Doin' it right with Dairy Cows

Adam- if you don't mind sharing could I get your recipe for your menthyol lotion an your substitute for bag balm?

Kristie Wheaton wrote:Adam- if you don't mind sharing could I get your recipe for your menthyol lotion an your substitute for bag balm?

Hi Kristie-
Nothing special really, just follow any basic lotion recipe, or buy some lotion from the store. Then pulverize some menthol crystals and stir them into the lotion. I buy menthol crystals from Frontier. The intense cooling of the menthol seems to really help with the heat buildup and swelling in the udder. Apply the lotion to the udder, not the teats.

For teats, like if they are chapped or whatnot, I use a comfrey salve that I make from comfrey infused apricot kernal oil, and thickened with beeswax.

Hope that helps! Happy milking!

A picture's worth a thousand words....

I'll save on the writing just now....

Needless to say, it's a mighty fine time of year on a pasture dairy farm in the mountains of Colorado.

Love those dairy cows!

We've been working a poor spot in the pasture the past few days grazing. What I've been doing is giving the cows half the normal area of excellent pasture, plus a whole bunch of the poorer ground. I am broadcasting red clover seed in the poor area, so that it gets trampled into the soil as the cows graze. No loss in milk yield, and surely the poor ground will be improved both by a good grazing, and the future red clover seedlings.

Ok got a question for anyone out there that may be able to help out. My dairy cow is in paddock shift system by herself with her baby. So there isnt a ton of poop in her pasture... its nice an clean ... not swampy areas. But yet i seem to have a terrible fly problem with her. Especially on the underside of her udders between the teats. They bite her like crazy an i have tried D.E. an tried using geranium oil an teatree oil on her... an nothing seems to help. So i am now turning to everyone out there at permies for possible solutions?!?

wish i could help, Kristie.

we had a rough year last year with flies, so we ordered some fly predators this year (http://www.arbico-organics.com/product/fly-control-program-alt/beneficial-insects-organisms) they seem to be helping, although i realize that isnt much help to you now...

we tried a few natural/organic fly sprays last year and none of them seemed to do much good.
we also DE her, but it doesnt work for long either...

hopefully others can help.

Hey Kristy,
Sorry to hear about your fly problem. A few years ago a large commercial poultry operation move onto the property behind us. We suddenly were swarming with flies every where. What we did was set up stink barrels. You take an old barrel ,cut a small hole in the side large enough to put a small pvc pipe in. Glue a t on each end of the pipe. Next drill several holes in the lid and cover the top of barrel with fine mesh screen and put lid back on. Fill barrel about 1/3 way up with water. just enough to keep it from blowing over in a wind. I put vegetable oil on the water and place a large piece of rotten meat inside floating in the oil and water. The flies are attracted to the rotten meat get in through the t-piece , They try to fly out the top and get trapped by the screen. It works great. Word of warning though. Place barrels downwind of you and wear a mask when you clean them out once a month. They do stink but are very effective.

@ Kristie -

Ultra Boss seems to be one of the few pour ons that are ok to use on lactating cows:
http://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Boss-Pour-On-Quart/dp/B00JQDVKB0

here are the ingredients, if anyone has any feed back on them, im all ears.

Active Ingredients
Permethrin: (3-phenoxyphenyl)methyl (±)-cis, trans-3-
(2,2-dichloroethenyl)-2, 2-dimethylcyclopropanecarboxylate*5.00%

Piperonyl Butoxide Technical** 5.00%

INERT INGREDIENTS*** 90.00%

TOTAL 100.00%

i also 2nd Becky's suggestion.
i have used raw meat in standard fly traps instead of the stinky yellow stuff that comes with it, and it works pretty good.

thanks kelly, but im really looking for a natural, or better yet organic way of controling the fly problem. An Its not the large black flies, these are little annoying biting flies. NOt only are they biting the crap out of my milk cows bag, but also around her eyes some. An around my highlanders eyes. So i really need to find something that work. like ive said though i have tried d.e. an ive tried geranium an tea tree oil. An they arent helping.

I just wanted to let you all know that i have started a new thread that hopefully will help a lot of people out. Especially with it being fly season! https://permies.com/t/36829/cattle/biting-flies-beef-dairy-cows#287259

Adam, you mentioned upthread being willing to help people get off to the right start by choosing the right cow. I am in North Florida , and have been shopping around. It's hot here, and Jersery's are supposed to do pretty good with the heat. We just moved to our 10 acre farm that's all set up in horse pasture with a barn and a 4 mostly wooden fenced pastures. We have no experience with cows or milking, but are eager to learn and definitely need animals to help with all this mowing. I found this listing on craigslist:Jersey milk cow What do you think of the price and the cow in general? Is she too old to be worth it? We would have to figure out how to move her a couple hours north. Thanks for any input.