Milk Cow issues

We have a 6 year old Brown Swiss with a little Jersey. She has had 3 calves but missed being bred this year after a failed attempt at AI. Every since we bought this animal she has had an issue with dropping her milk and the older she gets the worse it gets. Currently we are allowing a calf to suck on one side while a person milks the other side. In the evenings you just can't get her to drop her milk even while you massage one side and the calf nurses on the other. She might give a quart of milk at night. In the mornings if you let the calf suck for a while then you milk and massage her bag on the other she might "drop" and give a good half gallon on side while the calf sucks her out on the other. Some times in the morning she flat won't "drop" her milk either and you get a quart or less. If she does this on one morning the next morning she'll have so much milk its dripping and you'll a full gallon or more on just one side of her bag then you'll have to milk out the other side the calf sucked on because he'll get full.

The milk she gives is "sweet" and is usually about 1/3 to 1/4 cream. I don't think she has mastitis as her bag isn't hard, and there hasn't been any curdled or clotted milk.

After her first calf I noticed she wouldn't drop her milk unless you really worked at and had her calf in the pen when you were milking. Sometimes she gave it up easy with calf nudging her other times you'd spend 10-15 minutes massaging and coaxing her befor it would "drop". With each calf she has gotten worse.

What's the issue here? As she has gotten older she has gotten more cranky and she really dislikes the calf we are trying to force her to adopt (refuses to let him suck unless she has a pan of grain in front of her). I'm ready to just send her down the road and start over with another cow but she has had some really nice calves when bred to an Angus.

You might have to get the vet to sell you some oxytocin. I had one here that absolutely would not let down without a shot of it. I had her down to a half cc,tried just sticking her with the needle without giving her anything. It didn't work. Even at such a low dose she'd let down so the milk was running right out of her in about 30 seconds.

Life is too short , and cows too cheap to fight with this old cow. Ship her , and find a replacement. Maybe a nice Jersey.

(quoted from post at 11:30:25 03/25/16) Life is too short , and cows too cheap to fight with this old cow. Ship her , and find a replacement. Maybe a nice Jersey.

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DITTO what Bruce stated!!!!

Now we got "drug addict" cows? Makes me glad that I'm allergic to milk.

part with her --- as stated life is too short.

They produce it naturally. Even women do. Hope that don't mean you've sworn off women. lol

Since the wife is the one attached to the cow getting rid of both might solve a bunch of problems.......

(quoted from post at 12:37:36 03/25/16) Since the wife is the one attached to the cow getting rid of both might solve a bunch of problems.......

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The story of most of our lives...

Now you just reminded me of this one.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The only cow in a small town in Texas stopped giving milk.

The people did some research and found they could buy a super milk cow up in Antigo, Wisconsin, for $2,000.00.

They bought the cow from Wisconsin and the cow was wonderful. It produced lots of milk all of the time, and the people were pleased and very happy. They decided to acquire a bull to mate with the cow and produce more cows like it. They would never have to worry about their milk supply again.

They bought a bull and put it in the pasture with their beloved cow.

However, whenever the bull came close to the cow, the cow would move away. No matter what approach the bull tried, the cow would move away from the bull and he could not succeed in his quest. The people were very upset and decided to ask the Vet, who was very wise, what to do.

They told the Vet what was happening. "Whenever the bull approaches our cow, she moves away. If he approaches from the back, she moves forward. When he approaches her from the front, she backs off.
An approach from the side and she walks away to the other side."

The Vet thinks about this for a minute and asked, "Did you buy this cow in Wisconsin?"

The people were dumbfounded, since they had never mentioned where they bought the cow. "You are truly a wise Vet," they said. "How did you know we got the cow in Wisconsin?"

The Vet replied with a distant look in his eye, "My wife is from Wisconsin."

Ha ha.


Good one.

The issue is, she's a Brown Swiss. They invented stubborn. I USED to have some. Just Holsteins now.

I resemble that remark. (;>))

Around here they sell that kind of cow every Thursday and Saturday.