The Milking Plan

Each cow that goes into milk is different.  So far we've had a few struggles with Maggie as she had ketosis.  I explained that in a previous posting.  We cleared that up by feeding her alfalfa and supplemented with some calcium carbonate.  In a few days - presto!  She was better.  We were fighting a concurrent problem with her in that she doesn't like us to be milking her and so she kicks.  Hard!  The Kow Kan't Kick apparatus, I'm pleased to report, works amazingly well and we've been able to begin to start milking her once a day in the afternoon when I get home from my "real job."

While we were working out the kinks, we were just feeding the rich milk to our chickens.  Boy, do they love it.  Egg production has doubled, although I can't attribute it solely to Maggie's milk in the diet.  The weather has gotten nicer with highs in the 80"s and lows in the 50's.  Ahhhhhh....  Anyway, we look forward to drinking Maggie's milk.

Things were going swimmingly until a few days ago.  We milk through a muslin rag that acts as a filter to catch any cow hair, mosquitoes, etc. that might otherwise fall in the milk.  I normally squirt the first few squirts out of each teat on the ground to clear out the plug and any bacteria and then start milking into the milk bucket covered with the 'filter.'  I noticed that there was a little plug of milky-like substance that the rag caught when I first milked the back teat on the right hand side.  This is an indication of the beginning of mastitis.

Not a huge deal, but one that you want to stay on top of.  We don't like to use antibiotics on our animals, so the protocol we use is to ensure that Maggie is milked out.  I think that the problem was that we were milking once a day and leaving Lili on her for the rest of the time.  At this age Lili is just too small to empty her.  In other words, Maggie is making too much milk for her to handle right now.  So we began to milk Maggie out twice a day AND leaving Lili on her as well.  We also went back to feeding the milk to the laying hens.  They're not complaining!  In only two days, the milk cleared, letting us know that we caught it in time and our diagnosis and treatment worked.  Sometimes things work out.

I walked up on the cows and thought this would be a nice Mother/Daughter photograph, except for the fact that Lili wasn't cooperating and proceeded to life her tail and pee.  Cows have no modesty, I tell you!

Not a flattering pose, Lili!

Just yesterday, we put Maggie on the regular milking plan which goes like this:  We wake up at 5:15 and trudge out to the barn.  Lili (Maggie's calf) and Bully (Daisy's calf) have been separated from their momma's since the previous afternoon, so Maggie and Daisy will be full of milk.  Here is little Lili in her stall where we lock her up away from her Momma for the night.  

Solitary Confinement

Doesn't she look sad?

I'm so lonely sitting here in the dark.

The first several nights that we separated Lili from Maggie, Maggie mooed and mooed all night long - and then mooed some more.  Tricia said, "Kyle, I bet the neighbors absolutely hate us."  Tricia got up a few times in the middle of the night to go let Maggie get close to Lili to give the neighborhood some peace and quiet.  I got up once, I think.  I sleep hard and Maggie's mooing doesn't wake me up.

Back to the morning routine, we wash Maggie & Daisy and give them a little feed and milk them.  We also feed Rosie outside the barn.  She'll be calving in November, so we'll be milking her in a month or so.  Tricia then milks our Nubian Dairy goat, Nellie.

If we had bees, I'd say that we live in a land flowing with milk and honey.  I still think Our Maker's Acres Family Farm is like the Promised Land, but it is just a land flowing with milk!  We have a good friend who provides us with local honey, but it doesn't come off of our land.

Well, since the earlier photograph was ruined by Lili misbehaving, I figured I'd get a shot of her while she's on her best behaviour.  Here she is:  

Awwwww!  Look how cute!

She's about as cute as they come, resting in the grass.  That is a really moooo-ving picture.

Difficulties milking Maggie

We're having a few problems milking Maggie.  First, she moves her feet around a lot.  This presents problems as she inevitably kicks the bucket of milk.  Then she'll move her feet close together and it is next to impossible to get your hands on her teats to milk them.  If you try to pull her legs out, she kicks.

Maggie is making things difficult

We tried to hobble one of her back legs like we do when we milk Daisy and Rosie, but she was having none of that.  She went absolutely berserk.  We took the hobble off before she hurt herself or us.  We're going to order the following contraption from a Jeffers catalog.  It is called Kow Kan't Kick, and is designed to clip over the cow's back and crank tight to control the muscles that control kicking.

Kow Kan't Kick

Problem #2.  Her back teats are very, very small.  They are so small that you can't get your hands around them to milk.  What you have to do is 'strip' the milk out using your thumb and index finger.  This characteristic is intentionally bred into animals as short teats are a positive attribute in commercial dairy cows as they use mechanical milking as opposed to hand milking like we do.  Short teats fit more easily into the milking cups.  They don't fit in my hands, though, and this increases the time of milking considerably.

Short teats in the back

The final problem is that Maggie is has Ketosis.  This is also called Acetonaemia.  It is appropriately named because her breath and her milk smells like acetone (nail polish remover).  This is a common problem with milk cows and is due to a lack of  glucose (sugar) in the blood and tissues.  Glucose is produced by the cow from carbohydrates eaten from the pasture.

In the last trimester, glucose is shifted toward producing the calf.  Once born, lactation starts and glucose is needed for producing milk sugars and fats.  This draw on the animal's stores of glucose is such that the cow becomes hypoglycaemic (low blood sugar).  If the carbs are not adequate in the animal's diet to meet the glucose needs, the cow will start to rob glucose from their bodies' stores of fat.

We're treating her by feeding her extra carbs, giving her extra hay, alfalfa, and feed.  We'll watch her closely and if she doesn't improve, we'll give her a series of Propylene Glycol drenches.  Maggie's mother, Rosie was also susceptible to this every time she calved.  One of the things that can also cause this is if the cow is overweight at the time of calving.  Maggie was fat, but not overly fat.  Maybe I'm just biased, though.

Ketotic Milk

Meanwhile the milk she produces has to be discarded.  It is not dangerous to drink this milk.  It just has an unpleasant odor and taste.  (The chickens don't seem to mind it, though.)  Maggie's making things difficult, but that is just one of those things.  We'll keep our eyes on her closely.