COW THREAD

I do know though that the jersey/holstein cross does have a darker coat. Here is my jersey/holstein, Vienna







The saddest part is in this picture she is about 8 months old. Very small. I'm not sure if she is stunted or not. She has grown a little since these picture were taken.
 
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Adorable!
 
The saddest part is in this picture she is about 8 months old. Very small. I'm not sure if she is stunted or not. She has grown a little since these picture were taken.

She looks a little odd with a very large head especially in pics two and four.

Are those pics just taken? I hope you still don't have snow!?!
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The two year old isnt pregnant.

The pictures were taken in November, so no we don't still have snow! :p She just turned 1 in March
I'll post more recent pictures of her, she has since cut her own ears off ( itching her head on her calf hutch ) So she's not the most beautiful animal and we have fixed the calf hutch and itch proofed it!
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Here she is, I think these photos make her look smaller than she is. I didn't recall my jersey heifer being that small at 1 but looking back at pictures she may have been that small.









 
Hay in the winter and spring ( until grass grows up ) When the grass comes up they're put out to pasture until there is no more grass.
2 year old gets 4 flakes a day in winter, 2 in the morning, 2 a night.
Younger heifer gets 3, 2 flakes in morning, 1 at night.
No grain.
 
The no grain part could be the problem for the younger heifer. Your cow looks good although the angle doesn't show much. The two year old is heavy for a Jersey (assuming you used a scale) and I would say it grew good although her hind quarters look small. That could be a optical illusion because of her large stomach. Her large stomach (capacity) had me assuming that she was from eating a lot of forage and little/no grain, therefor the question.

The younger heifer could have been put on hay too soon. Calves need to develop a rumen. For a dairy that feeds grain that means getting them on starter quickly to develop the rumen. Most studies say that the rumen doesn't delvope as quickly on a hay diet. Many dairies (mine included) don't supply hay until the heifer is past weaning (30-50 days at weaning) and eating a steady amount of grain/starter. The 100% grass dairies (mostly organic) usually get around the grain by feeding milk for a longer period of time, up to six months. I have heard of costs up to $1,000 just to weaning age for an organic dairy that weaned at 6 months using only their own organic milk. That's around my cost to raise a heifer for 23 months at calving! Beef calves are on momma for a while as their rumen develops.

As I write all that, there could be other problems. I had a heifer that I recently sent to the auction at 12 months old which was raised the way I describe above. She somewhat looked like your calf, unusually hairy and a somewhat large looking head compared to her body. She was underweight and wasn't likely going to amount to what I want for my herd, so I culled her.
 
The younger heifer got on hay at around 3 or 4 months and slowly started on grass, after a few weeks she was switched to just grass. They do get sweet feed every once in awhile.
Her head looks normal sized in person. I'll take her on a walk in a few days and get pictures of her. She looks a little rugged because she's in the process of shedding her winter hair.
Here are better pictures of Ritzy, That's just her natural weight, she isnt over weight, her body looks great and healthy, I also don't feel comfortable feeding her any less than 4 flakes, I already feel like 4 flakes is under feeding her >.<













Here is the younger heifer last October.






And some more, she looks normal. I don't know if maybe I'm just paranoid because the way she looks with winter hair? She really does look nice in the summer.





 

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