By Angela Dorie

A month or so ago we received a call from a Holstein farmer, west of Toronto, looking for a good Jersey springer to add to the four already in his herd. He had been looking in his area since March — none available.

Though he was ready to pay a good dollar, we had to turn him down — none available. This scenario was repeated again a few weeks ago, with the same result. None available. Jerseys are in demand!

Having taken on some cows of a different colour a few years ago, I admire anyone who decides to mix in another breed and wish them well, as our attempts have been far from encouraging.

We had found ourselves approaching a "low milk" situation and decided to buy some fresh heifers. We have milked Jerseys since the early eighties, though my husband came from a Holstein farm. Unable to find any Jerseys locally, we felt we knew what we were doing and purchased seven Holsteins from a local dealer, expecting to land up with at least three, possibly four good animals out of the bunch.

Oh, how wrong we were. These black and whites taught us to appreciate our brown cows even more!

They hadn’t been in our tie-stall barn long when they earned the nickname "The Seven Sisters from Hell"! All were big and clumsy and hard to work with — one had to be helped up several times a day, since she was unable to figure out how to rise with a head rail in front, even a raised one.

All but one developed leg and/or foot problems, the worst being Strawberry foot, which we were petrified would spread to our own animals and treated relentlessly. Feeding was another issue. To heck with being able to feed three Jerseys for two Holsteins; here it was more like two for one but without the resulting milk!

Calving was a bad time. The first had twins and later had to be put down having never recovered. All had to be assisted, something which we never have to do with the Jerseys unless there is a rare bad presentation. One calf was born dead. We have only ever had two normal presentation, full-term dead Jerseys. One was when the herd panicked and ran over a close heifer when a gas pipeline blew up just down the road, and the second a few weeks ago when the neighbour’s new dog chased two close bred cows.

Once the Holsteins had all freshened, our next disappointment was udder size and lack of production. And the blue coloured milk was also a tad startling, leaving us to consider fat tests in the one or two per cent range!

Only one had a decent udder, the other five made our Jersey heifers’ mammary systems look huge! But the one good cow had chronic mastitis. We were using more mastitis treatments in a month than we ever had in a year and still couldn’t ship her milk! Another freshened on two quarters, both full of mastitis. We shipped her too. She wasn’t paying for her keep.

At least the other Holsteins, once treated, seemed to stay healthy.

Come summer we turned the four out with the Jerseys, who used them as punching bags at the feeders. Little brown cows pushing around the big black and whites! During the second milking the cows came in and one of the Holsteins promptly dropped dead in the alley! Heart attack? Was being on pasture too much for her?

Over the summer we discovered that the remaining three in the pasture had to be sent for water whenever it got too hot. They preferred to lie under the trees all day, enjoying the shade and cool breeze and refused to head for the water tanks with the rest of the herd. Every farmer knows that a cow needs water to produce: no water, no milk. Their production fell even more.

By the fall, we had only three left, by next spring only one was in calf — a costly lesson which taught us that the modern Holstein doesn’t have much in common with her predecessor of some 25 years ago, a fact a vet confirmed by telling us that today’s Holstein is a delicate cow and not tough like our Jerseys. What a surprise!

Then a retired dairy farmer neighbour referred to them as "your freeloading Holsteins" — never a truer word spoken!

For us, in all respects, the "Brown Cows that Can" won hands down. In every way which makes money on a farm, they won by a mile. Only once did their black and white cousins beat them — in the cheque from the sales barn.

But a cow only gives you one cull cheque in her life, and an extra $100 or so doesn’t make up for all the extra costs of keeping her. Nor did it come anywhere near the purchase price.