This is from my niece, with her permission. There are analogies to
breastfeeding, so hope the list moms don't mind. We've learned a lot from
dairy science, so welcome any ideas you might have for my niece. She asks
some good questions, even if bovine related:-) She exclusively bf twins, so
knows a lot about human lactation as well. TIA, Anna Swisher, MBA, IBCLC
============================post=======================
One thing about milking a cow, is that your mind has lots of time to drift.
Which is a good thing, but sometimes a little crazy. Kind of like dreams.
You take a little of this, a dab of that, mix it with a pinch of a joke or a
random comment and come up with some stuff that seems to be so wacky it JUST
MIGHT WORK!
So anyway, here's the background - Like in women, cows have foremilk and
hindmilk. The foremilk is skim, all the cream is in the hindmilk. The
bulk of the nutrition is in the hindmilk. Plus, you can't make
butter, or ice cream with foremilk, and it doesn't taste wonderful in
your coffee. If your cow is not "letting down" when you milk, you have no
cream. MER in cows seems to question the assumption that MER is at all an
involuntary response. They seem to have absolute, obstinate, complete
control over it. If you let a cow keep her calf, most will soon start to
hold back their milk for the calf. So you will sing, hum, beg, plead,
massage, knead, whine, complain, and work for an hour or till your fingers
are numb to get a grudging amount of skim in your bucket, then watch a roly
poly calf suck down a gallon or two of pure cream in less than 3 minutes.
It's extremely annoying.
"Conventional wisdom" is that you can't usually share milk with a calf.
Many either never let a calf suckle, or only for 12 - 24 hours so they get
colostrum and then take them away from their mothers. (Did you know that a
calf that doesn't get colostrum within 12 hours is almost certain to die no
matter how good their care is?) Solutions consist of taking the calf away
and bottle-feeding it 2 - 3 times a day either for a while or until it's
weaned, giving the cow injections of oxytocin when you milk either for a few
days or forever.... (Some dairies use it at every milking). None of that
really appeals to me - primarily as a matter of principle (no Ezzo scheduled
calves for me!) and as a matter of practicality - I don't have time to
bottle feed a calf, and I don't have a reliable backup for milking duty -
so I want a calf that will nurse when I need it to in case I need to be gone
or miss a milking for some reason.
So, what I've resorted to now is I pen the calf up at night a couple hours
before I milk. When I milk at night, I get about 2 cups of milk, and her
udder is still firm and full. In the morning, I milk out all she will let
me have, which is about 1 1/2 gallons of skim . Then I halter the calf,
bring him in and let him nurse until she lets down, then drag him away and
tie him up, milk out the "rest" which is another gallon, give or take, then
let them back together, she lets down again, he fills up his belly, and goes
and takes a nap. It won't be but a few more weeks until he is too big and
strong for me to pull away, being as he has a diet of pretty much pure
cream. So, the question I have for you is this.....
Is there an acupuncture point that will trigger MER?
I have searched high and low, and can't find anything about it in cattle...
But veterinary acupuncture in English speaking countries is very
Western-based, and focuses primarily on pain relief and triggering immune
response. Plus, dairies don't share milk with calves, and most cows with no
calves will let down to the sound of the vacuum pump in the milking parlor,
so there's not really a "need" to treat that. The ones that don't let down
in the parlor either get their oxytocin fix or get culled and ground into
hamburger. I found reference to one abstract of a study done in China that
refers to endocrine response in dairy cattle that was presented at the 1987
international conference, but it's only translated in a book that's out of
print, and I haven't been able to find anyone that has that book.
I know that there is a reflex point in the hand that will trigger and affect
uterine contractions, so it would seem that there's got to be something that
will trigger let down. I don't remember anything about it from my pumping
days.
I've got a couple of charts for cattle - which is less than ideal because
it's two dimensional, but if I can find anything more concrete to go on, I
will shell out the $40 for a 3-D model. The points that I've been playing
with (labor points for women) haven't worked as of yet. The Chinese
acupuncturist here has come up empty - as the treatments he knows and can
find (he's a people acupuncturist) are for low supply or mastitis, not for
let down.
So, there ya have it! Just be thankful that you aren't a woodworker or a
welder, or I'd have a few other "milking meanderings" to quiz you about.
Love,
Lee Anne and Cindy the Magic Milk Cow
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