Hi everybody!

We just decided to get rid of our " beefies" and to get another dairycow. This will fit better into our sceme of things around here. Now a small farmer here in town, tells me every year, that he has a " nice holstein", but he hasn't bred her in 3 years or so, because he does mostly sheep and horses and doesn't want to bother with the milking. He doesn't want to ship her to the auction,because she is a "good cow". I could probably buy it from him, and he'll make me a good price, but I don't know, if being unbred for that long could make her not breed or have any other problems. I know of course, that I have to look at her first, and see what I think of her. If she isn't friendly , I won't have anything to do with her, beern there, done that.And of course I will make sure she is physically sound, but I just don't know about the unbred part. Anybody have an opinion on that? I would greatly appriciate any comments.

Thanks karin

-- karin morey (wind_crest@hotmail.com), May 28, 2000

Answers

You could consider having a dairy minded vet palpate her to see if she is cycling and whether her reproductive tract feels normal. An experienced vet should be able to give you a lot of info regarding her prospects for a successful breeding. He/she could also check for udder probblems, bad feet etc.

-- teresa (teresam@ascent.net), May 28, 2000.

Tends to give some indication of the cow if she was such a pet that the farmer couldn't use her, and still didn't sell her off any old how. If she is a good-natured old cow (literally) then she may be worth buying at the right price just to get one or two of her calves. Good nature in a good cow is a treasure.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), May 29, 2000.

Karin- I'd be pretty careful on this one. How old is this cow? She might be fine, but she probably isn't milking now, and so you're looking at a minimum of 10 months after you get her and start trying to get her bred before she starts milking for you. Biggest consideration- if she looks *fat*, forget it! Fat on the outside translates to fat on the inside and those kinds rarely if ever conceive. You're not going to be able to check for mastitis or other udder problems on a long dry cow either. e-mail me privately if you have questions Linda

-- Linda Graves (gravesfarm@madbbs.com), May 30, 2000.

I've been raising dairy cattle all my life, all 15 years, but I've never heard of a "good-cow" being kept unbred and unproducing for more than 5-6 months. I do know however, that if she is an onder cow, and I'm guessing that she's at least 5-6 years old. Don't get me wrong, that's not old but it certainly isn't young. If she is cycling normally you could get another 2-4 calves out of her, depending on how good your breeder is, but with an older cow who hasn't been pregnant probably more than once or twice and then left alone that long, you will almost certainly have difficulty breeding her again no matter how succesful you are at catching her in heat and no matter how good your breeder is, her system may not be able to handle it after this long. My advice, call a local bovine vet and have her palpated, it is not expensive, only 2-35 dollars usually, and any decent vet will be able to tell you if her uterus is normal and if her ovaries are normal and are functioning. And which one is not if that is the case. They will also be able to detect any form of an ovarian cyst which is common in older unbred cows. Just make sure you have a vet check her, otherwise, I'd buy her, it seems like you really want her.

Snowy

-- Snowy (hugging_calves@yahoo.com), December 29, 2000.