Training a heifer to milk
We have a Jersey heifer that calved about three weeks ago. I am having a terrible time milking her. She was so gentle that I free milk her, with only grain put in the manger and a little hay. Suddenly she is kicking every time I try to milk her, which usually ends up with a dirty foot in the milk pail. I have looked at her teats, they are not cracked. I keep my nails short and try to make sure my hands aren’t to rough. I pen the calf away from her at night and after milking her let him back out. I receive about ½ gallon of milk from her, but once he is let out she lets down a lot more milk, so I try to milk a teat while he is eating from the others. I have tried to tie her back leg to the stall, and she went crazy. She kicked and kicked until it came loose then she went up the wall and got stuck between the boards with her hooves. My husband had to loosen boards so we could get her out. I worked with her the whole time she was expecting, by pretend milking, brushing and consistent hands on training. I am a first time milker, as she is a first time being milked but I don’t think I am milking her wrong, as at first she was fine. She never kicks when I clean her udder before milking, but when she runs out of grain, that tail begins switching and she starts to kick. I am at wits end. My questions are: Do you know of anything I can do to prevent the kicking? Am I getting the normal amount of milk, or should I be getting more? What could be going wrong with her?
Mary Ann Nelson
Franklin, West Virginia
I hate to tell you but your heifer is training you. She wants all her milk to go to her calf and has figured out that if she kicks and creates a fuss, you’ll let her calf eat. It isn’t rough hands or nails or your milking technique. To stop this behavior, you’re going to have to take charge. To do this, take the calf away and bottle feed it from the mom’s milk after you’ve milked her. First of all, put her in a stanchion to milk her to contain her movements. This can be a regular dairy stanchion or one you build out of 2×4 lumber. To get her to stand still, here are a few things you can do: You can first try giving her more grain, even if it’s just oats, so she is eating while you milk. If that doesn’t do it, you can try hobbling her. I’ve stopped a lot of cows from kicking by making a lariat out of a length of soft nylon or poly ½-inch rope then slipping it in a figure 8 around her legs, just above her hocks. Either tie the end of the rope to a post behind her with a slip knot or, better yet, have your husband wrap it around the post and hold the end tightly. She may kick and swing around a little, getting used to the hobble but when she gets used to it, you will be able to milk without having her kick in the bucket. Then you can switch to just tying a shorter rope in a figure 8 around her hocks while you milk.
Another variation is to use the “Kick-Stop,” (http://www.enasco.com/product/C05300N ) which is a lightweight pipe frame that slips down over her back, along her sides, right in front of the hind legs. It puts pressure on the nerves in the upper back, making kicking nearly impossible. It does not hurt the cow a bit.
Once she learns that you are going to milk her, no matter what she does, she’ll learn to stand like a pro. I had a goat named Fawn who was a first freshener and the absolute worst milking goat in history. She kicked like a mule. She threw herself off the stanchion and tried to hang herself. She laid down when I tried to milk her. It took both Will and me to even catch her and lift her onto the milk stand. But I kept on milking. When she laid down, I milked her into a pop bottle, lying down. When she kicked, I deflected her kicks with my arm and kept milking. When she threw herself off the stand, I lifted her back up and returned to milking. She was like this for nearly a month. Then she suddenly quit. No more bad behavior. She turned out to be the best milker I ever owned! Who’d have thought? We called her our Rodeo Queen. The key is not to stop milking, no matter what. Hang in there and you’ll get her trained yet. — Jackie
Powdery mildew
My pumpkins, squash and cucumbers all took a hit from powdery mildew this summer. Any tips on how to combat this for my 2015 garden?
Katie Gilbert
Milo, Iowa
Powdery mildew is impossible to totally prevent but there’s a lot you can do to avoid taking a hit because of it. First off, if you remove all infected plants and vines from your garden and burn them, you’ll do a lot to head it off the next year. The spores are wintered over in dead plants and vines, spreading the infection in the next growing season. Do not compost the vines — if your compost pile is not hot enough, the spores will spread. Plant your vines where they get full sun and lots of air circulation, even if it means planting them farther apart. Water from drip lines or soaker hoses so the roots get moisture but not the leaves as dampness helps increase the fungus. You can try spraying your vines with a mixture of one part milk to 8 parts water. Many folks swear by this. Or spray with a mixture of 4 tsp. baking soda to a gallon of water, which raises the pH which weakens the spores. These sprays must be repeated after each rain. If you see the typical dusty white leaves of powdery mildew, cut them off right away and burn them. This won’t cure the disease but it will help retard the development and strength of the infection. Good luck this year. — Jackie
Ordering seeds
Can you send me the website to order your seeds. I thought I saved it, but, no … Also, I plant organic, so are there seed companies that you recommend, other than your seeds?
Melody from New York
Our website is seedtreasures.com. Some of our favorite seed companies are: Sand Hill Preservation Center, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, and Fedco Seeds.
I have also used the rope around the middle of the cow and right before the back legs usually right after they have first freshened and they are sore and full of edema. But I use the rope so that I can put on the back hobbles. My girl is wonderful but I don’t take a chance and always put the hobbles on especially during fly season. She is also in a stanchion that has her confined on all sides and a board is placed behind her. At times, if she is kicky I will milk from behind. Especially those short back tits, that are hard to find, depending on how she is standing. I feel safer milking from behind because on the left side is part of the stall wall and I can safely fall behind the wall if she ever got crazy. Which thankfully she never has. I would love to milk share with the calf but I keep hearing the issues with the cow not wanting to share with you and the lack of cream and chicken out.
Powdery mildew – I find that the best control is based on assuming that my plants are going to get it, and treating for it before the symptoms show up. The treatment should be re-applied frequently (every 3 to 7 days) depending on rainfall frequency, temperature and wind, because spores multiply very quickly. The other good control is to grow varieties that are not susceptible to it. Powdery mildew spores don’t need a water film to germinate but they do appreciate high humidity. Part of the treatment is not handling the leaves or walking through the plants, or letting your animals walk there, especially on a high humidity day. The spores blow on the wind and are almost certainly on the plants, whether you see symptoms or not. Anything brushing against the leaves will spread the spores. If you’ve had powdery mildew and not completely removed the plant litter you’ll almost certainly get it again as the spores overwinter. You can try a fungicide or sulfur spray before you set our plants as a preventive. As long as the plants have good air circulation and sun, some people feel that washing the leaves with water may help prevent infection because it washes the spores off. I’ve used the diluted milk and baking soda treatments and they did work, but have found that I get better and more certain control with a fungicide like Serenade. It is expensive, so buy a large bottle and dilute it yourself. But once plants show symptoms powdery mildew can’t be cured, only controlled.
I spent twenty years milking cows for a living so here is a couple of ideas on the kicking hieffer. Use a nose lead. The device has two balls that go in the nostrils and is attached to a rope. It won’t hurt her at all. Stretch her head out and tie it off. Keeps her mind on something else and you usually only have to do it a couple of times. The other method is to take a piece of rope with a loop in the end around the cow in front of her hind legs and udder. Slip the end through the loop, pull tight and tie with a slip knot. This works like the anti kick device Jackie desncribed. I personally do not like hobbles.
Howard
I loved your story about the Rodeo Queen. In addition to your Western series, I’ll bet you could write a humorist book on farm life too.
I liked how you got the cow to mind, sticking to your guns no matter what the cow did. If more people reared children that way, we would have better behaved children.
I’ve never milked a cow, but when I got a dairy goat some years ago, she decided she would be a “milk stand dancer.” Her breeder told me to just dump the bucket of milk on her head the next time she acted up. She became a perfect lady after that. I was in awe at how well it worked!
Comments are closed.