What We Feed Our Family Milk Cows

www.venisonfordinner.com

[@kristimckeon6967]

We are working on getting our barn and water collection set up for a family milk cow. This was very helpful and you are super relatable, like your whole setup is very real for the common person without a ton of money. Thank you for sharing 💕

[@VenisonforDinner]

Glad it was helpful!

[@PromisedJubilee]

I just wanted to say, you're a natural at this KZbin thing, I love your channel and I hope you're really successful at this!

[@VenisonforDinner]

Thank you so much!! You are so kind

[@parizatsadyr1945]

Wow, Mossy is so calm. You're lucky to have a cooperative milk cow like her.

[@VenisonforDinner]

She is such a good cow, so easy to work with!

[@hannahc1708]

Rough start with the moods 🤣🤣🤣 totally feel ya. !!!

[@johnfarmer1691]

your very patient well done

[@CarisaRae]

I love this ❤

[@leighm4912]

I love this.

[@chaparra71]

Just a friendly FYI: When the lids are tight like that, give a few hard taps to the top of the lid and they usually open very easily. It’s something with the vacuum. I couldn’t handle leaving my milk exposed to the air like that, mine must ALWAYS be covered until time to strain 😆

[@sheilamclaughlin963]

lol, my mom had a fit when caught me swinging 2 1/2 gal of milk around and around over my head on the way to the house lol

[@kaykringle8241]

Momma doesn't go through all this effort for skim milk🤣🤣🤣 true that

[@luckysistersfarm5313]

Looks like very well balanced quarters.

[@VenisonforDinner]

Thank you!

[@parizatsadyr1945]

In my family's experience, calf sharing never worked. It was so frustrating and disappointing cause the both cows that we owned never let down for us and the creamline was almost nonexistent until we weaned their calves. Well, let down wasn't an only issue, weaning time was a disaster, the calves would try to jump the fence, nurse through the fence etc. And the most frustrating thing was that even after MONTH of full separation the huge "weaned" calves would still go straight for that udder the minute after reintroduction. So raising and keeping a replacement heifer wasn't an option. Honestly, all these things made keeping a back up "milker" and once-a-day milking not worth it. Btw I enjoyed your video) Thanks for sharing with us this valuable information.

[@VenisonforDinner]

We never liked calf sharing before! It was awful. It seems to be working with this heifer. She produces so little above what the calf takes, as well as has tiny teats that I decided to give it a try in my heavily pregnant state because I need whatever break I can get. We get a really decent creamline from Jessa!

[@kaykringle8241]

Machine milking helps

[@PanicInDucky]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Naughty cows/wieners. We only do calf sharing (or fostering with our milk cows). If our cows aren't letting down, I usually try milking with the calf in front the cow or if things are desperate put the calf on the back teats as I milk out the front. When it comes to fences, they really have to be calf proof before the calf arrives, once they learn they can push through it's virtually impossible to get them to stop. If a fence is busted and I don't have time to fix I'll tie the calf up on a long chain block the hole so the cow can't get in. W

[@thedelightfulcottage343]

Giving this another listen, I am considering beet pulp

[@ChefAprilKitchen]

❤️. ❤️. ❤️

[@chefevilee9377]

Serious question no judgment just curiosity. Why do you not use milking Machines? It just seems like it would make life so much easier?

[@VenisonforDinner]

Sometimes we do! With so many of us who can milk (4/7!) its faster to hand milk most of the time and we share the burden

[@rebekahleskiw7879]

Awesome cow. How many gallons do you get from them.

[@VenisonforDinner]

So much! Depends where they are in their lactations. Mossy gives anywhere from 3-7 gallons a day and Jessa is feeding a calf 2-3 gallons a day plus 1 for us.

[@kristenwillmarth8646]

Ok, can you explain more about the best pulp? I want to add nutrients (since its winter) to my cows diet. I'm American so what is cups beet per gallon water ratio for one cow? (Dumb it down for me girl. I'm also a noob).

[@VenisonforDinner]

Beet pulp is for carbs. I'm going to guess this is 4 cups beet pulp pellets to 1.5 gallons of water for one cow? Carbs are a good thing to have in winter; make sure your cows also have free choice salt lick and free choice loose minerals.We also prefer to feed silage/haylage over hay.

[@l2iowacowgirl893]

How much baking soda and minerals do you add to the grain? Do you add them every milking?

[@VenisonforDinner]

I use a big handful of baking soda and a small handful of minerals. But this is only if I'm not feeding a 'complete' dairy ration.

[@sarahs.4995]

I think the baby was repeating u “smell the jar” lol I think they wanted to smell the jar too

[@fromatrickle2673]

Though I was the only one that smells everything before using this even after washing it myself. 😂

[@VenisonforDinner]

hahaha

[@faithannlavalley7244]

Soooo jealous of Mossy's teat size!! My cow's are so much smaller...how many calves has she had? Also...can I help change the "herd-boss" by which cow I milk first?? Got a real brat of a "boss" right now...even though she is the smaller cow...

[@intentionalhomesteadingmi]

They are huge! 😅

[@VenisonforDinner]

I think herd dynamics help determine herd boss...we sold one cow and bought another and it went from Mossy being bottom to her being top. Mossy has had 3 calves, Jessas are muchhhh smaller and probably will never be as big as Mossys, there is some genetics to that. The most important part is that you are the true herd boss!

[@VenisonforDinner]

Do you remember Anabelle?? She had carrot teats...they were hard to milk because they were too big!!

[@alittlesouthwindfarm3074]

Do you do the beet pulp once or twice a day.

[@VenisonforDinner]

Once. Only the grain mix in evenings

[@alittlesouthwindfarm3074]

@@VenisonforDinner ok that's what I just started doing to help put weight on my Jersey. Thank you for the suggestion!

[@teresachavez8401]

a cow that milk is not called a heifer is that correct???? love your video

[@VenisonforDinner]

There is a debate about if a cow has had one calf it's called a "first calf heifer" or if the heifer is now just called a cow.

[@intentionalhomesteadingmi]

Jessa DGAF 🤣🤣

[@VenisonforDinner]

Pretty much

[@johnfarmer1691]

move south its to cold there

[@kaykringle8241]

Your kicking bar is too loose & doesn't seem to be high enough on the spine

[@simplynatural100]

You are feeding very little grain, the baking soda is really not essential for rumen health until you are feeding high grain ration - baking soda is fed as a buffer for rumen acidosis in high grain or high digestible diets You're girls are very very thin and you might want to double the grain ration. Obviously slowly to get their rumen bacteria to shift to kind you need for digesting grain. I used to feed a lot of pulp also ( never fed grain to dairy cows), but I decided I'd rather feed grain than gmo beet pulp - not sure why beet pulp is feed so much is" grassfed/ grain free" world when it's gmo. I've been breeding forgrain free cows for 22 years now - and I'm from british Columbia also but moved years ago). Good luck and definitely up their feed or you'll have breeding back issues and ketosis. I've had milk cows for 21 years now ( bringing in 15-20 gallons a day) and It's still learning experience. :)

[@VenisonforDinner]

We find if we dont feed baking soda, they end up with some grain in their poop and looser stools so it definitely helps them. We tried feeding other grain and no beet pulp and couldnt get them to gain weight. Mossy dropped a lot of weight right after calving and it took us a long time to get her back in good condition, we worked with dairy farmers around us to formulate what we fed, tried different things, and this is what ended up working. She looks awesome now, it just took time for her to put on weight.

[@iluvhorses1983]

New subscriber here! We are looking at getting a dairy cow. I’d love for you to check out my channel too!

[@sheilamclaughlin963]

If you milk both front teats first and both back ones they will run out at the same time, that is why u need to feed grain or the pulp while milking her as the treat will get her to go into the stantion better also gives her more to think about than milking, a rope in front of her bag and hips clinched tight will make her her stand still, that old hay isn’t very good incentive to do what u want them to do any way good luck with your endeavors

[@VenisonforDinner]

Thank you