Nurse cow tips

[Farm Girl 1]

One heifer is bred to a red angus and according to the vet it will be a heifer calf. The other is bred to a holstein. the heifers will be kept in a pen behind our barn then in a small pasture with our horse. The pasture is right next to some other cattle so they shouldn't be lonely. One of the owners has them out on pasture but I don't know about the other. I do know that the one from a dairy already will go into a head feeder in a barn ( I saw it in the pics). I'm not planning on hand milking but because they are going to be nurse cows I will need to be able to easily touch their bags to help calves suck. I haven't seen them in person yet but in the pics they look good no visible sicknesses ( the owner lives 3 hours away so I'll only see them when they are delivered).

 

[Farm Girl 1]

Don't worry CowGirl71 you weren't bossy at all. I'm just really glad to get some info on nurse cows because it is pretty hard to find good info since nurse cows are uncommon

 

[Tuhmu]

Don't worry CowGirl71 you weren't bossy at all. I'm just really glad to get some info on nurse cows because it is pretty hard to find good info since nurse cows are uncommon

Agree 100% there is almost 0 info out there on the topic!

 

[Cowgirl71]

I've seen Holstein milk cows fed an all grass diet and no grain.  They don't look so good. They don't milk very well, either.  The owners thought they looked fine, though. If a dairy cow doesn't get adequate nutrition she will rob her own body so she can continue to make milk. If you want a milk cow that will do fairly well without grain, see if you can find a Milking Shorthorn.

Yes, I would not suggest doing 100% grassfed with a Holstein. For both beef and dairy, a small or medium size frame is best if you're doing grassfed. A large frame, especially a Holstein who also milks heavily, does not do well at all on 100% grass. She has about the same size mouth but her daily dietary requirements are far higher than that of a smaller cow, like a Jersey. A Holstein will not be able to consume enough every day to maintain her weight and produce a large amount of milk and so will get rundown and thin. Whereas a smaller cow has lower daily dietary requirements and so she has more extra calories to put towards meat or milk production. Now commercially, in a grainfed scenario, the Holstein will be more efficient at converting feed into milk than a Jersey. And a big frame steer, such as a Charolais or Simmental, will be more efficient at converting feed into beef than a small or medium size Angus steer. But if you put those same steers on 100% grass the Angus steer will do better, because he himself has lower daily requirements and so can put more excess calories towards increasing his body condition (aka beef).

This isn't hard and fast though. We've had big fat cows and the rare small skinny one. My guess is that it has to do with individual feed efficiency, but I don't know for sure. But overall, there is a definite trend that the smaller animals do better on just grass than the bigger frame animals.

I have actually looked at Milking Shorthorns. They're pricey buggers, if you can find one! But they are pretty, and I do like the dual-purpose-ness of the breed. Like you say, they do better on just grass. If I ever come across a reasonably priced good quality bull calf I'd definitely consider crossing him on my Jerseys.

My Jerseys are not skinny. In fact a cattle guy thought "Kylie," a 1st calf Jersey heifer, looked very pregnant today and she's barely 2 months along, LOL. And "Becky".... Gosh, I need to post a pic from behind her, my view when bringing her in to the barn to be milked. Her nick name could be "Butterball!" And her Jersey heifer calf looks almost like a beef calf, I'm excited to see how she'll do as a milker. Using this: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/dairy/facts/00-109.htm , all of my Jerseys get scores between 3 and 4, which is apparently perfect (except for Becky's calf, who is definitely a 5, LOL). In the past when I was giving them grain with milking they were 4s and 4.5s. Without the grain they have dropped a small amount of body condition but the most noticable thing is lower milk production. Just to be clear, they're not kept in a small weedy eaten-down-to-the-dirt pasture and expected to graze and thrive. There are several pastures that I rotate them through. When they're finished in a pasture ("finished" = grazed down to about 2" tall) they are moved to a fresh lush pasture that has been resting since they last grazed it, about a month or so prior. And when they're finished in that pasture I move them on to the next one, and so on and so on. It works pretty well.

 

[Farm Girl 1]

Do you want me to post pics of the Holsteins that I will be getting soon? To see if they are in good condition (I think they look good and healthy). But I might like some other opinions. Just say so if you want pics.

 

[Cowgirl71]

One heifer is bred to a red angus and according to the vet it will be a heifer calf. The other is bred to a holstein. the heifers will be kept in a pen behind our barn then in a small pasture with our horse. The pasture is right next to some other cattle so they shouldn't be lonely. One of the owners has them out on pasture but I don't know about the other. I do know that the one from a dairy already will go into a head feeder in a barn ( I saw it in the pics). I'm not planning on hand milking but because they are going to be nurse cows I will need to be able to easily touch their bags to help calves suck. I haven't seen them in person yet but in the pics they look good no visible sicknesses ( the owner lives 3 hours away so I'll only see them when they are delivered).

As you probably already know, Red Angus do tend to sire smaller calves and heifer calves are also usually smaller than bull calves, so that heifer should do just fine. Holsteins sire bigger calves, but Holstein heifers are generally pretty big too, so assuming yours isn't a runt she ought to do just fine. I think your plan of keeping them separate from the beef herd is a good one. Better safe than sorry.

Do you want me to post pics of the Holsteins that I will be getting soon? To see if they are in good condition (I think they look good and healthy). But I might like some other opinions. Just say so if you want pics.

Yes, pretty please!!!!

 

[Farm Girl 1]

This is the one from a farm (this is off the Kijiji add).

This is the one from the dairy. She is the one bred holstein. This pic was taken at their dairy as I am waiting for them to be delivered.

 

[Farm Girl 1]

What does everybody think?

 

[Cowgirl71]

They look good to me!

I love the facial marking on the black one, it's so unique!

 

[Tuhmu]

So jealous! I would love to have either one of those two!