Cows
Find and offer cows in Guatemala.
On farms around Escuintla, Santa Rosa and Jutiapa the morning milking still starts with a calf tied beside its mother, because the Brahman and Brown Swiss crosses kept there let their milk down for the calf, not for the hand. Dairy cows and cows in calf, heifers, and beef cows raising their calves are offered here by keepers moving them on to a new corral. So is the gear a small herd runs on, new or pre-owned: bucket milking machines, chutes, water troughs and electric fencing.
Dual-purpose cows milked with the calf at foot:
they are the commonest cows in Guatemala, and they are milked the old way. The calf is let in to start the flow, the cow is milked by hand once a day, and the calf stays with her to suckle what is left before they are parted until the next morning. Most are Brahman or Gyr crossed with Brown Swiss or Holstein, in herds of a few dozen head. Specialised dairy cows, mostly Holstein and Jersey, are milked without the calf, often by machine, and give a great deal more milk only if they are fed for it with concentrate and minerals from animal feed. Beef cows such as Nelore and Brahman are not milked at all: they raise one calf a year to weaning on pasture.
Her stage, and the calf that comes with her:
matter as much as her breed. A heifer that has never calved is the cheapest to keep and has her working years ahead, but nobody yet knows what her udder will give. A cow in calf should come with the date she ran with the bull or was inseminated and the name of whoever palpated her, because a cow offered as pregnant that turns out empty is the commonest letdown when cattle change corrals. A freshly calved cow with her calf at foot is the surest way into milk, since you see what she gives now. Keep the pair together if she is a zebu cross used to milking with the calf: many of those cows hold their milk back once the calf is gone, and some dry off. The corral gear follows the same logic. A portable bucket milking machine only earns its keep on cows that let down without a calf. A solid cattle chute makes palpation and hoof work safe for the cow and for you, and an electric fence energiser is what holds a small herd on rented pasture.
What an udder at milking time gives away:
more than any photo. Watch her milked, all four quarters. Each should be soft once empty and milk freely; a hard or lumpy quarter, a blind teat or milk with flakes in it means mastitis, now or in the past. A mastitis paddle test takes a minute at the corral and costs very little. Ask whether she has to be hobbled to milk and whether she kicks. Walk her on hard ground: a cow that stands with her back arched or favours one foot will not hold her condition. Then check her age against what you are told. Worn, spaced front teeth belong to an old cow, and an old, empty cull cow dressed up as a young milker is the trick to watch for. Ask whether the herd has been tested for brucellosis and tuberculosis, ask for the papers that go with her, and make sure the brand on her hide matches them.
The record a cow carries to her next corral:
is what a listing should hold. Give her breed or cross, how many times she has calved and when she last did, whether she is in calf and to which bull or straw, how much milk she gives, and whether that is with the calf, by hand or by machine, once a day or twice. Say if she is dehorned and how she behaves in the chute. Photograph her side-on in daylight, the udder from behind and the calf beside her, and add a short video of her walking and being milked. A cow heavy in calf or freshly calved travels badly, and she rides more calmly in a low-floored livestock trailer than tied in the bed of a pickup. Whoever drives over from Jalapa to see her should come for the first milking of the day, when the way she stands and lets her milk down tells them what no listing can.