My husband and I are thinking about gettng a milk cow, in fact friends of ours have a milk cow and when she calfs if it is a female we are gonna buy it. Anyway my question is if we have a milk cow and we are milking her we have to go to NJ a few times a year to bring my daughter to her father and what do we do with the cow while we are gone??? It would be at least 1 1/2 days, 8 hours up sleep and 8 hours home. I really want to do this but I need to have some kind of game plan, Thank you for all your help this site is great!!

-- sonneyacres (jtgt12@ntelos.net), February 03, 2002

Answers

Response to Milking cow question......

It's a problem everyone with milk cows or goats go through! It is very wise of you to determine a plan before your purchase. Most people just jump into it and then worry about what to do...not a good idea!

You would have to have someone who could fill in for you while away. Could you maybe bargain with a neighbor for his milking your cow in exchange for the milk or maybe do an equal chore for him? How about a college student who needs to earn a few bucks? If the person you choose doesn't know how to milk you could have him come by for a couple of milkings first...it is easy to learn! Or if the cow will be with new calf you could just put the calf out with her for the day since it is only one day you will be gone. Don't try it for any longer than that...not good for either one of them.

-- Karen (mountains_mama@hotmail.com), February 03, 2002.

Response to Milking cow question......

You will have to find someone to milk her on or very close to her regular twice a day schedual, or she will become quite uncomfortable with the milk buildup from late milking. There is no way around twice a day milking, even going to a once day schedual will result in the loss of considerable milk flow that does not come back.

Having a milk cow is quite a responsibility, varying the schedual of milking, even for a few hours, will cause her undue pain and loss of milk. Great pain if she is a heavy milker.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), February 03, 2002.

1st, you probably know this but if you buy the heifer calf it will be about 2 years before you have any milk.

2nd - I guess we don't milk for volume but if it were us and we couldn't get someone to cover for us, we'd just milk her out really well before we go and then milk her right away when we get back (or do a 16 hour trip ). Another option is to leave the calf on her and that way if you have to do trips you don't have to worry about milking. Great to plan ahead and ask questions beforehand!

-- Trisha-MN (coldguinea@netscape.net), February 03, 2002.

When I was a teenager, the neighbors taught me how to milk their goats and they paid me a small fee to milk them (and feed their other animals) when they were gone... Any teenagers close enough by you could do the same with? Or perhaps a neice or nephew you could train and have house-sit?

Taunya

-- Taunya (thedbor@hotmail.com), February 03, 2002.

Some cows are the kind that will let any calf suck. Mine happens not to be one of those. It takes her six weeks to get used to a new calf. So if I'm going to take a trip, I have to plan ahead, and make sure she has a calf I can let run with her while I'm gone. Finding someone to feed my animals isn't a problem, but I know NO ONE who would come and milk my cow for me.

-- Lela R. Picking (stllwtrs55@aol.com), February 04, 2002.

One cannot probably look at a milk cow in isolation. In Farming for Self-Sufficiency, John and Sally Seymour have this to say about a milk cow:

“The cow should be absolutely central to the economy of a small holding. When you get a cow you immediately find the pace of all your other small holding activities will be forced on. To feed the cow you will have to grow fodder. To use up the manure from the cow you will have to dig or plough more land. To use up milk by- products, such as skimmed milk or whey, you will have to keep other small stock – probably pigs. Your pigs will then produce even more manure and you will feel like plowing more land. Besides, you will need to grow crops for the pigs. You will have calves to dispose of – what will you do with them? Your cow will go dry one day and you will need another cow to fill in the gap. Then the time comes when both cows are in milk. Unless you are part of a community you will then have too much milk. What do you do then – put the two calves on one cow and milk the other? Whatever you do you will find the purchase of a cow will push on the pace of your other self-supporting activities. It will save, at a stroke, possibly more money than anything else. Butter and cheese go up and up in price.

“But think hard about it. A cow is the biggest tie in the world. You will have to milk her twice a day and you will be very lucky to find somebody to stand in for you. Very few people in this world can milk. I would say that, unless you are fully at rare intervals when you can either get somebody else to look after your cow or else board her in their herd (‘meat for manners’ – in other words – they keep her and they get the milk), or unless you are part of a community, you should think loud and often before getting a cow.

“But a cow is a very gentle, beautiful creature, and you can get very fond of her and derive much enjoyment from he. And you and your children can also derive much help. We have never been without a cow, in milk, these last fifteen years.”

It should be noted the Seymour tried to be self-sufficient in everything so they had plenty of uses for excess milk.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 04, 2002.

P.S

If you buy a calf, it will be about two years before she can calf. You have the expense of raising her until then above the purchase cost. You will have the expense of purchased feed (to maintain milk production) plus winter hay. Say she will consume a ton of hay during the winter months, a square bales weighs 50 pounds, and good quality sells for $4.00 per bale. That's another $200 bucks there. Then, how are you going to get her bred initially and each year to keep her in milk production. Do you have enough pasture to keep her on?

Why not just buy the milk you need from your friend at a fair price?

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 04, 2002.

You should also check out the (just) earlier thread titled "Alternative Milking Schedules (Cattle - Dairy)". For a family, it's worth thinking about. Doesn't maximise milk production, and hence income (in fact there's no aim for income at all other than from sale of calves); but it may well be getting an optimax when considering savings and convenience.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), February 06, 2002.