More milk from cows with heifer calves

[karenp]

Lower Delaware

www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/science/for-cows-daughters-mean-more-milk.html

Interesting, anyone have any personal experience with this?

[zephyrhillsusan]

First thought--it's really funny that they illustrate the productive cow with a huge, pendulous udder! Typical layperson's idea that a big udder equals high production. Yes, I know they needed a visual way to communicate high production, just sayin'.

Second thought, I wonder if they measured butterfat? If nutrition can influence that, maybe calf sex can, too. Could a cow give less but richer milk for a bull?

It's an interesting concept, though. With only two cows it might be hard for me to test, and then of course you have to factor in which lactation you're dealing with. For instance, I just milked a first lactation cow with a heifer, but her production will go up next time. If it's a bull that would skew the comparison. (Hope I expressed that clearly.). But it's something to keep in mind as I record my cows' production in future.

[jamshundred]

Another "old timer" belief regarding Dexters ( and maybe all breeds - but first told to me regarding Dexters though I heard from another source as well) is that cows with WHITE on their udders make the better milk cows.

Judy

[zephyrhillsusan]

Interesting, Judy. I don't have any personal experience with that, but do know of one excellent milk cow with quite a bit of white on her udder.

[wagradexters]

This could be so if several early cows with white on their udders were coincidentally excellent milkers so their daughters were kept as replacement heifers or, more effectively, their bull calves were retained as sires to improve the overall milk production from the next generation.

In which case, rather than the old-timers quote posted by Judy "that cows with WHITE on their udders make the better milk cows" it would be more likely that SOME (or even MANY) better milk cows have white on their udders.

Margaret

[stephanie]

Interesting thread here, in my experience back when I had the dairy farm and we were feeding lots of calves bucket milk replacer, there were differences between feeding a bull calf and a heifer. First bull calves were almost always more difficult to get going, harder to get to take the milk, more difficult to teach to suck the cows teat, fingers and drink from a bucket, although they were often hungrier and more inclined to bunt, had to make sure your face wasn't in the way! Made no difference what breed it was if it was pure Freisian/Holstein or if it had been crossed with Hereford, Charolais, Belgian Blue etc. Once they were drinking a bull calf was generally greedier, OK maybe bigger at birth but even taking that into account, I would say probably still greedier, so if you were hand milking a cow and "sharing" with a calf I would think you would get more if sharing with a heifer than a bull on average.

Stephanie