So we made the trek to look at Leonna today. I have to say, I have never met such a friendly cow. Well, if you can call her a cow, if you ask her, she is just an overgrown DOG! She is very sweet, gentle, and seems to understand how to behave. She has probably the EXACT demeanor we want in a cow. I don't think that even if we hand raised one ourselves we could pull off such results. If we could go on just this alone, i would have found a way to strap her to the roof of the Jetta wagon! (there is a reason we didnt bring the suburban/trailer LOL).
Sadly, we cant base our purchase solely on that. I will say, that we hope that her personality may be able to help to overlook and trump some of the issues we found visible.... We don't mind a cow who is not perfect. We dont even mind a few problems... We just don't want to put ourselves in a position that may require costly vet bills in the future or other similar problems that could be avoided. So with that said, as we pick apart her problems, keep all of this in mind. As you point out things that could be a major issue in the future, please try to explain why, and what can possibly be done to work with it.
What we saw....
She clearly looks a little thin. We suspect that coming off of winter has helped to cause this, as well as the current owners location is currently paying $10 a bale for hay!!! Not sure if you remember the heavy floods that parts of NY got a little over a year ago, but this is the area. He was saying that most of the hay fields in the area had to be reseeded, and they are trucking hay in from as far as Canada. She does not appear IMO to be 'starved', but certainly not 'well fed'. I think the combination of winter and low food supply caused this, and I don't feel it will be a long term issue? I presume she will fill in quite nicely with adequate feed. (yes/no?)
She is on the smaller side. We learned today that she is not Jersey/Holstein, but rather Jersey/Ayrshire. I suspect this makes her look a little smaller than originally anticipated. She measures exactly 48" at her back, in the pictures for size reference the kids are average height 8 and 6 year olds and the woman is 5'11". We are very happy with her size overall, as its roughly what we had in mind when we first started considering a cow. If determined she might be too small for breeding, we have considered the concept of breeding with a smaller breed like a Dexter? I am sure bred in that manner it would create potentially desirable smaller offspring for family cows? Thoughts?? Also, if she is smaller because of the aforementioned possible lack of nutrition (which we really don't know if she's supposed to be this size or larger) we are aware that might impact calving, looking for thoughts on that.
We also noticed she seems kind of dirty. I am not sure if I am too worried about this, given her living conditions. During the day, she lives tied to that post you see in her pictures. At night, she lives in a stall, that's probably 12'x12' give or take. I know from my experience on a dairy farm as a kid, that cows can get dirty during a long winter of being kept inside (all winter). I would also suspect that being tied in the same general area when not in the barn certainly isnt going to help. We feel that she will clean up nicely, and living happily in a fenced pasture, lean-to/barn with free access, she will be able to keep herself clean as usual.
I took the time to wander around her area some and look at her manure. I was looking to see if there was any signs of long term diarrhea. I did not see any, most her cow-pies were normal as far as I could tell. I did discover one that looked like it was softer than it should be and its pictured. It looked semi fresh, and I suspect she just had an off day. I presume just like humans, cows have off days from time to time too.... Eyes seemed bright, clear and attentive, nose clear with just some wetness (not running like the other) and she was certainly interested in her surroundings.
I did my best to get a decent picture of her udder... its in the album listed below. I made a couple of minor attempts at checking her reaction to touching her udder. She was obviously uncomfortable, but didn't attempt to knock me on my ass... She did pick her foot up a little, but then decided to just sidestep instead of kicking. I can tell you that she behaved MUCH MUCH better than any goat I have attempted the same with!!
We paid close attention to how she managed her horns. It was very clear that she knew to be careful with her horns. She had a playful attitude like the previous cow we looked at, but she handled it totally different. She didn't bash me with her head and push me around... she just put her head down, with her forehead flat on me, and just a gentle nudge. She was very careful to make sure she didn't have her horns involved when she did it. I did note once or twice where she scraped me with them by mistake, but that was probably more my fault than hers. The current owner talked like he had intended to 'band' the horns soonish? His comment was they have to be a certain size or the bands just fall off? The method of de-horning I am used to, is to burn them off as a baby. I had not heard of banding them before..... Thoughts???
So here we are at probably my BIGGEST concern.... Her front foot stance. Her front hooves point outward at a reasonable angle. Many of you have pointed this out as something to look for, and sadly we found it. Now... We need to understand what this means. What kind of long term problem will she have because of this? What causes it? Is it correctable? Is it hereditary (will offspring have similar problems?) What will aggravate future problems (concrete, gravel, general terrain), and what can help minimize problems? This is probably the biggest thing we are worried about at this point, and hope that its the kind of thing that can be worked with....
With all that said, we REALLY like her. I don't think a better personality can be found. I wish I had a camera with me that could do video, as it really would show much more than I can describe. While being a very loving cow, she was not in our face, and bashing us about trying to get our attention. She made herself known, and left it at that. Unlike the other one, who would take a step back at first when approaching her, Leonna actually meets you halfway. Like I said.... don't tell this overgrown dog, that she is a cow!! As far as she knows, all dogs get milked, right???
Some thoughts we wanted to share on purchasing a mature milker. Honestly, this scares us more than purchasing a very well behaved new milker... for different reasons. MOST people that sell a mature milker do it for a reason... (like someone stated in a post above...) We are more worried about a dishonest seller than we are about having to patiently work through teaching a cow how to milk. We are currently working through 2 new milking goats, and while I understand cows attitudes can be a bit different, I am confident we can manage quite well. I would be more concerned with getting a mature milker that someone has masked a kicking problem or another serious issue simply to get rid of her....
Because Leonna loves the camera, and I took somewhere around 48 pictures, I am just going to provide the link to the album... I cant tell you how many times she tried to take it from me!! Every time she heard the shutter when I finally got away from her, she came running...
https://picasaweb.google.com/114220096143054811016/20120422?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Are you saying that this forum isn't good enough for someone looking to buy a family milk cow, or practically any cow for that matter? I think you need to read the forum rules about this site before you go ahead and start advertising about another forum on here, no matter if don't think you're doing it intentionally or not.
Never been a supporter of protectionism 
