Blanket for cow

Some people ask occasionally about where to buy cow blankets. As far as I am aware, they are not available for purchase commercially.

I asked around and a fellow dairy farmer generously gave me one of his new blankets (leftover from showing days many decades ago…). You may use the dimensions to make your own or give them to someone to custom make blankets.

In general, cows do not require blanketing (nor is it recommended), but if going to a show or needing to keep a cow clean for appraisal, a pretty blanket can come in handy.

Below are instructions on how to make your own:

(This is my “foundation” cow, Proud Rose. For information purposes, her withers are approx. 48 inches tall. I think you will find that that is a very average height for Jerseys, so should give you a kind of standard to go by when making your own show blankets.)

MEASUREMENTS:

(These are blanket measures, laid flat on the ground, so they will change some once you put it over the back of the cow.)

YELLOW CLOTH SECTION-

• From point of withers to tail, 55 inches (across the backline).
• From top of tail to bottom of blanket, 33 inches.
• There’s a little hole in the blanket where the leg straps clip on. The hole is from the back: 20in. and from the front: 42in. The hole is approx 2 inches wide and 4 inches long in a upside-down teardrop shape.
• On bottom, from back leg to brisket, 64 inches. (Notice, the bottom edges are very rounded.
• Also, at the front, around the brisket, the fabric gets wider. So, at the withers is 55 inches, at the brisket, 64 inches, so a slope change of 9 inches from top to bottom.

 

STRAPS- (ALL ARE ADJUSTABLE)

Strap for around brisket, abt. 16 inches. (This is a 1 inch white nylon strap. It has a clip on the end with an adjustable buckle to slide the strap up or down for size. It is actually sewn into the green strap. Very heavy duty stitching, probably a commercial sewing machine.)

(All other straps, listed below, are a green 2 inch, very thick, cotton strap that is just slightly flexible.)
From top of back, looping around REAR legs, about 75 inches. It is really one long strap, so 150 inches to include both legs.
From front brisket strap to hole for rear leg straps: 42 inches.
Strap over the withers, 68 in. on right side; 24 in. on left side, with the buckle attachment.

The buckles are 2 inches wide and loop through the cotton straps.

One side of the buckle has a rectangular shape on the end.

The other buckle has a T shape, where the ends of the T are curled over a bit.

You put the T through the rectangle and twist and it “hooks” on that way.

The back strap for each leg: It just loops between her udder and leg.

There’s a strap like that on each side.

You can see it peeking out just above her hock.

It fits loosely.

 

I would recommend looking for canvas in your own farm colors. That would be quite festive!