Nurse Cows

[Tuhmu]

If stars would align, it would be great to start with a cow like I previously mentioned, where she knew this routine already. Then have her ai'ed to a jersey, and pray that I get a heifer. Then work with the heifer, having her bottle fed so that she would also be an easy cow to work with. But then again, you knows weather or not she would take additional calves. After the cows first calf, assuming its a heifer, I would just take her for a visit down the road to the resident angus/gelvieh bulls. But of course, things never work out that perfect in the animal world lol.

 

[donrae]

Look for a cow that's already proven to be a good nurse cow. I see them on my local craigslist--not a lot, but often enough they're out there. Seems like $1200-1800 is the range for a proven Jersey nurse cow around here, one that will handle 3 calves. That seems to be the common number folks put on a Jersey around here. I remember my Mom telling me about grafting calves on to cows when she was younger, she said often it was a matter of tying the cow up, graining her for distraction and having her natural calf and the other calves all nurse together. Some cows just won't accept other babies, but lots are so maternal they'll let any calf nurse. I see one lady on my local CL who had been doing this for a few years--I don't know if she's using the same cows or not. She lets the nurse cow raise the steer calves to weaning--6 months-- and then sells the calves for someone else to finish out. Only ad I could find for her right now is selling piglets that were also fed jersey milk.

4 yr milk cow w/bull calf - $800 (Oregon)

Lilly is a 4yr Jersey cow being used as a nurse cow but can be milked by hand. She ties good and doesn't fight the calves. She comes with a 2 week old JerseyXHolstein bull calf. If your interested in another calf or delivery they are available.$800

This is just one ad found on a quick search on Craigslist. I would love to have enough space to have a milk cow, I'd do just as you're talking about. Now way I could use all the milk from a good jersey, but I'd eat all the beef she could help me raise, plus sell a few steer calves along the way.

 

[Tuhmu]

I've just completed the outside of my pole barn, after years of planning it, and I made sure that I left a space to have a stall to have a cow in. I've always wanted to have a family cow, except that i'm missing the family part, and there is no way I would ever be able to come close to drinking all the milk one would produce. This just seems like a great option, one that SHOULD be profitable. For as long as I've been planning on my own little farm, a cow has been in the plans. I've only been on my own place for a little over a year and had to start from the ground up, so of course getting the larger livestock plans have been put on the back burner till now! yay! Next summer, once when all the excitement of 13 goats having kids and all the chickens I plan on hatching has ebbed down a bit, i'm going to start really looking. We have this website for north Dakota called bisman, that's a lot like cragslist and I see nurse cows on there all the time. just need the right one to be on there.

 

[learycow]

Dairy cows are slightly different than beef animals.
As far as making $ off them goes, that's not true unless you make your own feed and don't have to buy much. Otherwise you will spend more on grain feeding just to get them to produce.

Jerseys are good cows. They are small, fairly efficient and won't eat as much as a holstein. You can expect (this is a good quality cow on 18-20% protein grain daily) about 4-6 gallons a day, obviously less as she gets milked out and closer to drying up.
You could go with a brown swiss or guernsey, but they are bigger animals and less efficient at converting feed to milk.
Dexters and mini jerseys tend to be popular, but they give much less milk.

Keep in mind that the cow will only continue to produce if you breed her back and calve her in annually. You don't want too many calves on her otherwise you will 1. not have enough extra for your family, or 2. the calves won't get enough to grow and stay healthy.
Figure that each calf will eat 2-4 gallons each per day (depending on the breed and age of the calf). They should have milk for at least 3 months, but if you are raising them for beef you can keep them on her as long as you want (up to 6-9 months, I wouldn't let them any longer) as they will grow better and faster on milk vs milk replacer.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like. I was born and raised on a small dairy farm in Maine and run my parents farm right now. I am currently building a barn and calving in my own herd of Normandes and doing what you are explaining but on a larger scale (15-20 milk cows, calves for replacements and beef, make my own products and keep cows as nurse cows so I don't have to buy milk replacer for calves)