)

Darla looks to be in amazing shape!  She also looks like she thinks she's about to get more grain.    I think the oldest cow we have is a Jersey around 10. We used to have an Ayrshire who was 16, but the last year wasn't real pretty.

Again, welcome!


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## minimoo86 (May 13, 2012)

We're currently milking 275 with about 40 dry and then the rest of the herd consists of springing heifers, breeding age heifers and young stock. We've only had 34 heifer calves so far this year, which is 10 behind of where we were a year ago on this date, but we have 56 cows and first calf heifers due within the next 6 weeks, so I hope that number climbs!


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## Goatherd (May 14, 2012)

Darla and your operation are impressive!


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## SheepGirl (May 14, 2012)




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