Mooing and jumping- advice please

[MichelleADK]

Hi everyone- this seems like a great place for a new homesteader. I have a female 2 year old Jersey. She is very calm and gentle but lately she has been running around the barnyard and jumping/bucking. Is this play? Also, she is a sole cow (lives with a horse) and constantly moos. Any advice on either? To stop her mooing, also the dangers of her bucking up (she does stop before she reaches me but what happens if she gets to close?) is it aggression? Loneliness? Normal? Thanks again

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Is she in heat?

 

[MichelleADK]

Not that I can see. No discharge. She has not bucked in heat prior.... Hmmmm

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

Wish I could give you some expert advice, but I am far from an expert. I can tell you that when we were down to 1 heifer and 1 steer, they would on occassion get all silly and start running, bucking and jumping. No mooing. It was mostly play.

This may be a silly question, but is there a chance your heifer is being stung by anything? The jumping and bucking, seems normal to me. The moo-ing ours don't do unless they feel that their hay is not of the amount they are accustomed to and they will start moo-ing, or when they see the grain buckets coming.

I hope someone will give you some good solid advice soon.

 

[MichelleADK]

No, this helps... Thank you. As long as its play and not distress or aggression. We have an AI appt next week, so hopefully she will have one of her own in 9 mos. I spend a lot of time with her, so any change in behavior makes me nervous. Thank you again. She is one spoiled moo, so I have been training myself to treat her more like a cow and less as a person. A lot of the mooing starts when I walk away.

 

[WildRoseBeef]

When did you detect she was last in heat?

 

[MichelleADK]

Hi- the 27th last month

 

[WildRoseBeef]

Hi- the 27th last month

Cattle will go into heat every 18 to 24 days (21 on average), which makes me thinks she's in heat, because it has been around 20 days since the last time she was in heat. But right now she could be going out of heat, as the heat period itself only lasts for 24 hours, not like the 2 to 3 days like with horses.

 

[violetsky888]

I have a jersery that is very vocal. She calls to calves if they move too slow to suit her, she moos when she is hungry, she moos when another cow moos. Just a chatty cow. She is also way more active than my beef cows and I believe she moves out fast enough to keep up with walking horses. I think jersery's have a lot more energy to burn than other cows. The first day I had her she jumped two fences agile as a deer with a full udder, very surprising ability and very enlightening. I will never underestimate what a cow can and will do! Maybe the weather is cooling off and you cow is just kicking up her heels for the heck of it. My beef cows get a little bouncy at feed time maybe maybe your cow is showing an exaggerated anticipation reaction.