I’m sooooo excited to be welcome Kate from Venison for Dinner as a guest poster today! Like many of you, she’s had plenty of experiences with milk cows that like to kick, and is sharing her wisdom on that topic today!
Our first cow was a saint…
…She rarely kicked, just stood there and had a terrific udder. It was a sad day when we had to butcher her, and with our next cow, before I knew it, I was googling “How to stop your cow from kicking”. Wilderness is a spit-fire! While never mean, she’s slowly working on her patience, and seeing as she’s only halfway through her second lactation, I’m happy with the progress she’s made.
There are a few types of kicks that a cow has, and let me clarify that if your cow is a mean kicker, in that she tries to kick YOU, not the bucket, then take extra precaution. We’ve never had one, thank goodness! Mostly cows will try to kick the bucket, or they will ‘tap dance’, which is when they’re impatient, shifting their feet, trying to move around and you keep having to shift the bucket.
We learned through the school of hard knocks, and I’m hoping that some of our bumps, bruises and tears can be a learning tool for you to avoid such things!
WHY Your Milk Cow might be Kicking
1. It’s her first lactation.
I put this first and foremost as it’s really important. It would be a whole other post to describe how to train a cow, but if you’re a newbee, trying to train a cow to be milked, I’d suggest finding someone who can help you.
(Cleaning her up before milking…mucky spring day takes lots of time!)
2. She’s new in a lactation.
If your cow has just calved and you’re trying to milk her, understandably she might be a little grumpy as her hormones balance out, but also if she’s been separated form her calf.
3. She’s separated from her calf.
If you’re currently milk sharing with a calf, you’ve brought your cow into milk, and she is nowhere near her calf, then she will most likely not be happy about it! We have one person milk while the other person brings in the calf for the first while.
4. It’s her time of the month.
Don’t under estimate this one. While some cows have ‘silent heats’ that give them a whole new set of problems, some cows kick, are moody and hold back their milk while in heat. Their heats come every 21 days, and for 18 hours they are in ‘standing heat’. During milkings in that period of time, we expect to get less milk, potentially lose a bucket of milk, and to have to milk it like we stole it to get it done fast. If you expect it, it won’t take you by surprise.
5. You’ve just moved her.
New surroundings, new companions (or lack there of), new people, new milking routines. Expect a week or two of grumpier behaviour, less milk and getting to know the cow.
6. She’s scared of the bucket.
Our last two milking cows came from a farm where they were machine milked. Training a cow to then become hand milked is not a fun task. Stick a metal bucket between their legs and start squeezing musical streams of milk into it? No wonder our bucket has so many dents in it. My husband also finds that if she’s antsy that day, when the bucket starts to get about 3-4 inches full, the powerful squirts make the bucket vibrate and she feels it in her feet. She doesn’t kick at this point, just tap dances.
7. She’s running out of grain and getting impatient.
These are like fly swat kicks, because she’s wanting to get out of there, trying to give you a hint for that, and lifting her feet up and down in little swings. We’ve had cows that we don’t need to feed grain to keep them still, but our current cow, Wilderness, is not one of them. (And yes, she is messy with her feed. Chickens tidy that up…)
8. You’ve changed her feed.
Wilderness hates it when we feed her a different grain, ESPECIALLY if we have to give her a conventional instead of her usual organic feed? Homegirl knows the difference.
9. Sore Udder or Blocked Ducts.
If when you touch part of your cows udder, she flinches, and she doesn’t usually, then I’m on the lookout for clots in the milk, red spots (meaning inflammation and heat) and blocked ducts. I like to nip mastitis in the bud!
10. She might just hate you.
I’m sorry. I had to say it. It’s true. Wilderness goes through phases of preferring different people and for a week she had such a hate on for me that my Husband took over all the milking for 5 days. Right now, I’m her favourite and she’s an angel for me. I’ll take what I can get!
So, we covered 10 reasons WHY your cow could be kicking, stay tuned to find out WHAT you can do about it! (Part Two coming is at ya next week!)
Do you have a milking cow? Share if you’ve found different reasons they might be kicking!
Kate is a stay at home Mom of 2 little boys living a homemade life on the West Coast of British Columbia. She enjoys to cook and bake from scratch. Through hunting and homesteading, Kate and her family produce more than enough to fill their own meat and dairy needs, happily helping others start their own homesteading journey along the way. Kate also has a passion for home healing with natural medicine. You can follow along at www.venisonfordinner.com as she hones her homesteading skills, making her ‘whey’ through one mountain of raw milk at a time. Maybe you too will be inspired to butcher your own deer or try your hand at natural medicine!
Thanks for this! I haven’t bought my first cow yet, but I’m always on the lookout for more information!
Right now, I just have a goat who’s in her first lactation. Any chances of getting an article on training a goat to stand nicely while being milked?
There are three kicks that I am aware of and we have had experience in…the “straight ahead kick” (I think you called it a milk pail kick), a “round-about” (think big circle), and the “aim and kick” kick. It isn’t a mean kick, just a kick preference for that cow. Sometimes they are slow kicks, sometimes lightening fast. That also depends on the cow.
You will also find that most cows (not all) will give some sort of warning first…a small switch of the tail, a large switch of the tail, or some movement in the soft area by where your head is close to (or in) while you milk. You can see this and if you rest your head in this spot, you can easily feel it and move (with the pail) before being hit. You learn to move quickly and learn the best escape for each. lol
In reference to #7, you can give a cow their chop before you sit down to milk. This reduces the” greed” kick. We have done this with two cows. After they are done, they back up, relax and are much more content to be milked. We have even had them fall asleep…no kidding.
One other reason for a kick is if you squirt milk up inside the teat instead of out…that is ALWAYS bad. This happens most with the fist/squeeze milking (not sure what to actually call it) milking style, vs. stripping, with first time milkers.
The other tip I have is that if you have a kicker, you can use the “tail jack” method to keep them from kicking. You have one person bend the tail up overtop as far along the back as possible and hold it there. It is hard to do and doesn’t hurt the cow. It just temporarily paralyzes a nerve that is used in the kicking process. With the tail in this position, the cow will not kick. She won’t like it but the idea is that she cannot kick…but that is the goal, isn’t it? After a few milkings done this way, they will stop kicking. We have heard from two people who had impossible-to-milk cows that this is very effective. We are fortunate that we have never had to use this.
Another tip if you do not want to be swatted by a tail…you can either use a slip knot to tie the tail back, or do what we do…get a hair clip from the dollar store & tie the handle end to a piece of twine that is tied to the side wall. Clip either into the hair or around the round part of the tail near the end. We found our cow liked this best. If we forgot about the clip at the end of the milking, the cow would just tug a bit and it would either let go or break (happened only once)…but it worked really well. We joke about going to the store to get our ladies a pretty hair clip. lol
I need to edit one thing that I posted about #7. You give the cow the chop before she is milked. In this time, you prep her by brushing her all over with a stiff brush and prep the udder by cleaning it. After this short time, she should be close to done eating the chop. Only AFTER she is done and backs up do you sit down to milk.
Wow! Great addition to tips. I agree that they give you warnings. Our first cow didn’t need grain to milk…Wilderness, ain’t no way we could feed her grain first then milk! Every cow is different and thats the beauty in them 🙂
If you really want to, you can use the tail jacking idea to retrain to eat beforehand, or you can just let it be. Just as each cow is different, every milker is different as well. 🙂
It looks like you have a jersey. We’ve had 3, and I milked some when I was younger. They are awesome.
Good info. Dumb question here from a beef cattleman. If I milk her with a two teat machine it takes me about 20 to 30 minutes. I distract her with coastal hay and grain. I worry about acidosis. I worry alot. Man (or woman!) Is by nature a warrior and a worshiper. I am just a warrior. If she finishes her grain and Cubes she starts to kick. Ouch. She can easily eat 15 to 20 pounds. 2 % of her weight wb 12 pounds. I don’t even feed my 2,000 pound Beefmaster 20 pounds.
She is jersey mix weighing about 600 pounds. That is top much feed
me thinks. Hee name is Chocolate but no chocolate milk yet. Thank you.
Add: Not stanchion broke. My current milk cow, Summer, calved a month earlier than I expected. It was her first calf and I hadn’t gotten her stanchion trained. I ended up with a kick to the upper chest and one to the head, resulting in major concussion. Do Not underestimate how FAST and HARD they can kick. I don’t at all blame her; it was totally my fault. She was scared and had no clue what was happening. However, she still doesn’t like to be milked. Her mom and grandma were sweethearts to milk, unfortunately, I still have to use a kicker on her and be very alert when milking.
WOW! I’d never thought of them NOT being stanchion broke. We either milked in a stanchion of milked with a halter on.
What is a kicker?
I am new to the cow milking process and I am learning to milk so I can me a relief milker for a friends farm. I have been getting gallons of wonderful fresh milk and I am loving it. Recently, I have developed two small red itchy dots on my hands. Could this be milker’s nodules? Do you have any experience with this? Is it OK to use my milk raw? Should I wear gloves? Any suggestions are appreciated!
Thanks for humoring me. I realize this has nothing to do with kicking cows. Mine is quite gentle and has not kicked. She just gets a little wiggly when her food trough is empty and my slow milking self is not done.
Thanks!
I’ve never heard of milk nodules. I just looked it up, and frankly, I’d get cow seen by vet/ask if your friends cows have had it, and see a doctor yourself. As for drinking the milk raw, I first look at what the standards for where the cow is kept are. Does it have plenty of access to outside and fresh grass (or good hay if in winter). Is the milking area clean? I don’t mean sterile! How is the milk handled?
We bought a little jersey from a dairy once. She adjusted to the hand milking pretty fast, except she evidently got curious about the bucket. I watched one morning as she very carefully picked up her foot and set it in the bucket (faster than I could move it). She pulled it out quick! Turns out this little lady hated getting her feet wet! She never put a foot in a bucket again.
That’s really cute!
I do not have cows, but I milk goats every day. The number one reason they kick is flies. I do what I can to keep flies away, but if one or two get in they will always land on the goats’ legs. The goats also move when my hair tickles their sides as I am hand milking them. Some things to consider….
Ianna! Help me with mine! My girls are crazy learning to milk. A few learn , but I had two bottle feds that had an awesome mother, (Nubians all) and she was fine to train. And milked great. Those daughters of hers got bigger than her and big in general and their first two years I tied their back feet, and they would throw themselves down on the floor of the stand! Both. They were frightening. I had to have the neoghbor boys come and hold her legs one on each leg to prevent the from hurting themselves. Now they are finally, not great, but not throwing themselves down in their 3rd year. I am working on a milker made from a brake bleeding kit in the hope that it would be less stressful for the both of us. I don’t need huge set up (I don’t have the money anyway).
I did have a Jerwey for a month and I was shocked at how tiny her teats were compared the generous faucets of the goats. She needed lots of grain to be still too.
wonderful information, I had come to know about your blog from my friend nandu , hyderabad,i have read atleast 7 posts of yours by now, and let me tell you, your website gives the best and the most interesting information.
This blog might be laughable as, I have also heard people experienced with kicking of cows. Perfect guide insisting the steps to avoid kicking and understand the cattle better!
Ladies, when it is that time of the month for you, your milk cow may act very squirrelly around you. It is not unheard of for the man of the house to milk your cow when you are having your period. Our usually very gentle Jersey gets aggressive at times, and I’ve had to jump out of the fenced in area before….but only when it is that time of the month.
She might just hate you. ? yep. We started our dairy cow journey in April. Thank you for confirming so many things we’ve noticed.