Monday, August 6, 2012

Cow dating

For the past year, I've tried unsuccessfully to breed the jerseys.  We've done artificial insemination twice with each and I started looking for bulls this spring.  I can't believe how difficult it has been!  I finally found a jersey bull 3+ hours away, and the owner was getting him ready for the butcher.  I convinced her to wait a couple weeks, borrowed my neighbor's trailer, and drove them down.

They weren't too happy with the trip, but seeing the herd of jerseys and lush green grass, they immediately made themselves at home.  Three weeks later, I got the call that they had been bred and it was time to make the trip to pick them up.  Of course, summer finally hit, the Pacific Northwest and it was upwards of 90 degrees today.  The cows weren't too happy to get back in the trailer, but a little coaxing of grain got them up and in.

I got stuck in a backup from a car crash, so my 3.5 hour trip home turned into 4.5 hours, but they were happy to get out of the trailer.






They went right into their pen and ate some hay and visited with Meathead and the bucks.

Then I got to work cleaning out the trailer (be thankful for no one has invented smell-o-net yet!)



Took me 45 minutes to clean it out and I immediately took a LONG shower to clean myself up.

I'll be doing a preg check in a month, that should be exciting!
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http://fiberarts.ca/blog/homestead-abundance-1/