Jersey Cow needs to gain weight, what should I feed her?

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I bought a Jersey cow from a local dairy farmer. She had just calved about 2 weeks before. The poor thing is so laid back that she would not fight for her fair share of the feed ( all winter long I supose ) and is now very skinny. This is what I am doing, I have worked her up to three of the 2 pound cof cans of dairy mash and 4 scoops of calf mana twice a day. The calf mana is double the amount that a lact. dairy animal should get and the vet said to work her up to that amount but no more. He said to continue to increase her grain but she will not eat anymore than what I am giving her. We wormed her about 2 weeks ago. It was mentioned to me about giving her some oil on her food to help boost cal intake. Another person mentioned giving her garlic to boost hunger. And another person mentioned vit b shots to help ( she is NOT fond of shots!!! ) Any other ideas???? She is being milked twice a day, and when we got her, which was about a month and a half ago, she was giving about a gal and a half a day. She is up to three gal a day. I have thought about going to once a day milking, but she does not like me to even be late to the barn let alone miss a milking!!! She has been know to get out and come looking for me!!!

Thanks for your help! ( Sadie thanks you too!!)

-- Robin (frontzfarm@1st.net), June 16, 2001

Answers

Robin is she getting good quality pasture you might try letting her graze at night and put her in shade during day and give her good hay. If you have excess to whole cottonseed About 2 pounds a day. Adding yeast to her feed will also help. Corn oil does help. If you just wormed her two weeks ago it may take awile for her to recover if she was wormy. Some dairy cows just doin't get to fat for those that do they doin't get to stay around very long poor producers. Coaltrain

-- coaltrain (prairierose91@hotmail.com), June 16, 2001.

Robin, sounds like you are doing all the right things and it will just take time. My best milkers tend to be thinner than I like, increasing feed just seems to increase milk production, not put on the weight that I would like to see. I have top-dressed the feed with soybean oil, it helps with fat and protein content. Sounds like you have a nice little milker and she will slowly gain some weight over time.

-- diane (gardiacaprine@yahoo.com), June 16, 2001.

Robin Sounds like you have real good milk cow. They produce milk before body weight. Try( feed corn meal) for 30 to 50% of her grain ration. If she has a shinney coat and good appitite , you may have to change your mind as to what a good jersey milk cow should look like. Time and TLC. Good luck...Nathan

-- Nathan Harris Sr. (barnyard_mini@yahoo.com), June 16, 2001.

Thanks for all the help. She is still loosing her curly hair ( vet says a sure sign she had worms ) This is not my first Jersey cow. Just the first one that I have ever had that was soooo skiny! My first one died ( old age, she was really old when I got her ) the next one had a calf and then six weeks later a tree fell on her in a storm and she died. I raised her calf and she is now at the dairy farm visiting the bull. She is a very big Jersey, in fact she is a bit overweight, and that is just with hay and grass and very little grain.

-- Robin (frontzfarm@1st.net), June 16, 2001.

Well since you have had Jersey cows before you should know what they look like. However there are variations within the breed. Sort of like with people....some are naturally thinner than others. Now I'm not saying that she isn't underweight but just that she probably won't ever have much flesh to her. It sounds like you are doing everything possible to fatten her up but as stated earlier she is probably bred to produce milk before body weight. Extra feed probably means more milk production and slow body weight gain. She might actually do better with some really good quality hay(the best you can get) and cut back on the grain a bit. Don't skip milkings. However you might want to try drying her up a bit earlier than you normally would(say a month or month and a half) to let her try and put all of her feed into putting on some weight. Just be careful when you dry her up that you don't feed her so rich that she gets milk fever. It seems like many of the dairy cows have been so finely tuned(genetically) to produce more and more milk that they aren't just real healthy, and normally don't have a really long life span. That is one reason I always ask for the culls that aren't producing enough milk to be profitable for the dairy....they live longer and are generally healthier cows. They also produce all the milk I care to milk out by hand and process into butter and cheese.

-- Amanda in Tx (mrsgunsmyth@hotmail.com), June 19, 2001.


Check with your local bakery and see if the will save day old bread and pasterys for you , mine love it ! And as you and I know nothing adds the pounds like it .

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), June 20, 2001.

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