Jersey cow supplemental feed question

[istareatsquirrels]

Hello and from Va . Sorry to not get right back to your questions, it has been a very busy and tiring couple of days.
I don't think I am an expert, but I have a few years and cows "under my belt" so to speak.

Re reading your thread, I have to totally agree with @Alaskan as far as not changing from what the previous person was doing for the immediate future. ,
You say she is small size wise.... but small in comparison to what? Jerseys as a whole are getting bigger, too big in my opinion; in order to compete in the commercial dairy world. Since I work in the dairy industry, I can understand it to a point... but doesn't mean I think it is all good.
A normal sized jersey cow, should weigh in the 800-1000 range overall. They are the most "delicate looking" but are not frail cattle. Their angular build is common to all dairy cattle, and will look "thin " to someone who is used to beef breeds of cattle.
Since you have never had a cow, I hope this family member is willing to mentor you a bit.
I have several that I have used for milk for the house, and have used as nurse cows to raise calves on. They will feed 3-4 calves.... their own and then others I foster/graft on to them to feed. I am assuming that is what was meant by her being a nanny cow.
1 acre is not going to supply much of the requirements for the cow unless you can split it into a couple of smaller paddocks to rotational graze her. It'll be great in the spring when growth is fast and lush, but that will be offset by the animals getting more "water" from the grass, than just nutrition.
I keep hay in front of my animals... a good grass hay.... orchard grass, timothy, or something similar. You need to find out what she has been getting fed. I am not familiar with the different kinds of grasses grown in Tx as it is alot hotter with alot less winter than we have here in Va. We probably have alot more rain more evenly spread out over the year. In the summer if the pastures have good growth, they don't eat much or any hay. If they are dry, then they don't need supplementation. If they are lactating (milking) then they need more nutrition if you want decent production.
Find out what she was getting fed, and what they did as far as when she was in milk. Work from that as a starting point.
I will be glad to try to help.
For an example.....I feed about 1/2 of a 5 gallon bucket (approx 10 lbs ) of a 16% grain, when my jerseys are fresh. That is when they come in the barn to be milked OR when they have calves on them. I raise from 2 -4 calves at a time on them....depending on how good a producer she is...... and that is in the neighborhood of 1/2 to 2 gallons of milk per calf , per day. But they suck the cow any time as they will run with her once they are grafted on her. I also feed 1-2 flakes (sections) of a sq bale of hay while she is eating in the barn. It will take her about 1/2 to one hour to clean it up. Then she will have free choice grass hay available or if the pasture/grazing is good, then free access to grazing. They are always allowed out to graze but from Nov to Mar the pastures/grasses are not always available. If we stock pile (save back) some pasture that has not been grazed for 30-60 days before a frost, they can get alot out of that stockpiled forage. That is where rotational grazing come in. And you don't need to think that you need to be an expert to do it. Just section some off so they cannot get to all the pasture to graze it. Let them have smaller areas at a time so they eat more of it and not eat their favorite grass and let the other get too mature.
There are lots of websites and books that explain it.
But in essence,,,,, split the available area into say 4 sections.... let them have 1 section for a week at a time..... then move to the next section. by the end of 4 weeks, they will be back to the first section and it will have regrown some nice tender grass to regraze. It will not provide all their needs by a long shot.... but you can maybe get the gist of what I am trying to say.
It also helps with parasites in their system.... to get them off the "same patch" of grass all the time.... keeps them from overgrazing their favorite grass which will die off if grazed down to the roots, and the weeds will grow and shade out the ground so then you are perpetuating the weeds and "junk" rather than improving the area.....
If you cut your lawn regularly, it will look nicer and the better grass will grow.... if you cut it once a month, the weeds will grow faster, shade out the nice grass, and reseed back to make more weeds. Same very basic principals or rotational grazing. They will eat "all the grass" if it is young and tender... even some of the weeds, if they aren't old and tough....
Hope this gives you a starting point.... ask away... I will try to help.

Wow thank you SO much. That is a very helpful past and I appreciate you taking your time to help me.
When I say she’s small, I mean she is estimated to be 800Ibs. And yes, by a nanny cow I mean she takes care of any calves left without a mom or whatever the situation may be.
I plan on asking my grandad what she is currently eating so I don’t upset her routine. I also do plan on doing rotational grazing, and I believe I have access to more than just my 1 acre area. Cutting back grass before the last frost is an excellent idea and I never would have thought of that!!
It may not be available here but what brand of feed do you use? I’d just help to have a baseline of what I should look for. When you say you give her 1-2 flakes of a square bale, is that different than grass hay? This is probably a dumb question, I’m sorry haha
Thanks for your advice, I really appreciate it.

 

[Baymule]

Square bales can be any type of grass. A flake is a section of the square bale of hay. Cut the hay string and you’ll see what we mean. There are no dumb questions. If you don’t know, you don’t know, so feel free to ask.

 

[farmerjan]

@Baymule answered the "flake" or section.... different parts of the country call it different things. The reason that when you cut the strings and it comes off in "sections" is because when a sq baler is baling the hay; there is a set of "pick up tines" in the front that catches the hay and picks it up... it is fed back into a chamber with a "plunger" that sweeps it back and it is cut off and stuffed in... kinda like taking an armful of hay, squishing it, compressing it into a flat section and then doing the same with another armful of hay.... stacked up against each other. If you do a search... duckduckgo or any others....on square baling hay.... you can see some examples of it. We call them both flakes and sections here....Most sq bales in this area.... which are really rectangular... weigh in the 50-60 lb size more or less.... can be as big as 125 lbs.... but they are called sq bales. Then there are the "big squares" they are like 3x4x7 and weigh like 5-600lbs and the 4x4x8's that weigh upwards of 1000 lbs. Some parts of the country the big squares are popular... some farms do that here. We do small squares, and big round bales... they are 4x5 or 5x5's and weigh 800 to 1200 lbs. Depends on the make of the baler and how tight they are rolled.

My feed comes from a local mill, a custom ration of 16% "sweet feed" ... It is called a calf ration, but it has mostly whole grains as opposed to a ration that has alot of grain byproducts. I have used Blue Seal feed and Purina Feed. I also have used some of Tractor supply's feed but not as keen on that. I prefer a sweet feed as opposed to just a straight pellet... but we do feed a custom 17% stocker pellet from this same mill to our 500 lb feeder calves that we wean off our beef cows. If you have a local feed mill, I would suggest talking to them. We buy our feed by the ton and get it delivered in bulk to put in big feed bins because we use quite a bit... but any of it can be bought in bags as the standard mixes that the mills make. I have some extra stuff put in the custom mixes we get.....
The thing is to stay with what she is used to, and then if you decide to change, do it gradually over a week or so.....

 

[Ridgetop]

When is your new jersey due to calve? Or you milking her? If you can find a small calf and she is far off from calving, and used to being a nurse cow, you could try putting another calf on her now if you don't want to milk or dry her up. Farmerjan wil be able to tell you how to graft on a calf. If she is close to calving, you might want to just dry her up to save on feed costs until she calves again. A pregnant lactating animal takes more nutrients than a dry animal, a pregnant dry animal, or a non-pregnant lactating animal. Since it is winter and you don't have much grazing for her, you might want to save on the feed costs until she calves.

DS3 had a lovely little Jersey that he raised as a replacement heifer. She was small, registered, and a lot of fun. I love their sweet dish faces. Although I understand that Jersey bulls are the meanest bulls of all.

 

[farmerjan]

Where is this poster?????? Any updates???

 

[Cecilia's-herd]

A family member is gifting me a pregnant, lactating Jersey cow that is very small and I’m having a hard time figuring out how much supplemental feed I’ll need for her. I’ve never had a cow, let alone milked one. We have about an acre of grazing space but how much hay/feed should I expect to buy for her monthly? We’re in central Texas and have tall grass. Any other advice is appreciated!!

You should check out @Blumefamilyfarms on Instagram, Joni is the best!