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

[JirehFarmsTN]

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

 

[Baymule]

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

 

[farmerjan]

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.

 

[misfitmorgan]

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.

 

[JirehFarmsTN]

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

 

[Kusanar]

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.

 

[misfitmorgan]

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!

 

[Baymule]

That’s great news!

 

[farmerjan]

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.