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NewsThrills and spills. Click Here to go to the all-new Joyful Jerseys Blog Archives June 13, 2012: For Sale I've been running around like a chicken without a head, so I'm afraid this update will be a quick one. Please check out the Registered Jerseys for Sale page on the left - I have 8 cattle for sale and anybody is welcome to contact me for details and prices. May 20, 2012: Quality? What makes a quality Jersey cow? I have two cows on milk recording, meaning that a sample of their milk is tested every month and the resulting data is sent to me, so I can see the levels of protein, butterfat, lactose, somatic cells, and milk urea nitrogen in their milk. Fiona and Bokmakierie are two very different cows and their milk recording data reflects as much. Makierie shocked me by reaching a peak of 28-30 litres a day in her fourth lactation, whereas Fiona is perfectly content to potter along in the early 20's each peak. But is Bokmakierie the better cow? Her protein levels are currently 3.5%, 0.3% lower than the ideal. Her butterfat is respectable but not brilliant at 4.1%, her lactose is low at 4.3%, and her MUN (Milk Urea Nitrogen) is a little low at 7. The SCC (Somatic Cell Count) that was worrying me at my last blog - and since had shot up to 341 000 - has come down to an excellent 44 000, which I am incredibly pleased about, or at least I was until she went and got mastitis again two days ago. Fiona's milk quality is way better. Her protein is at 3.9%, her fat is at 5.6%, and her MUN is a comfortable 16. On top of that her SCC looks brilliant for this entire lactation with two drastic spikes (never higher than 200 000) and is currently 45 000. For that reason I still can't decide which cow is of a higher quality; both seem more or less equal in conformation, Fiona is a little older, and neither have fertility problems. One production cow, one solids cow. Now we need a cow that's both... On a less mysterious note, Fiona has been confirmed in calf to Eclipes, about which I am hugely pleased. Hydeaway Jerseys (A. K. A. my parents) have just had their first Eclipes calf, a beautiful little heifer. Now comes the hard part of breeding cows - waiting two years before you can even milk her! Babeica is settling happily into her new home at the livery stables; she has the run of the farm and is quite a celebrity, happily ambling up to the horse owners and deigning to accept a carrot or two (a cow eating carrots? That's what I thought, too). The horse mutterer has finally stopped the riding school horses from constantly gawping at their new self-established queen. Blue Star is weaned and doing brilliantly; she appears to have finally shaken her persistent cough and, though small for her age, is fat and happy; we may make a good cow out of her yet, God willing. Florette is getting along fabulously. At fifteen months she weighs the target 250kg and is growing well. 250kg is the target weight for A. I. but I have found them desperately difficult to do at that age; we shall have to weight (har har) another month or so before she is ready. Bedlam had a little trouble growing this past month. She is still healthy and eating well, so she has probably been bullied by some of the bigger heifers in her group. She was moved down to a smaller group with her cousin Bramble where she will be able to stand her ground better and she, too, will soon be ready for A. I. Freya is so pretty that I picked her to be my model for the next Jersey Journal advert, but do you think she was keen for fame? All she wanted to do was eat hay,
admire the view,
investigate random objects,
and rearrange her hairdo.
When I finally got a decent picture it took me a while to realise...
... that there is a Holstein in it. Milk production has reached something of a low with by three fresh cows in milk doing pretty much nothing and Bokmakierie's milk going down through the normal course of her lactation, plus I have no fresh cows (which equals no peak production) until Freya and Barbara are due in July. This is going to be quite a winter, but I know that when there is only one set of footprints in the sand, they belong to my Friend and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Today's stats Cows in milk: 8 Total litres produced: 111.0 Average litres per cow: 13.8 Top cow: Bokmakierie 18.6l |
