# Dairy farm



## Amishboy (Dec 12, 2008)

I work in a dairy farm, we have 300 cows, i wonder how many cows you guys have?


----------



## goatsareus (Jun 23, 2007)

300 cows? wow, how long does it take you (and who else?) to milk them?

no cows here, just 5 pregnant doe goats, one wether and one buck goat.


----------



## BlackWillowFarm (Mar 24, 2008)

Hi Amishboy,

Welcome to the forum. Three hundred cows is quite a few to milk. 


I have one Jersey cow named Polly. She is 4 years old and came off a 120 head Jersey dairy farm in September. This is all new to me. I'm learning as I go along.


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

I grew up on a dairy where we had 250 jerseys to milk. It took 7 hours, twice a day in a double 8 herringbone parlor. 

Now I work on a dairy where we have around 65 cows, mostly holstein, and it only takes me about an hour and a half, in a double 5 slant parlor. Also, I have a gigantic propane heater in the barn now, which I am in love with! Its warmer in that barn than in my house, LOL.

Welcome to the forum! Do you make your own dairy products Amishboy?


----------



## PamB (Jan 15, 2008)

I take care of calves on a 2000 cow dairy, yep I did say 2000. When I first worked at this farm over 30 yrs ago we milked 120 and it took us 4 hours in a double 4 with swing over milking units. Now it takes about 7 hours in a double 30 paralel (sp) It went from a family farm to a factory and then some after the young owner/boss was killed by a drunk driver in 2005 and a Belgium dairy farmer bought it in 2007. Times sure have changed.
Pam


----------



## piglady (Sep 28, 2006)

We have one, a jersey/holstien cross that is due any day. I just ordered our electric milker (husband has artritis) and have been reading a book on cheese making. I can't wait. We already raise all our meat (beef, pork and chicken), grind wheat for all wheat products and put up our garden vegetables. With this we will be pretty self sufficent. We had her sister but are letting the neighbor use her. She gave birth on Dec 30. We don't need that much milk and he helps us a lot. With 3 kids, he needs the milk worse than we do. I am going to be using this web site a lot to learn how to milk and how to process all that milk.


----------



## Gregg Alexander (Feb 18, 2007)

When I was dairying I milked 250 head in a Double 6 Herringbone took 2 people 2 1/2 to 3 hr per milking


----------



## Oakshire_Farm (Dec 4, 2008)

I have 3 jerseys  They are all dry now, my mama cow is due to calve Feb 11, 2009


----------



## nduetime (Dec 15, 2005)

I have three Jerseys ( Ha! this from the lady whose DH said no cows! Now he loves them) Lucy is currently in milk, she freshened in October with little Daisy. We bought Burgermeister the same day we bought Lucy. He is now 7 mos old. We are considering AI for Lucy in the extreme near furture.
Edited to add for gone-a-milkin: We and our kids/grandkids all drink the milk, I make butter, yogurt, some cheese, and some soap too.


----------



## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Three milk goats!


----------

