Monday, January 30, 2017

well, we did it

OK. So we have had cows since late summer 2010. We started with one bred Jersey cow. We still have her too, Maggie is her name. She will be 10 in October. WOW.
 I've learned so much about dairy cows in the last almost 7 years.
In that time the only way we have bred our cows is through AI. It's really nice, and affordable to do it too. And no worries about a bull. Seems that Jersey bulls are the ugliest, we've been told, by many other farmers. Great! But the company that we have used for AI services decided to double their charges to come to the farm starting in January this year. Ouch.  And then if they don't settle, they have to come back out. Another ouch. Well, we still need the AI tech for a little while longer, unless we don't want to breed cows....
So we decided to try raising our own bull. One that wasn't related to our girls, except his mama. So he can do his job, and no AI services needed. Hopefully we can have him for a couple years and sell him.

And here is Bouvardia "Bravo". He's a purebred, register-able Jersey.


He's only 5 days old here in this picture. He's so little and scrawny looking.  Hopefully he'll give us some nice heifers. His mom is doing really well, and is a nice first time milker.

Have a great day y'all!

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