Yeah, once that testosterone kicks in they kinda loose their damn minds. Funny, lots of teenagers are the same.

Whats his weight distribution like? Is heavy in the shoulders or just bulking up all around?

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- Well, sexed Jersey semen cost a fortune in special shipping. We ordered two doses.

- They don't tell you a couple of things about the stuff... One, sexed semen is produced by taking ONE dose of regular stuff and sorting it, leaving us with a half-sized dose. Two, reports of sexed semen having slightly lower conception rates than unsorted are extremely optimistic. Turns out, the stuff has a miserable conception rate in the field.

- So we had the vet inseminate the heifer. Didn't take. Had her done again the next cycle. Her next heat was kinda' odd, and we thought (hoped) it was a false heat. So rather than ruin a possible (expensive) guaranteed Jersey heifer pregnancy, we waited until I could do a BioPryn blood test. She failed to take again.

- Meanwhile, we'd spent a fortune and a huge amount of time and effort trying to get our best Belgian mare bred AI, ultimately without success. So we decided "fuck it!" and told the vet we'd inseminate the cow with whatever she had handy in her cryo-tank next heat.

- Next heat was due July 5, and the vet would be out of town. So we hit the pita heifer with lutalyse to bring her in early and had her inseminated with what turned-out to be semen from one of the top Angus bulls in the country. (Traveler 004). That name seemed like rather a good omen for us Confederates.

- Well, when you want a gal knocked-up but good, you call on a big, strong, black guy. Worked for momma, anyway.

- So the hens have started to lay, and the last BioPryn test shows the heifer is pregnant. It's about time something went right around here!


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Teah, a half guernsey, half jersey cow just calved. Lost the calf, unfortunately. So now I am milking twice a day, six and a half gallons a day(from a single cow and another is soon to calve).

Be careful what you wish for,

You might get it.

That's a heck of a lot of milk from one cow! Sounds like she's a keeper

OH, we stopped using sexed semen a long time ago at the dairy. Twice as much for half the gains. We still run about a 50/50 average bull to heifer ratio.
Traveler is awesome! Hope all goes well with momma!

An aside, I bought a Jersey heifer the other day, 385 pounds. (ok, she's 1/4 Holstein but doesn't look it). Bought from a family "dairy" who had no clue what was wrong with her back right hoof, idiots! Had a good bit of hoof rot that they had wrapped up so damned tight was cutting off circulation! Cut wrap, dosed her up, and she's doing great. The most perfect "udder" I've seen in a heifer.
BTW........they wanted $100 for her, all I had on me was $96! Hauled her home!

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- Due in about a week...



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Sunday morning, April 1... Wife wakes me at dawn, screaming that Maudeuce is in labor. Resisting the temptation to say "That's nice" and go back to sleep, I got my act together and went out to find the heifer showing signs of very early labor. These subsided by afternoon. Cute April Fools prank on the cow's part.

Monday, about 7PM... Wife screams that Maudeuce is in labor, and assures me that the water bag really is showing. I grabbed a rope, intending to bring her in to the barn if she was still mobile, but she was at the far end of the holding paddock, and too far along...

- Wife: "It's... Wrong... It's coming out wrong!"

Me: (Feeling through the sack.) "One foot... Two feet... Pointing the right direction. Okay so far." (I stroll over and take a seat on the big log to watch for a while.)

Wife: "You need to help her!"

Me: "She's doing fine."

Wife: (THE LOOK!)

Me: (Walks back over. Feels through the bag again.) "Okay there's the nose. I can help on the next contraction." (Pulls calf out.)

Wife: "It's got fluid in its lungs!"

Me: "Yes dear. All babies are born with amniotic fluid in their lungs. You know this."

Robust, solid black critter. Looks like a bull though. Will get a better look in the morning. Getting it into the barn and its tummy primed with first-milk was more important while the light held-up tonight.

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Helped my dad with several breech calves last year; hoping we'll have an easier time of it this year. Glad to hear that yours went well.




It can work both ways, really. Your cute little calf grows up to be a big ole bull and doesn't quite realize that his youthful playfulness can now get you killed. It's one reason my family tries to keep our youngsters from growing too attached to their bottle babies.

Being half angus, perhaps a bull calf is preferable.

I prefer jersey and guernsey cows but recently bought a holstein heifer from a friend that needed money.

She freshened recently and I find myself in hand milking hell at the moment with four cows a day to milk.

Time to get a few extra calves or some help with the milking considering milking isn't the only thing I do.