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Dairy Cows

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Anonymous

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Good afternoon everyone. I'm trying what for me is a new experiment and may be needing some advice in the near future. Last year I got into a deal with a man on some dairy cattle and it turned a little screwy. He wanted to buy and sell dairy cows. He was the $$$ man and we had the land and would provide the labor. People would ask us about buying one so we gave them his #. Several people called us back saying he told them he didn't really want to sell at the time. Anyhow, time went along and we were out feed, grass and labor. I told him that he needed to provide a brand inspection as I was taking them to the sale. He ended up making me a deal that would square us up and I ended up with the cows and calves they had. I got pretty lucky because I was able to raise several calves off of them whcich made a little $$$. My problem is, I don't know squat about dairy. I've been dealing with a man from Lander who has sold me another heifer and has also been giving me advice. My trouble is I'm not exactly sure what questions to ask. At the moment I'm not milking the cows. I've been buying bums and grafting them on the cows and doing it that way. In the near future I plan on buying a milking machine so I can verify and regulate how much milk each calf gets. I'm shooting for about 10 head of cows that will be milking all of the time and have some dries also. If my math is right and I wean the calves at 3 months, I should be able to raise 8-10 per year per cow. Am I wrong. This is all new to me so any ideas or helpful hints would be appreciated. I'm not planning on getting out of ranching, but I have found that I like messing with these girls. Especially since I don't have to have that much land to raise a higher # of calves. Let me know your thoughts and the pitfalls. I'm also looking for a source for some good quality oat hay. Once again, thankyou for the help.
 
50 years ago I was involved in a family owned dairy- plus the beef cows.....We milked two times a day- and had no time to do anything else.....

My experience is if you can get clear title ( and under Wyoming law you should have the brand inspections) sell them all..... It ain't worth it.....
 
That's propbably good advice OT. Yeah, I got clear titles and all the paperwork. Believe ot or not, I kind of enjoy the few we have. I'd never want to do it instead of ranch though. The extra money they have brought in is sure nice. There is getting to be a demand for them around here
 
I'm not starting a dairy. Mastitis hasn't been a concern or a problem yet. The only reason I still have them is being able to raise extra calves. Also, ranchette owners are getting interested in them around here. Its just an extra income and hobby.
 
I didn't say you were starting a dairy. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

We milked a cow for years; I had a milk route...our really good
cow calved later than usual one year...calved in August. Darned
if she didn't get mastitis. She was really sick for awhile. We treated
her, but that's when we learned mastitis happens moreso when it's hot.
You said, "Let me know your thoughts and the pitfalls". :wink: That
was a pitfall for us. BTW, she was a shorthorn holsein cross and
was one good cow. Big and blue. Milk was excellent and she gave
alot of it.

We sold milk cows for awhile when we were in W. Montana.
I can still remember going right through downtown Missoula at
night with a load of milk cows! Oh, the things you do to stay
in the ranching business. :p :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
LOL. Sorry FH. So far I haven't had any trouble with them. There has been several people have asked about buying milk. They don't understand that its illegal to sell here and even if I did sell it, I would be open to all kinds of liability. I wish I could find a small feed mixer that mix the feed and hay with. All I've found are big ones. No luck finding one on the net. Being flat on my back has given me plenty of time to look.
 
I can't believe you will have much mastitis trouble especially if you are running 3 calves per cow. Nursing calves are the best mastitis treatment there is.Those calves will harvest a lot of milk out of those cows and you will keep them off the market .Get those cows vaccinated with a good e coli vaccine and you won't have toxic mastitis. My advice to you would be, do it till you no longer enjoy it.
 
One of my neighbors had a couple of boys that kept nurse cows. They did 4 or 8 calves per cow depending on how much milk she had. They made pretty good cash doing it, and one of them has graduated 2 years, and the he still has nurse cows and likes it. It is demanding time wise. Hadley often missed lots of things the other high school kids were doing because the nurse cows tied him down. He always had a little jingle in his pocket, too.
 
I was raised on a dairy, and had a dairy for several yrs also. We sold out and dad kept several cows for nurse cows, he raises anywhere from 2-4 calves per cow at a time depending on the cow and how much milk. cows get a mixed ration of feed from the feed mill and coastal hay. he just rotates the calves when they get big and goes again till they get about 7 months bred then turns them out till they calve. i would suggest not milking them and just putting four calves on for a time for them to get full then turning in a couple three little older ones that need less milk to clean up. friend of mine used to do that and had really good luck at it. milking them turns in to hassle, mastitus, cleaning equipment, etc just my two cents
 
I've thought of it but have'nt done it. I figure you have to do all you can to grow into the ranching business.You can't borrow your way to profit with beef cows. I build trailers to help pay the bills. I did'nt inherit so much as a claw hammer so everything's been worked for and alot of long tough hours doing it.I married well as my wife has a very good job and is very understanding of my dream. I've been buying some land now and it takes everybit of calf and cull money just to keep even so the trailers are our fun money which we don't waste either. We went to Billings Mt this past weekend left here saturday afternoon about 4 pm drove 1400 miles round trip and was home at 2 am early monday morning late sunday night. I had about 5 hours of sleep on that tripDelivered a new trailer unhooked and burned for home..Hard work will pay off it's hard taking advice from retired folks as they have a whole different perspective. I'd go for it until your sick of it. I sure as hell would'nt run up and down the highway going to sporting events spending all the ranch's assets in the name of fun thats just assine.
 
Well if crying and feeling sorry for yourself was a sport I know somebody would be a world champion. I doubt there were many of us inherited a ranch or started with a silver spoon I know I didn't. How anybody spends their time is really nobodys business to judge. You sound like a hard worker Dennis but trust me you aren't the only person whose put in a days work-worrying about others business is truly ASSININE. Bar Bar 2 if that is what you want to try I'd do it on a small scale and see how it works-if you can get by just using grafter calves that's even better-we used to raise a few bucket calves every year until our local dairy shut down. In fact my bro-in-law got his herd startyed that way-he's up to 250 pretty angusX cows now. I used to mow the ditches for him with a walk behind bolens two foot mower then fork it into windrows so he could borrow a baler and bale it. We used to put up a surprising amount of hay that way.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Well if crying and feeling sorry for yourself was a sport I know somebody would be a world champion. I doubt there were many of us inherited a ranch or started with a silver spoon I know I didn't. How anybody spends their time is really nobodys business to judge. You sound like a hard worker Dennis but trust me you aren't the only person whose put in a days work-worrying about others business is truly ASSININE. Bar Bar 2 if that is what you want to try I'd do it on a small scale and see how it works-if you can get by just using grafter calves that's even better-we used to raise a few bucket calves every year until our local dairy shut down. In fact my bro-in-law got his herd startyed that way-he's up to 250 pretty angusX cows now. I used to mow the ditches for him with a walk behind bolens two foot mower then fork it into windrows so he could borrow a baler and bale it. We used to put up a surprising amount of hay that way.
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You know you sure are a mouthy little runt must be your small man's attitude. Your damn lucky we were'nt closer you'd get schooled in a hurry. Why is it your the only judge and jury here. Your an arrogant lazy prick in my book. Maybe when thing's get tough and I can't afford to pay my way I could get some sponsor's.I'm not worried about other's just don't want these young guy's thinking you can play 3 days a week and have a viable ranch. You proved that does'nt work sitting on your bum watching the world go by get's you know where. You have a nice day there RUNT..
 

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