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Keeping a Jersey cow and a calf on 1 acre?
Ok, so I am planning to get a jersey cow and her calf. They will have access to a nice, clean, warm shelter, long pasture, they will get alot of attention and I will ride the mother round as well ask taking them for 'mini walks'. The mother will be milked and the calf will be able to get half of her milk, we will get the other half. Is it ok to keep a jersey cow and her calf (who will grow to a normal cow-size but we might sell him/her) on about an acre of lovely long pasture? They will have access to lots of hay, especially in the winter. Also, can you tell me all about herd numbers and stuff like that? Thank you soooooo much :)
3 Answers
- Anonymous5 years agoFavorite Answer
It's probably on the small side for two cows (that calf will be nearly full size in a year). Your pasture might be lovely and long right now, but they'll be grazing it to the max. And in winter it'll be a lovely acre of muddy nothingness. They'll need a lot of quality hay and maybe silage to top up their grazing. The milk you get will be nice to have, but you'll be paying a *lot* more for it this way than you would buying it from a shop. Also it will be full cream, very fatty and not pasteurized.
You'll need to milk her twice a day every day, without exception - and you'll need to be able to separate her calf from her during milking.
If you have any chance of making this work on one acre, you'll need to dung-pick very frequently especially in summer. The cows will need parasite control, especially important on such a small piece of ground, and after giving them worming treatments there will be a period of time when you can't consume the milk for health reasons.
If you're in the UK the cattle will need to be registered and there will be various legal requirements you need to fulfil as you will in effect be a stock-keeper.
- daniel gLv 75 years ago
Wee had 3 cows on an acre with very little problem. We had a neighbor that would let our cows graze on their .6 acre. We get lot of rain so grazing is not always optimal but they get by.
The calf should get fed first, but you still need to milk the cows at least once a day, then there is processing for human consumption.
- 5 years ago
Try as I might to get all excited over green beans and squash, I’d much rather talk about milk cows and home dairying. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the gardening aspect of my homestead, but animal husbandry is just more of my thing I suppose… And did I mention that I have a pretty severe brown thumb?
