How to tame a cow?

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Taming these goats down has got me wondering again...(scary I know!)

Has anyone ever had any luck taming down a retired dairy cow? It would most likely be a Holstein.

Tracy

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 02, 2002

Answers

We got our Jersey cows from a large dairy. They had both come from the same small herd bought by this large dairy. Both had been shown when young, so they were used to people and trained to lead. There are lots of cows like this out there. Just let the dairy owner know what you're looking for. Have you done some research on the different dairy breeds? Holsteins are big, eat a lot, and make a lot of milk. Their milk is pretty thin by comparison, too. There's a saying that many Jersey dairies keep a couple of Holsteins around and milk them last to wash out the milk lines.

-- Joe (botaur2@yahoo.com), January 03, 2002.

You can train and gentle most any farm animal if you handle and feed a few treats to it daily, even the wildest critter eventually connects you with the goodies and attention. The key thing is DAILY handling.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 03, 2002.

Well I said Holstein because they are easy to find, and I figured if someone had tamed down something that big, a Jersey would be easy

But Holsteins are plentiful at the auction here, and lots of them are still in milk. I figured between bottle babies and pigs we could use up most of the milk pretty easy. And we get our hay pretty cheap (we grow it :)

That said, I am going to check around and see if there are any Jersey dairies about.

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), January 03, 2002.


When I read this question, I automatically thought of the time I rode a dairy cow! (HA) It was tamed real well!

-- cowgirlone (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), January 03, 2002.

The major difference that I've found between Holsteins and Jerseys is that the Jerseys are loaded with personality and Holsteins have none. We've had several of each, and the Jerseys become like a member of the family and have always adjusted well to being handled, no matter if they came from a dairy or a small farm. The ones I have now are just as loving as big dogs. It's a pleasure to be around them, even when they're being difficult. The Holsteins just seem to have no spirit in them. My son used to milk at a good sized Holstein dairy, and he used to call them drones. Jerseys are a piece of cake to tame because they seem to want to be loved. I have yet to find a Holstein that you can make that connection with. It may be the way they've been bred over the years, but if you want to enjoy dealing with your cow, and you will at least twice every day, I'd look for a

-- Fran (on MD's Eastern Shore) (SimplePlesurzGuy@aol.com), January 03, 2002.


I grew up with a jersey-brown swiss cross who was one of my best friends. my 1st milk cow was a holstein-black angus cross I raised from 2 days old. She was great - a good friend - good milk, not much cream but so high in butterfat, it practically every drop turned into butter.

howsomever, buying a retired dairy holstein is a different matter. I work at a sale barn, the retired holsteins that I see come thru with their bags so full of milk they can scarcely walk, but they are so broken down, so used up that I seriously doubt that they'd be worth their feed. a lot of them are marked for slaughter and cannot be taken home alive anyway. if you looked them over good before the sale, you might find one at a good price to keep for a year for the experience. she'd have been used to being handled, but you don't know how.

the secret to taming anything [or anyone?] is to never, ever betray their trust - even when no one is looking!

-- carol (kanogisdi@yahoo.com), January 03, 2002.


Well i show dairy cattle and believe it or not i'm sixteen years old less than 5ft, and weigh around 130lbs and i took a completely wild 1000 pound heifer and broke her to walk and turned her into the biggest baby. She knows how to give hugs and kisses. And whats strange about this is that she's a brown swiss. To me brown swiss are the best breed to own because they give almost as much as a holstein, and have a little less butter fat than jeresy's and have higher amune systems. but when i train my animals for show i take take them to water and i give them their food so that way they know that there depentant on me. so they naturally start getting tame. Just show them a LITTLE LOVE:)

-- Joni (jojo712@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

Tracy, We have 3 jerseys, one of which was wild, we got her off a dairy which didn't have much time to spend on each cow. I just used to speak to her quietly, then gradually she let me touch her, bit by bit as we brought her into milk her. Now she loves coming in to get her feed-she has 2 calves on her. She is wonderful and quiet now. Time and quiet talk and slow movements is what worked for me.

-- colleen varlow (cvarlow@zip.com.au), January 18, 2002.

Cattle have a natural respect for physical strength. Kindness will go a long way, maybe 95% but IMHO they should have a demonstration of your strength once or twice in their lifetime. For a bull you just have to pull him around by a nose ring a few times and he gets the message. For a cow loop a rope around her horns and take a half hitch around her nose, trail the rope behind and just a few times pull the rope so that her head goes right down to the ground, no need to be cruel just demonstrate who is REALLY in charge.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), January 18, 2002.

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