Monday, October 8, 2007

She's Driving Me Crazy...

My big black cow Soir Noir that is. She was due the fourth. So far she hasn't bagged up at all, and is showing no signs of wanting to have her calf. She's also totally insane, has been since she was a calf herself. So, as I haven't got a death wish, I am somewhat hesitant to force her into the barn and try and do an exam on her. On top of that, with Dad hurt and out of commision for a while, I don't think it would be such a plan to get myself mangled and banged up too. (Plus I am going out with the family, and Brandon, for dinner Thursday, I'd rather not be in traction). I figure she's a big old girl. She'll calve when she calves, probably with a monster bull, and knowing her she'll be fine.

Her baby cousin Spruce on the other hand is being a sweet girl. She's due the 19th and is all bagged up and looking great. Unlike Soir, she is a darling. All I have to do to check on her is walk out into the barnyard while they heifers are down while we milk morning and night. She comes right up looking for pets, hugs and ear scratches. The biggest problem is getting her to NOT follow me into the barn, as we don't yet have a stall completely ready for her (gotta get on that quick). I gotta say I am looking forward to her baby. She is bred to Ocean-View Marsh Swain. He's a young sire we have quite a few calves out of already. They aren't show stock, but most of them are good sturdy looking commercial style calves, and we should have some luck getting milkers out of them. Only time will tell.

On another note, with Dad out of the line-up, I've been doing all our AI'ing on the cows. What a joy that has been. The day before he got hurt, I started an Ov-Sync protocol on my two Zenith daughters, Mandy and Chicago. Thankfully Chic is nice and small. Mandy on the other hand is my monster, as my sister says "freak", cow. That one that is as tall as me that I show every year. I was darned if I was going to stop the regimine. So I bred them myself. Oh the fun that was. But they are both on service now. Mandy to Cousteau, and Chic to Kenyon. Will be interesting to see if the animals I am breeding are settling at all.

Oh, and anybody up for a pig roast? Cause I may kill Daddy dearests pigs, as they are driving me to drink, and I don't drink...

4 comments:

Jenna said...

I was just curious what kind of exam you do on your over-due cows. I know some people say you should check them rectally if they aren't showing signs of labor and feel the cervix that way. Was just wondering if you did a vag. exam and if you wear a glove when you assist/ check calving progress?

Also, how did your AI'ing turn out? Are all of the cows you did settled? Anyway, just curious as this is my main job on our farm.

Paintsmh said...

Hi Nicole. I don't usually do any rectals on the springers. Just a visual and I occasionally check to see how much the tendons and ligaments have loosened up in their rumps. And if I have to do something with them during calving I just scrub up good. I've never had any luck using gloves or breeding sleeves when pulling or turning a calf, just too much slip with them.

As far as the AI'ing, out of the four I bred three settled, with the one that didnt being the big show cow, who I really couldnt reach and she really didn't respond to the ov sync like she should have. Sadly the Jersey I bred dumped her calf on me. So now only two of them are settled, but that still isn't too bad.

Jenna said...

Sorry to hear about the jersey. 75% conception rate is realy good. We have some huge cows too. It does make things intresting sometimes, a little more height and longer arms would come in handy :)
We have about 1/3 jerseys and 2/3 holsteins, and 8 brown swiss and a gurnsey out of 1,200 cows. The swiss are to stubborn to get rid of, and the gurnsey is just for good measure.

Paintsmh said...

We run nearly all Holsteins. But I bought a really high quality Jersey a few years back for show and have her and her offspring and such. We're only milking about 60.