Does anyone have a milk cow?

[galadole]

I have a Milk Cow and Chickens

I love these kinds of threads! I actually own my own Jersey Milk cow, and I milk her daily. Jersey’s have a HIGH percentage of butter fat, and her milk and cream are delicious. I have owned her for about 4 years, and I would never buy from the store again. My whole family drinks “raw” milk, and we have never been sick. Infact, I attribute raw milk to boosting my families immune system. We are never sick. (knock on wood.) I make butter, whipped cream, ice-cream, and cheese. I sell my raw milk for $6.00 per gallon. My cow gives 4 gallons of milk per day. She’s very sweet, and much smarter than one might think a cow to be. It’s a lot of work, but I’m a farm-girl and love it. We also sell organic free-range eggs for $5 per/doz. You would never believe the difference in the taste, and color of the yolk of the free-range eggs compared to the store-bought. As you can tell, I’m a farm nut! Nothing like knowing where your food comes from.

[tikidoc]

I’m with you, OGP. We process ours similarly. The taste is far, far better than anything in the store. And goat milk makes a fantastic, creamy ice “cream”. We have one doe who should kid in the next week, and I can’t wait to have fresh milk again.

As an aside, there have been no deaths as a result of consumption of raw milk in the US in over 11 years. Less than 1% of cases of food poisoning in the US are attributed to dairy (raw or pasteurized).

For some perspective, in that same 11 years, there have been about 4,873,000 deaths in the US due to cigarettes.

To the OP, I would consider a milk goat. Like I said before, I adore my LaManchas. They are medium sized, easy to handle, easy to milk, very sweet personalities, and produce more than enough for a typical family.

[SmartAlex]

[QUOTE=S1969;6190884]
Our family friends had a small dairy farm, and milking was a father/son job. The son would use one bucket of iodine solution to clean the udders for all the cows. Basically he stooped, swiped, next cow…stoop, swipe…next cow. That was all. :no: [/QUOTE]

That is standard procedure. There is commercial udder wash you buy, but you do scrape off the crud. Also, you had to shave the udders and the whole back half of the cow when they achieved their winter coats. Tails were tied to their leg, which is more for the convenince of the milker who wouldn’t want a face full of wet cow tail.

The milk house was washed down with hot lye water every day. The entire barn had to be white washed once a year. And of course there were vaccination records. I don’t remember the schedule the milk inspector was on, but there is a detailed inspection process, and despite being conscientious farmers, even when I was in grade school I picked up on the family tension when the inspector was due.

[SmartAlex]

[QUOTE=galadole;6190982]
My cow gives 4 gallons of milk per day. She’s very sweet, and much smarter than one might think a cow to be. It’s a lot of work, but I’m a farm-girl and love it. We also sell organic free-range eggs for $5 per/doz. You would never believe the difference in the taste, and color of the yolk of the free-range eggs compared to the store-bought.[/QUOTE]

We had a couple of Jerseys. They are very nice cows and a lot easier to deal with than big bossy Holsteins!

We’ve had our own eggs for years. Either my mother or I always have a flock. My husband is very perceptive about the taste of the eggs. He can even notice a difference when winter arrives and the free range hens get less greens than they normally would.

[rustbreeches]

Not going to comment on the raw milk thing, but for those interested in cheese making, consider Ayrshires. They have the highest cheese yield of any dairy breed, and are even friendlier than Jerseys.

As far as millk inspections, our milk is tested every day when it is picked up. It is further tested at whichever processing facility it ends up at. The cow comes in the barn, is sprayed with tit dip, wiped with a clean antimicrobial towel, and each quarter is stripped. This does two things, first it pulls anything out of each quarter and gives a chance for each milker to make sure there is no mastitis. Secondly, by starting the flow of milk before the claw is applied, we maximize cow comfort. The claw is then attached. We have an auto takeoff, so after each claw drops, the tits are treated with a post dip, as long as the weather is not too cold. Don’t want them to get frostbite!

Not only do we get paid bonuses for having a low somatic cell count, our co-op will dock people who have higher than acceptable SCCs. And if you have a problem and don’t address it and come in with consistently high plate counts and SCCs, you can get kicked out of the co-op. And they are the only one in our area, unless you are bottling your own.

As for the organic aspect, if you are comfortable letting an animal drown in the fluid in their own lungs, as opposed to pulling them from production and administering antibiotics for pneumonia, then keep on buying organic. That is what happens. They can’t legally treat a cow with anything in the event it comes down sick. Of course, that doesn’t stop the several thousand cow organic dairy based here in Northern Colorado. They were busted last year for antibiotics in their milk. They are not even supposed to have them on site, much less in their cows.

[ThisTooShallPass]

Edit: Oops, meant to start new thread about egg prices. Now done…

[OneGrayPony]

rustbreeches you guys sound like the good ones

I wouldn’t consider our milk nor eggs to be organic either. I deworm and use medications when indicated and necessary (and dump milk for the prescribed period of time plus 4 days, because I’m weird).

Our free range chickens are not fed a medicated feed, but I wouldn’t call them organic because our cracked corn (supplemental) isn’t.

I’m more interested in how they are handled and kept. I grew up near some of the cleanest dairies and some of the not so clean ones - its not an easy life and I think we need to support each other!

We also test, strip and teat dip!

[tikidoc]

Just out of curiosity, rustbreeches, can they just treat the cow and discard the milk until it has cleared from their system? Most antibiotics for cows say right on the bottle how long you should refrain from milking. Not being able to treat a sick animal seems nuts. I have a problem with animals being given antibiotics when they are not ill, but I have no issue with treating a sick animal and just not milking (or butchering it or whatever) until it has cleared.

[tikidoc]

[QUOTE=OneGrayPony;6191158]
rustbreeches you guys sound like the good ones

I wouldn’t consider our milk nor eggs to be organic either. I deworm and use medications when indicated and necessary (and dump milk for the prescribed period of time plus 4 days, because I’m weird).

Our free range chickens are not fed a medicated feed, but I wouldn’t call them organic because our cracked corn (supplemental) isn’t.

I’m more interested in how they are handled and kept. I grew up near some of the cleanest dairies and some of the not so clean ones - its not an easy life and I think we need to support each other!

We also test, strip and teat dip![/QUOTE]

We do things very similarly. I wish I could find a reasonably priced chicken feed that was not medicated. The only one available to us here is organic, and costs 4X what the regular feed costs (almost $1/lb). That said, we are currently building a moveable chicken tractor so they can get more of their diet from forage.

[Tapperjockey]

[QUOTE=tikidoc;6191167]
Just out of curiosity, rustbreeches, can they just treat the cow and discard the milk until it has cleared from their system? Most antibiotics for cows say right on the bottle how long you should refrain from milking. Not being able to treat a sick animal seems nuts. I have a problem with animals being given antibiotics when they are not ill, but I have no issue with treating a sick animal and just not milking (or butchering it or whatever) until it has cleared.[/QUOTE]

From what I understand, once a cow has had antibiotics, they are out. No matter how long it’s been.

[rustbreeches]

Unfortunately, once a cow has been treated with anitbiotics, it is no longer considered organic. If a calf needs any medication, it either receives it and is useless to the organic people, or doesn’t and makes it, or doesn’t survive, in order to stay organic.

Milk is the most closely regulated and inspected food product available. Honestly, some people are asshats and don’t care, but most of us get it. You take the best possible care of the cow because it is the right thing to do. In turn, the cows produce to their best ability, so we get rewarded for doing the right thing.

I do alot of speaking engagements, radio interviews etc and I always say the same thing. As a parent, I wish every child in the world had the same level of care as the average dairy cow. They are milked for a few minutes 3 times a day, have a wonderful soft, sandy bed, access to food that is decided by a nutritionist, and water 24 hours a day. We have the vet out every 2 weeks for routine checkups etc. Each cow gets her feet trimmed twice a year.

Some of our friends have those great misting systems in their freestalls and catch pens, to keep the cows cool. THey have amazing rotating back scratchers. It really is about keeping the cows at their most comfortable. I know every once in awhile a horrible video pops up, but just like the videos that show abuse in horses, they get more reaction and play than the vidoes of contented, well cared for cows.

We take dairying very seriously, because we aren’t just raising our children, we are helping raise your children, too!

[OneGrayPony]

Tikidoc do you have a mill nearby that can mill it for you? Our chickens are completely free range, get about 1/3 scoop cracked corn (more so that they stay still enough for us to do a head count each morning) + a handful of oyster shells, and then all the bugs they can eat! Oh, and kitchen scraps…which they adore!
Hopefully lots and lots of ticks this year LOL! They do also steal catfood and goat food sometimes…but we all try to prevent that!

[Northern_vermonter]

Milk cow

Absolutely you can have a milk cow . the quantity of milk you get can be controlled by what you feed the cow You can put as many calves on that you want but it is work. you don’t just put them all together as most cows will not accept calves that are not hers so you tie the cow up and let the calves loose. The first month after freshening is the the most management intensive where the cow can get very sick for different reasons. There is a lot of management to it but great if it works. grass is a necessity for the best milk. You can milk once a day also. Hope this helps.

[Tapperjockey]

[QUOTE=Northern vermonter;6191400]
Absolutely you can have a milk cow . the quantity of milk you get can be controlled by what you feed the cow You can put as many calves on that you want but it is work. you don’t just put them all together as most cows will not accept calves that are not hers so you tie the cow up and let the calves loose. The first month after freshening is the the most management intensive where the cow can get very sick for different reasons. There is a lot of management to it but great if it works. grass is a necessity for the best milk. You can milk once a day also. Hope this helps.[/QUOTE]

That’s still not going to help her if she doesn’t want to be confined to daily milking.

Goat, cow, sheep, or donkey… if you are milking an animal, you really need to do it daily.

[Ridge_Runner]

[QUOTE=tikidoc;6191181]
We do things very similarly. I wish I could find a reasonably priced chicken feed that was not medicated. The only one available to us here is organic, and costs 4X what the regular feed costs (almost $1/lb). That said, we are currently building a moveable chicken tractor so they can get more of their diet from forage.[/QUOTE]

Purina has several lines of chicken feed that are non medicated. Also Nutrena and Blue Seal have non medicated feeds. Countryside organics is in Stanton VA area and their feed is probably double what the non organic is going for unless you can buy in large quantities.

I’m not organic on any of my food animals. I like the principles of feeding them clean diets and I don’t use antibiotics or medicated feed unless I have a sick animal. Most people only object to low doses of antibiotics as used as a preventative and when you explain the difference, they get it. Organic programs are very restrictive on that sort of thing and it doesn’t fit for how I will take care of my stock.

[Bluey]

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