Lots of dairy cow questions *Update*

[Cowgirl71]

Congrats!!!

Pictures pretty please!

 

[Hound]

I took some pics on Monday but with my new phone, and I can't get them downloaded

I'll take some more this weekend.

Any ideas on what to feed her? She's currently getting coastal/bermuda hay and a coffee can of whole corn and a small flake of alfalfa every other day. She is nursing two calves. I'm only going to have one calf, a Jersey bull. She'll be on native pasture here and i'll feed her when i bring her in at night and when I milk her in the morning.

For the goats I have 12% sweet feed, alfalfa pellets, grass/alfalfa hay, and cattle cake. I can buy something else when I pick her up if it's more suitable.

 

[arabianequine]

You should milk am and pm there will be too much built up I would think by waiting 24 hours. Also it will make more milk the more you milk her. Oh but maybe your gonna have the baby bull on her....that will help alot if so.

Some don't like goats to have sweet feed but I think it is ok.

What is cattle cake? Maybe just a different name for something I have heard of.

 

[Hound]

It looks like giant pellets, about 3/4" in diameter and about 4" long. Here's a pic (not mine):

We use it because it can be fed on the ground and doesn't get stomped into the dirt and lost, because it's so big. It's a concentrated feed, the main ingredient is cottonseed meal but it also has other grain products and molasses. It's about 30% protein.

 

[Cowgirl71]

You got snow already!

A rancher friend of mine calls those "range cubes," which I never understood because they are NOT cubes... Technically, they're cylinders, LOL!

As far as what to feed your cow... We keep ours on pasture with a creek, and during the late fall, winter, and early spring provide free choice good quality hay. We also give them 14% protein grain while they're being milked (twice a day), and free choice mineral/salt mix.

IMHO, whole corn is not a good choice for cows. A grain mix for cattle from your feed store would be a better choice. It has about twice as much protein and is easier for them to chew. In our area, it's very close in price to corn.

We never let the calves nurse our cows. We prefer to milk the cow out twice a day and bottle feed the calf. May sound like a lot of needless work, but we do it for three main reasons. One, because calves can cut the cow's teats with their teeth, which makes milking very little fun until it heals. Two, because the calf will be people friendly when he grows up if you bottle feed him. And three, because the cow will be more manageable if she isn't worrying about the welfare of her calf.

Just my two cents worth! Feel free to let it come in one ear and out the other, I don't mind!

 

[Hound]

LOL I don't want to feed corn, I try to avoid it myself and don't want corn fed milk

I'll see what she thinks of the sweet feed and alfalfa pellets and maybe add some cake as a treat.

That's not my pic, just an example of what they are. It was 70F here today! I went out to fix the fence, and got distracted taking pics of my dog out there. Oh well

 

[Cowgirl71]

Sorry, missed the "not mine" part of your post!

It's COLD here! Yesterday morning it was a low of 12F and a high of 34F. Today was a good deal better, with a low of 20F and a high of 47F. But still considered cold to me, considering I moved here from Death Valley area four years ago, LOL! Our cats are able to walk across our large frozen pond, which is kinda odd this early in the year... 70F! Lucky!!!

Yeah, I'm real turned off to corn-fed anything. I hate that it's the main ingredient in the cow and chicken feed, but there ain't much I can do about it without going broke.

Chicken feed is going to have corn in it no matter what, and we found the milk cows really need the protein boost, though the beef cows can do fine without. Soy is even worse than corn, BTW. We do raise 99.9% of our own meat, which is good. Only exception is seafood every great now and then. Usually our grass fed beef, chicken, or venison. I wish our neighbors didn't feed the deer corn.

 

[arabianequine]

I missed the not mine part to I went back and looked it was there. I wonder how much I miss. We have had snow already....70F is lucky!

I have never seen those "cakes" before.

Also too keep in mind some babies are pigs....and will suck and eat constantly. We let calves nurse each feeding for like 20 min and then put the babies back in their pen. You can hand pump and put in bottle to feed the baby too.

 

[Hound]

Here are some pics I took this afternoon of her new home (when i should have been fixing the fence). My best friend was helping me

(well looking out for anything that might sneak up on me anyway)

A Cholla cactus, this one is about 10' tall!

Not sure what this is called but it's pretty

The sunset tonight

 

[Cowgirl71]

Wow! Beautiful pics! That sunset picture brings back memories... One of the few things I miss about Nevada. I've been through New Mexico several times when we were moving here and I do remember it was very pretty country. I especially remember very red dirt. At the time my brothers and I were very interested in Billy the Kid so we detoured off the highway to stop at the Billy the Kid store.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that like Arabianequine said, calves can and will eat quite a lot. By the time they're two months old most calves can easily consume all the milk from one milk cow. They don't need all that milk, and can do fine on two bottles twice day with free choice hay and grain.