I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post! It has been hectic here lately and the time just flew. Nathaniel has been gone for the last 3 days in Chadron taking a Select Reproductive Solutions class which means by the time he gets home he will be certified to AI cattle. I'm not so sure that the cows care if he is certified or not, but it would have cost about the same to pay our vet to AI the four milk cows as it cost for the class. This will allow us to breed all of our cows to some of the country's top bulls at a lower cost than actually owning 1 bull.
Delaney has had a busy week as well. While Nathaniel was gone, she had Kindergarten Roundup on Thursday, where she learned all about the school, the busses, and the lunch room.Yep, we even got to eat at the school =) Aren't you sad you missed it honey? Our first beef heifer of the year also calved this week, and it happened to be Delaney's black girl with a white line down her back - happily named Stunky. While feeding we noticed that Stunky looked much thinner than she had a few hours before, and was already cleaning - but no calf to be found. The only calf we could find was with an old cow that had no milk, but tried to eat Nathaniel's lunch when he grabbed hold of the calf. After watching this pair the better part of the afternoon, we decided that cow had not calved, but infact stolen the calf from the heifer. We now have little Buttercup here at the house, and Nathaniels black milk cow Magnus has adopted her quite well for a first calf heifer. I am not getting as much milk for the house now, but when I look out the window, she has a black calf on either side of her nursing away.
Our larger hereford gilt definately looks bred, and we turned the two younger gilts in with the boar this week. We now have 7 beef cows left to calve, 2 dairy heifers and 1 cow. We have 4 replacement heifers we saved from last year that will be first in line for Nathaniel to AI. Sheep are due in April too. I am excited for more babies!
