Stupid thought

dmosquera4

I wonder how cows feel, I mean do their utters feel full do they hurt just like our boobs when we are to full? I know weird thought but it just came to my mind think how awesome our bodies are, and all the things that they could do.... But I wonder if you just keep pumping will you still make milk for years and years to come? I wonder this is also not stupid... how did ladies do back in the 1800s whe they were having a hard time breastfeeding, we are lucky to have formula but they didn't so I wonder what they used or how they worked it out



I know super random

Ps I just realized I should have posted this on the RTT

AcaAwkward

I think they used cow or goat milk... or, in some societies / if they could afford it, they hired a wet nurse. 

And I definitely feel like I've read cows' udders get overly full and painful if they're not milked on time. 

lokimau

Lol
Back in the day they had wet nurses. Big boobied women that were paid to nurse babies

I have a friend that still gives her 5 year old breast milk. She doesn't nurse anymore but she gets one glass of breastmilk in the morning. My friend pumps and donates the rest. ( to clarify, she only has the 5 yo)

dmosquera4

Awe now I feel bad for those cows poor babies and they have like 4 nipples, I can only imagine the pain thinking with only 2 nips

nicole mackenzie

They definitely get sore. I get upset at goat shows when the owners let the udders get so full theyre rock hard and squirt when they walk!

I understand you want to the udder capacity for judging but take a bit off the top for goodness sakes.

Cows don't get much time off... Maybe 3 months? Where's my cow raising friend? I think you can mulk then for about 2 years before breeding again.

And wow still pumping at 5 years?

Roufi

nicole mackenzie said:

They definitely get sore. I get upset at goat shows when the owners let the udders get so full theyre rock hard and squirt when they walk! I understand you want to the udder capacity for judging but take a bit off the top for goodness sakes. Cows don't get much time off... Maybe 3 months? Where's my cow raising friend? I think you can mulk then for about 2 years before breeding again. And wow still pumping at 5 years?

They definitely get full - nursing has made me realize that all mammals experience pretty much the same thing in that department. And 4 teats versus 2 nipples doesn't really change anything - the difference is that when not feeding their calf, they are milked out 2-3 times per day instead of 8 or so.

Also, ideally if time it right when you get you cow pregnant again (and her reproductive system cooperates obviously) they generally get a two or three month dry period per year. There are cows who milk longer, there are cows who are dry longer but that is the norm.

RedDawnsRevenge

In some Asian cultures if a mom dies it is then the g'mas responsibility to BF the baby. Babies are often seen suckling other female (and male) family/tribe members. Re lactation/wet-dry nursing is fairly common amongst indigenous peoples. It is believed problems BFing were fairly rare, as women and men grew up seeing other family member nurse their babies. If a baby refused a wet nurse there was (and still is) hand expression and cup feeding (still used in NICUs to this day). To answer your other question, if you continued to pump/nurse you will continue to produce milk, as the negative feed back loop of supply and demand takes over after pp hormones fade.

Totally not a stupid question or thought!

dmosquera4

i wanna kick those farmers ughhhh i  wanna give them the fullest blue balls ever and see if they like it.... poor goat geezzzzzzz omg just woke up with my boobies about to expolde and if i was going to be shown off like this i would be super pissed, it hurts... now i feel bad 

on another note if i was born somewhere in the 1800s i could have gotten paid to wet nurse? whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa? 

zoopsiedaisy

We have beef cattle and hogs. They are all happily living in our pastures so so we don't often see the nursing, but when they are close enough to watch, those babies hold nothing back. Holy crap! When the calves nurse they pull and head butt the belly area sometimes. Looks awful. But...our mamas will knock them off of they hurt her, like, nope....wrong....try again and if you hurt me this time you're done. But its really neat to watch them after because they usually lick them clean.

And we have had mamas, cow and pig who allowed other babies to nurse from them when their mamas had a problem or were not interested. That's only happened once with our cattle. But one of our good mamas just let the poor little guy nurse while she had her calf nursing. The guy refused to take a bottle too! Haha! That poor mama was pretty skinny from so much work so he was weaned early and she got extra feed. Even animals will wet nurse. And this was completely on their own. The only bad part was the little guy could never firguire out to eat from the side so he constantly had poop on his head. No body licked him clean :-(

And a little factoid that was interesting to me...when pigs nurse the piglets pick a teet and go back to that one every time. If there aren't enough piglets for every spot she dries up in only the unused spots. They look so funny with lopsided all over the place boobs. But I'm sure it helps with comfort. And those babies are born with crazy sharp teeth. But the mamas never flinch.

I have so much more I could say about the birth process and nursing that relates to humans but I don't want to look too much crazier. Haha! I'm geeking out on farming.

nicole mackenzie

I've seen goat kids hit the udder so hard moms back feet are lifted off the ground.

My current goat was removed from her mom to be bottle fed ( for disease prevention)

Well one of the other goats really wanted to have babies so she adopted mine and taught her to nurse again and after that she wouldn't take the bottle anymore.

That baby goat is my current goat who nursed her own baby for 2.5 years...

ambarnett1

I never thought of any of this.

dmosquera4

@ambarnett1‌ haha me neither it is very interesting, it was one of those midnight thought that suddenly come to your mind.

But I love all this answers it is very intriguing at least for me 8-> thank you ladies!!!!

dmosquera4

@KendraColeslaw‌ wouldn't you think that's a misconception though look at all of our mammas that have small boobies and still make good milk? Wouldn't it be the same for goats and cow after all they are mammals ... The size shouldn't matter if I'm logically thinking but who knows I'm not an expert

nicole mackenzie

dmosquera4 said:

@KendraColeslaw‌ wouldn't you think that's a misconception though look at all of our mammas that have small boobies and still make good milk? Wouldn't it be the same for goats and cow after all they are mammals ... The size shouldn't matter if I'm logically thinking but who knows I'm not an expert

You could have an unproductive large udder.

You want an udder that milks down to nothing and is soft.

A small udder can only fit so much

So if you milk twice a day and empty the udder you "could" get more from a good large udder.

The small udder can probably make as much milk but the kids would just nurse more often.

Udder not uTTer

nhermie

zoopsiedaisy said:

We have beef cattle and hogs. They are all happily living in our pastures so so we don't often see the nursing, but when they are close enough to watch, those babies hold nothing back. Holy crap! When the calves nurse they pull and head butt the belly area sometimes. Looks awful. But...our mamas will knock them off of they hurt her, like, nope....wrong....try again and if you hurt me this time you're done. But its really neat to watch them after because they usually lick them clean. And we have had mamas, cow and pig who allowed other babies to nurse from them when their mamas had a problem or were not interested. That's only happened once with our cattle. But one of our good mamas just let the poor little guy nurse while she had her calf nursing. The guy refused to take a bottle too! Haha! That poor mama was pretty skinny from so much work so he was weaned early and she got extra feed. Even animals will wet nurse. And this was completely on their own. The only bad part was the little guy could never firguire out to eat from the side so he constantly had poop on his head. No body licked him clean :-( And a little factoid that was interesting to me...when pigs nurse the piglets pick a teet and go back to that one every time. If there aren't enough piglets for every spot she dries up in only the unused spots. They look so funny with lopsided all over the place boobs. But I'm sure it helps with comfort. And those babies are born with crazy sharp teeth. But the mamas never flinch. I have so much more I could say about the birth process and nursing that relates to humans but I don't want to look too much crazier. Haha! I'm geeking out on farming.

Mi geek on farming too! We have stock cows, finish steers and are in the process of putting up our second hog house, just feeding though. Farrowing is way too time and labor intensive for our operation! Regarding dairy cows, the dairy down the road is putting his second robotic milking station. It's really neat how it works although it takes some time to get the cows used to the new system. Basically there is a stall where the cows get fed and milked at the same time to help train them. They also have electronic chips that shows the farmer who got milked at what time, how much she produced and how much she ate. When a cow gets hungry or uncomfortable, she just goes in the get milked! Increases productivity and management and cuts down on labor. Down side? It's like $500,000 to get set up with one of those puppies.

nicole mackenzie

nhermie said:

zoopsiedaisy said:

We have beef cattle and hogs. They are all happily living in our pastures so so we don't often see the nursing, but when they are close enough to watch, those babies hold nothing back. Holy crap! When the calves nurse they pull and head butt the belly area sometimes. Looks awful. But...our mamas will knock them off of they hurt her, like, nope....wrong....try again and if you hurt me this time you're done. But its really neat to watch them after because they usually lick them clean.

And we have had mamas, cow and pig who allowed other babies to nurse from them when their mamas had a problem or were not interested. That's only happened once with our cattle. But one of our good mamas just let the poor little guy nurse while she had her calf nursing. The guy refused to take a bottle too! Haha! That poor mama was pretty skinny from so much work so he was weaned early and she got extra feed. Even animals will wet nurse. And this was completely on their own. The only bad part was the little guy could never firguire out to eat from the side so he constantly had poop on his head. No body licked him clean :-(

And a little factoid that was interesting to me...when pigs nurse the piglets pick a teet and go back to that one every time. If there aren't enough piglets for every spot she dries up in only the unused spots. They look so funny with lopsided all over the place boobs. But I'm sure it helps with comfort. And those babies are born with crazy sharp teeth. But the mamas never flinch.

I have so much more I could say about the birth process and nursing that relates to humans but I don't want to look too much crazier. Haha! I'm geeking out on farming.

Mi geek on farming too! We have stock cows, finish steers and are in the process of putting up our second hog house, just feeding though. Farrowing is way too time and labor intensive for our operation!

Regarding dairy cows, the dairy down the road is putting his second robotic milking station. It's really neat how it works although it takes some time to get the cows used to the new system. Basically there is a stall where the cows get fed and milked at the same time to help train them. They also have electronic chips that shows the farmer who got milked at what time, how much she produced and how much she ate. When a cow gets hungry or uncomfortable, she just goes in the get milked! Increases productivity and management and cuts down on labor. Down side? It's like $500,000 to get set up with one of those puppies.

I've heard of this! Very cool. It releases a specific amount of food based on which cow goes in I think.

BabyBsMommy

We have a cattle ranch. My husband has had to teach some calves how to nurse (he's like a lactation consultant!). He also has to bring in the mean mamas who refuse to let their calves nurse. They have to go into a special stall to keep them from kicking their calves and my husband!

RedDawnsRevenge

There the calves are separated very early usually on the first day, and bottle fed. The bottles go I to the metal trays you see in the picture. There are several thousand calves at one time. They live in the little stalls until they are large enough to go into a big calf pin then into the general population to live in their own feces for the rest of their lives.

zoopsiedaisy

My quoting isn't working well...

@nhermie‌

Mi geek on farming too! We have stock cows, finish steers and are in the process of putting up our second hog house, just feeding though. Farrowing is way too time and labor intensive for our operation!

Regarding dairy cows, the dairy down the road is putting his second robotic milking station. It's really neat how it works although it takes some time to get the cows used to the new system. Basically there is a stall where the cows get fed and milked at the same time to help train them. They also have electronic chips that shows the farmer who got milked at what time, how much she produced and how much she ate. When a cow gets hungry or uncomfortable, she just goes in the get milked! Increases productivity and management and cuts down on labor. Down side? It's like $500,000 to get set up with one of those puppies.


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That's crazy high tech!! Cool! We have tried a few different things with farrowing and the most success we have had is letting the mamas do their own thing, build their nest, go off when they are ready and have their babies. We've got huts for them to use of they want. When we have pinned them up in a barn stall all warm and filled with hay, water, food, we've lost more babies than letting them follow their instincts. The birthing process is fascinating too. They go into this trance-like zone and get to work. And those wiggly little newborns always find their way to the milk.