swiss.susan
Chillin' with the herd
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- May 20, 2012
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Hello all...hoping to get some advice and encouragement. I bred and showed Nubians for about 15 years and sold my herd so I could concentrate on my Brown Swiss herd. I am knowledgeable about udders and milking as far as goats, wondering how much is similaar to cows? I am milking my first Brown Swiss, she just freshened on the 16th with a wonderful little heifer. First calf. Teaching her to milk to trying my patience, much as it did with first freshening goats. She doesn't kick at me by any means but she constanly tries to knock me off as if she were kicking a calf off of her. I know it's only been a few days, 4 to be exact but I'm feeling pretty discouraged. I know this is all new to her and she may be sore, I am feeling some edema and that's something I was wondering about how alike cow udders are to goats. Sometimes a doe would freshen with some edema and it just took it a week or so to go away. (?) About how long am I looking at for her to settle down and accept the milking? She doesn't seem to be distressed, she eats her grain calmly and I can hear her rumen rumbling the way it should be. She just isn't comfortable being milked. She is such a large beast compared to the goats and I thought "if I can milk 28 goats twice a day for 15 years I can milk a cow"
wrong, totally different. At least she is easy to milk, easy let down and large orifices....I am getting around 3 gal out of her , is that about on track for a first freshener? In goats, it takes about 4-6 weeks for a first freshener to really develop that udder and come into milk, same or different? I have 4 more heifers due to calve soon and so can make comparisons...real hard to do with just one. Any thoughts or encouragement would be much appreciated~!
