How to Care for a Family Dairy Cow
Keep a Family unit Cow and Relish Delicious Milk, Foam, Cheese and More
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If y'all allow a calf to nurse instead of milking the cow twice a day, you'll salve fourth dimension on chores.
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Dominic Palumbo leads his family cows (a Normande and a Jersey-Angus cantankerous) to pasture near Sheffield, Mass.
Photo: JASON HOUSTON
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Cows eating a grass-based diet can provide great-tasting dairy products that are more nutritious and flavorful than those you lot tin can buy in most grocery stores.
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Dairy products from your own grass-fed cow are nutritious and tasty!
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Strain milk earlier cooling it.
JASON HOUSTON
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Milking can be a rhythmic, relaxing routine.
JASON HOUSTON
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A family dairy cow provides lots of practical benefits. Perhaps the nigh notable is that cows eating a grass-based diet can provide swell-tasting dairy products that are more nutritious and flavorful than those you tin buy in about grocery stores. Raising a family cow is a fun experience, plus it's a great pace toward cocky-sufficiency and food security. Surplus dairy products from the cow and meat from calves could even bring in extra income for your family. Keeping a homestead dairy cow is a big commitment though, so yous'll want to set advisedly.
The Daily Dairy Cow Routine
A cow produces milk in lodge to feed her dogie. After the cow has given birth, she must be milked (or her calf allowed to nurse) at least twice daily or the milk volition end flowing. Count on most nine to x months of milk production, allowing the moo-cow to residual at least ii months before a new calf is born. Your daily routine volition consist of feeding, milking twice a day, or milking in one case a day and separating the calf from the cow eight to 12 hours before yous milk. You lot will also need to muck out the milking expanse oftentimes and movement fences for rotational grazing equally needed.
Feeding. A dairy cow needs two main components in her diet to be healthy: roughage and protein. Roughage mainly consists of cellulose and can be supplied past pasture and various forms of hay. Expert grass hay and grass pasture can incorporate sufficient protein for animal maintenance, simply for a lactating dairy cow, higher protein feeds such as alfalfa hay, grass-legume pasture, or protein supplements will increase milk production. She'll also need a mineral supplement and salt, and a lactating cow tin can drink up to 30 gallons of h2o per mean solar day, so yous'll need to provide plenty of fresh water.
In winter when the pasture is sparse, skilful hay — and mayhap additional grain or premixed feed — will exist necessary. If you lot can feed leafy alfalfa hay (ii to 3 pounds per 100 pounds of body weight), this will be all she needs. Withal, if you want to increase the moo-cow'south milk product, feed a grain supplement in the form of chopped or ground oats, barley, corn, or wheat every day, regardless of season.
During the summer, the cow can go all the nutrients and protein she needs from grazing a lush pasture consisting of legumes and grasses. In many regions, a cow and dogie will need at to the lowest degree an acre of adept pasture. In regions with poor soil or piffling rain, 10 acres or more may be necessary to back up the pair.
Milking. Ideally, milking should exist timed at 12-hour intervals. A cow with a full, distended udder is non a happy cow; don't inflict this on her by milking erratically. With the family unit moo-cow, yous have the option of milking just one time a day by letting the calf help you lot out. Exit the calf with the cow overnight. Separate them in the morning, and by evening, the moo-cow will exist set for milking (this approach lets yous avoid early morn milkings if you accept an 8-to-five job). Using this system, the calf may nurse beyond normal weaning periods (virtually viii weeks for most dairy calves), and you won't need to mess around with the bottle feeding that would be required if you were milking twice a solar day and feeding some to the calf.
Dairy breeds tin can produce upward to 8 gallons per twenty-four hour period, although three gallons is more than typical for a family unit dairy cow on a grass-only diet. The calf merely needs about 5 quarts to 2 gallons per twenty-four hours if it has admission to good pasture every bit it grows. Y'all tin presume the calf will drink half the cow's daily production if you keep the two together almost 12 hours a day.
Washing the cow's udder before milking will assist relax her. Equipment (and your hands) should be scrupulously clean, too. Several books, websites, and online videos explicate the procedure of hand milking a moo-cow.
After you've got the milk in a bucket, you volition need to rapidly strain it to remove droppings and cool it to limit bacteria growth. To strain the milk, you can purchase a commercial milk strainer and paper filters, or pour the milk through four layers of dish towels or cheesecloth over a big colander and bowl.
If you prefer to pasteurize milk, practise this after straining, but before cooling. The easiest method is to employ a home milk-pasteurizer machine. These machines tin be purchased for about $300 for a 2-gallon unit. For an like shooting fish in a barrel stovetop method, read How do I pasteurize raw milk at dwelling house?
Breeding and Birth
Soon after giving birth to her first calf, your cow volition need to be bred. She volition "freshen" (accept a dogie and start producing milk) about nine and a half months from the date she "settles" (gets meaning); her second rut later on calving is an ideal time to brood her. For the strongest calves, time the nascency when spring pastures are lush. You will be milking (and her calf may be nursing) until the last two or three months before the moo-cow gives nascency. At that fourth dimension she'll need to be "dried up" (stop being milked) to allow her trunk to prepare for her new calf.
You don't demand to own a bull to breed your cow. Your options include taking your cow to a balderdash for breeding or bogus insemination (AI). The easiest method will undoubtedly be AI, unless your neighbour but happens to take a suitable bull and you can walk your cow over for a visit. You tin can rent an AI technician to do the task, or have a course and do it yourself. Another breeding option is to enhance or buy a yearling beef-breed bull and have it processed subsequently your moo-cow is bred.
If you intend to enhance your calf for beefiness, breed your cow to a smaller beef-type bull, such as an Angus. Either way, you'll want to select a bull that roughly matches the size of your moo-cow — anything larger and she may have problem birthing a large dogie. Dairy breeds unremarkably calve easily, but make sure you lot're prepared for bug.
If you want homegrown, grass-fed beefiness, you can raise the calf until it reaches appropriate slaughter weight (typically about 1,200 pounds, merely smaller if you adopt) at almost ii years old, and take it to a processor who will butcher and package the beef for y'all. You can likewise sell or requite abroad the dogie as a canteen baby for a local 4-H projection.
Fencing and Facilities
Although you could tether your cow to a stake and movement it daily, it's a bit risky for the cow. She could get tangled in the rope and be injured. If you can keep an centre on her nearly of the day while she's tethered, it might be worthwhile so you won't have to invest in fencing. Usually, building a perimeter fence is the all-time selection.
The best way to go along cattle on grass is with a rotational grazing system. This process involves dividing pastures into small paddocks and controlling the cow'southward admission to fresh grass, often using an electric fence that you lot move every few days. Lush grass grows back in the recently grazed pasture while the cow is grazing a fresh section.
For interior fences and paddock dividers, ane strand of electrified high-tensile wire works finer on cattle that are trained to respect electric fences. Merely if you programme to raise calves in those aforementioned paddocks, two or three wires will be more constructive.
Dairy cows require small shelter against common cold winds and pelting or snow. A elementary shelter can be synthetic from recycled materials such as old telephone poles, plywood and corrugated metal.
An outbuilding with a concrete floor that can be kept relatively clean and sanitary is ideal for milking. You lot tin halter and necktie your cow to a vertical mail if she's gentle, or utilize a stanchion to restrain her. Particularly gentle and experienced cows tin can exist milked continuing in the field.
Get Your Dairy Moo-cow
A cow of any skillful dual-purpose brood (Dexter, Ruby-red Poll, Milking Shorthorn, Randall Lineback or others) will produce a good beef calf, provide information technology with enough milk, and produce more than enough milk for most families' needs. Veterinarian D. Phillip Sponenberg says, "For domicile dairy employ, a number of the heritage breeds brand a lot of sense. They thrive on average pasture and produce plenty of milk for home apply, and owners with even a single cow can brand existent and important contributions to the conservation of these genetic treasures that we may well need for hereafter agronomical needs." (For more than on heritage-breed cows, check out the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.)
Ask around in your circle of rural friends, the local extension part or farm stores for advice on finding cows for sale in your area. Yous might find your cow or cow/calf pair at a local dairy farm, or check Craigslist. If you don't take feel with cattle, endeavour to buy an older cow with a placid nature.
If yous have a knowledgeable neighbor or friend, take her or him with you lot when looking at a cow that's for auction. Before buying, do a visual inspection and ask lots of questions: How old is she and how many seasons has she been milked? Has she been hand-milked or machine-milked? Do you have proof that the moo-cow is tuberculosis and brucellosis-free? Has she had calving problems? Does she accept any health or beliefs problems? If possible, milk her yourself or watch her beingness milked and examine the milk for signs of mastitis: stringy milk, clots or blood.
If you desire a particular brood, check the classified ads in rural-lifestyle and farming magazines, or go to that particular brood's association website and locate a breeder inside a reasonable distance.
Almanac Budget for Keeping a Family Cow
There are lots of variables in a upkeep for a family unit milk cow, but afterward you own the cow, take summer pasture, install the argue, and have basic equipment, the main price on an annual basis volition be for feed. Bull rental (or semen), vet bills, and supplements are also variable costs. But the one-year estimates below testify that keeping a cow can salve you money compared to buying milk and meat at retail prices.
You can "stockpile" some of the pasture, saving it for winter grazing, but to maintain wellness and production, you'll usually need to supplement the cow's diet with high-quality hay when grass isn't growing.
Calves raised for beef are usually slaughtered at about 2 years old when they're approaching one,200 pounds. Just you tin take reward of summertime pasture, and make or buy less hay, if you butcher the calf right before winter, when the calf is nigh a yr and a half old and probably near 700 pounds.
Cost of alfalfa hay: $810. Assumes 42.5 lbs. x 200 days; $190 per ton in small, square bales
Value of milk available for homo consumption: $3,000 to $5,215. 3.5 gal. x 270 days = 945 gal.; canteen-fed calf drinks 200 gallons in about two months before weaning; net 745 gal. at $7/gal., compares to premium, locally produced milk. Even with a more conservative $four/gal., the value of milk would be about $3,000. If you milk just once a solar day and allow the calf to nurse instead of feeding it with a bottle, the calf will beverage more milk daily and tin be weaned when information technology'southward 8 or nine months old. In this situation, you could expect most 470 gal. of milk for man consumption.
Value of grass-fed meat: $i,575. 700 lb. calf at eighteen months erstwhile, producing 350 pounds of meat at $4.50/lb.
Annual value: $3,765 to $5,980
— Troy Griepentrog
Dairy Cow Information and Resource
The Family unit Cow past Dirk van Loon; includes instructions and step-by-pace illustrations for manus milking a cow.
Getting Started with Beef and Dairy Cattle by Heather Smith Thomas
Pasture Perfect: The Far-Reaching Benefits of Choosing Meat, Eggs, and Dairy Products from Grass-Fed Animals by Jo Robinson
Dairy Heritage New and used dairy and cheese-making equipment.
Dallas Dome Dairy Dairy cattle and equipment for homesteads and farms.
Hoegger Goat Supply Habitation dairy and cheese-making equipment.
Portable Milkers Electric milking machines and dairy equipment for homesteads and pocket-size dairies.
Karen Kreb is a freelance writer, tv producer and farmer in Osage County, Kan. Read Karen'due south blog,My Dwelling house Farm.
Published on April 30, 2010
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