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[Rob <becida AT comcast.net>]

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Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 13:37:42 -0500
From: tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT roanoke.infi.net>
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To: "Homestead mailing list" <homestead AT listserv.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: cow things
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Laurie Price wrote:

> I have a few questions and this might get kind of long....
>
> We are now getting upwards of 4 gallons a day.  Closer to three and a half.
> We want to get two calves to put on her(motherless calves for butchering).
> Does this sound like enough??


Tvoivozhd---four gallons is more than enough.  You could take a gallon or two
for your consumption and the remainder would be adequate.  Many owners of a 
cow
or two put calves on the cow so they can travel---impossible unless it is
feeding calves or a neighbor milks her.

> He also has said that our cow got hurt by the bull and is having trouble in
> her hind quarters.

Tvoivozhd---he means the bull weighs over a ton and he should get rid of him.
He is also a big breed, which spells calving problems, especially for small
breeds of cattle.  Before---long before she calves, be prepared to assist her.
As a minimum, you will want some calf-pulling equipment, or at least two 
people
with a 5/8 inch nylon rope.  No cause for panic, just get a book from the
library which covers potential problems and their remedy.

Since this is not her first calf, problems tend to be fewer and less serious,
though a difficult presentation can occur even in cows that have had 
ten calves.

>   Should we separate the cows/calves
> from the bull?

You don't have to separate the cows/calves from the bull.  You want to 
separate
people from a Jersey bull at all times.  Don't be fooled by your 
experience with
horses.  A Jersey cow has the sweetest temperment you will encounter in dairy
breeds.  A Jersey bull is a poisonous little monster that is 
constantly plotting
how to kill you.  If you believe otherwise he will.

Be sure your farm liability policy is paid up.  The best way to work a Jersey
bull is on horseback.  If I had a Jersey bull in open pasture, and had to walk
anywhere near him, you may be sure he would be hobbled.  For breeding purposes
it is safest that he be have a nose-ring on a long pole, and be kept in a 
stall
until the magic moment---open pasture if you have good fence.  Good fence 
means
something he cannot just crash through, plus an electric scare-wire,.

Like everyone else, you will probably have too much pasture in early 
spring, and
too little in midsummer.  Depends a lot on your pasture-mix of cool-weather 
and
warm-weather grasses/legumes.  Spring calves do not eat much grass until
July---five calves would equal one cow up to that point, thereafter 
three calves
would eat about as much.  Small breeds of cattle do not need as much feed as
large breeds---they don't need as much for body maintenance.

Rotational grazing pulses growth (and root die-off), which gradually increases
organic matter in the soil and heavier grass production.  You have 
excess growth
in the spring, which must (or should anyway) be taken off by excess animals,
some to be sold to balance pasture growth to animal demand in midsummer---or
taken off as hay.

To allow for winter grazing, at least to the end of December, in mid-August,
some pasture should be fenced off and stockpiled until cold weather inhibits
grass growth.  This mainly applies to grasses like brome or wax-covered fescue
which loses little nutritional value from rain as long as it remains standing
and upright.  In mid-December the fescue will still contain about 12 percent
protein.  Softer forages, tall red clover and alfalfa deteriorate 
rapidly if not
eaten or turned into hay before fall rains.  Ladino is not as badly affected,
deer or cattle will paw through snow and find still-green and still-nutritions
Ladino.

The easiest piece of equipment to use for frequently-moved cross-fencing is a
Gallagher B-11 energizer.  It is mounted on a tread-in stick and uses 6 
D-cells
which last about three months before recharging  Buy twelve rechargeable and
charge six when you remove them.  It has an indicator to tell you when it is
time to exchange batteries.  The only caveat is that, since it is a tread-in
(only one I know of), the ground rod only extends a couple of inches in the
ground.
That's not enough to give a good return circuit in non-conductive 
soils and very
dry weather in any kind.  So a supplemental ground rod should be used---it
doesn't have to be the eight footers used by big energizers, you are only be
going to run a few hundred feet of wire at a time.  This is a really 
good gadget
for fencing rabbits out of gardens, predators out of chicken runs, 
beer guzzlers
out of the refrigerator (you hear that, Gene?)