This, That and the Other

Time for this that and the other.

Thought I’d follow up on some previous posts.

Cow # 541 who had the C-section (see December 3) is doing great and producing up to par.

Cow # 337 who had surgery to remove stones and nails (see November 19) from her stomach is doing great, too.

Some calving statistics for the year are as follows:
               There were 464 heifers (girls) born
               There were 457 bulls (boys) born
               We had 51 sets of twins

Our busiest month was June with 10 sets of twins and a total of 108 calves born while March was our slowest with 61 calves born.

We are just starting to use sexed semen.  We want heifers, so the male – Y bearing sperm, has been removed, which results in 90% success rate of having females born. We use the sexed semen on heifers (virgins) only. Also, we aren’t using it 100% of the time. Our herdsman selects the top dozen heifers (meaning they have good parents and a better chance of carrying good genes) and then from there he takes the top 50%.

The sexed semen is 4 times the price as the regular semen, but if a heifer results from the use of the sexed semen we would be farther ahead financially. This is new to us and we are learning as we go.

The cats try to help out with the bird issues in the barn.

One of our issues is birds. They seem to have family reunions at the farm. They get inside the barns and cause problems. We have a pre-recorded bird call sound machine. The hope is that the predator bird calls will scare the pesky birds out. It doesn’t work so well.

Expanding the dining room table for dinner.

One thing that is constant around here is family. They are in and out and intertwined and we love it. We have Sunday dinner here most Sundays and most of the times, all show up. At times, some are out of town or have other plans. It’s our way of staying connected separate from the farm.

Sacked out after dinner - a common occurrence.

Extra time is being spent in the dungeon office (Farmer has decorated it in his style – messy). There is a lot of book work waiting for me to conquer and not my favorite thing to do. Our accountant will start making visits and bless her heart, she never complains.

The snow has come to stay for a while and it’s an unwelcomed intruder as far as Famer is concerned. I on the other hand think it is lovely. Especially from my warm comfy chair here at the computer.

Time to head back to the dungeon, Farmer is rattling the chains.