I have a question about how long to let a cow milk before drying her off.

Our Bessie didn't breed on our first several tries. She calved in May 2000 and we didn't succeed in getting her bred again until Feb. 4, 2001. By our calculations she should be calving sometime around November 19, 2001. However, she's been producing milk for over a year now. She's a Holstein and her current output is 3-4 gallons per day. Should we dry her off now, or is it OK to keep milking her until about 2-3 months before she is due to calf? We don't want to risk Bessie's health, but I don't see any point in drying her off early if it won't hurt her to continue milking. Can anyone advise me?

-- Jonathan Lindvall (Lindvall@BoldChristianLiving.com), July 01, 2001

Answers

Response to Length of Lactation Cycle/Timing for Drying off

Cows absolutely need 8 weeks of dry time to rest up and replenish their nutrient supply before calving. Also, the developing calf needs the nutrition that is compromised by lactation at the same time, in those last two months of pregnancy.

Some high milkers however, are impossible to dry off. Those usually dont last as long, I have a feeling. There are many schools of thought as to whether or not you should dry up a cow suddenly, or with once-a day milking, then going to every other day, before stopping altogether. I personally think it is better to do it gradually, as it seems more natural.

I am aiming to breed our cow much later in the cycle than what is recommended by commercial dairymen. I am not in this to get as much milk out of the cow as I can, but rather to have all that I need personally, and to keep my cow as healthy as possible. Commercial dairies try to get a cow bred back in two months. And their cows dont live very long, either. The average production lifespan of a commercial cow in PA is only 18 months! I have found that our cow has a naturally longer milking cycle than one year. I aim to find out exactly what her natural cycle length is, and to play by the rules God gave her body. I hope she lives the longest life she possibly can!

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), July 01, 2001.

Hi, Jonathan. Yes, keep her milking until 2 months before she's due. She doesn't need any more time than that to involute her udder (dry off, shed old cells and rebuild her tissues for the next lactation). And it's not hurting her any to milk her at these rates for another month or so.

And as a comment to the last poster, cows go out of commercial dairies for a lot of different reasons to do with cow health, but probably the number one reason they leave has NOTHING to do with their health: they simply don't give as much as their herd mates. There's not a thing wrong with them except they aren't as efficient at producing as the others. So you can't necessarily look at a figure of 18 months and assume those cows are all leaving the herds because they were "broken down" by farming practices. I have a number of cows 10-12 years old in my herd, and most of them you'd never know they were that old by looking at them.

Jennifer L.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@imcnet.net), July 02, 2001.

I agree with Jennifer. The primary reason for culling cows likely has nothing to do with their being broken down. Most often it has to do with reproductive problems leading to too long a calving interval to keep the dairy profitable. The longer the calving interval, the less milk per day of lactation as towards the end of the lactation the cow naturally decreases her production in preparation to drying off.

-- Sandra Nelson (Magin@starband.net), July 02, 2001.