Cows In The Snow

Our winter has been snowy, cold and icy, but the Red Poll girls handled it all with ease:

They luxuriated in leftover hay, a soft and relatively warm place to snuggle on cold days. Notice the cow with her head down:

And a great place to lie down and chew their cuds, oblivious to the cars racing by on the county road:

Amy was one of the cows who always came rushing into the barn for grain, but she apparently had such a good winter on hay that she stopped bothering with the grain:

Life has been pretty good on the east side of the barn, where they have some protection from cold, westerly winds:

Alas, being on the east side of the barn doesn't protect them from snow:

When the winds are howling and the temperatures are frigid, the girls cluster close to the barn:

Violet has continued to get fatter and, if it is even possible at her age, taller. She's a big girl. I had to buy her an extra-large collar a year or two ago and loosen it perhaps six months ago. But I noticed her collar kept getting tighter and I fretted about it, because Violet will not let me touch her:

But one morning she came into the barn for grain and I noticed that only she and Gracie were left inside after everyone had eaten. I closed the barn door on them and was able to get Gracie outside, leaving only Violet. Then I herded Violet through the squeeze chute and into the head-lock gate. She was so wide that I feared she'd bust out the sides of the squeeze chute and so tall that she almost couldn't get her head in the gate. But I finally got her locked in place and was able to loosen her collar. If she gets too big for her collar again, I guess I'll just remove it:

Our weather finally moderated sufficiently for the sheep farmers up the road to bring me two more loads of stemmy hay (their sheep only eat the leaves). Because I didn't want to lure the cows out onto the slippery ice, we dumped it right inside the gate, near the stock tank:

Rosella was the first cow to discover it:

Then Scarlett joined her, and the next morning I found all six of them sleeping atop what they hadn't eaten. These red-haired gals are having a good life:

The Red Poll Girls

Violet and Scarlet watched me with interest as I snapped their picture. Someone behind them apparently wanted to get into the picture too but was squeezed out:

Life is good for six red cows and one white calf:

Jasmine and Gracie:

Gracie again. Some of my cows have lost weight, but Gracie seems to be fatter than ever:

One morning it was obvious that Rosella was in heat, so I called the A.I. (artificial insemination) technician. Then I lured Rosella into the barn with grain and locked her inside. She didn't seem to mind much, though she'd have preferred to be outside with her herd:

When the A.I. man arrived, I got Rosella into the squeeze chute and closed the head lock on her. She's used to this and was not alarmed:

The A.I. man got out a straw of frozen semen from a champion Red Poll bull, warmed it up and inserted it. It was all finished in short order and Rosella rejoined her herd:

Jasmine is looking very good this summer except that her hooves are beginning to grow too long again:

Finding good, tasty grass took more time and travel during the drought, but now that it's growing rapidly again, there's plenty of time for napping:

They cover every inch of their pasture, making sure they don't let any grass get too tall:

Little Lucky isn't all that little any more and I've taken a series of photos to use when I advertise him for sale. He's not very old, but he's big, strong and independent:

The Red Poll girls are a peaceful bunch, spending their days together as a family:

News And Drama On The Farm

With the arrival of warmer weather came graders to smooth out the gravel road. However, I still have huge piles of gravel on my lawn alongside the road. The town usually tries to clean that up so I won't mess with it until I see what they plan to do:

One morning I found my white hen dead in the coop. There were no injuries, so she must have died from being egg-bound or some other internal problem. I let the other hens out for the day and a fox killed one. Two in one day was too much, so I began locking them inside all day. I guess it's better to live in their coop than to be killed by foxes:

Remy is enjoying spring and covering a lot of ground each day while looking for grass or just playing:

He's also looking a little bit skinny, but I'll be worming him any day now. That's a twice per year job and it's just about time for the spring worming:

Blue, however, is definitely not looking skinny despite his drastically reduced rations:

He is getting less shy, though, and does run a lot while playing with Remy:

I thought all my cows were pregnant, but one morning I saw this - Rosella was mounting Scarlett and Scarlett was allowing it. That had to mean that Scarlett was in heat:

I called the artificial insemination man who promised to be out between 9:00 and 9:30, so I delayed feeding the cattle and then, when I got the three I wanted inside, I closed the barn door on them, trapping them:

I wanted the A.I. man to check Rosella since she was doing the humping, Scarlett, since she was standing when being humped, and Violet who he had said in January was carrying a calf but had never delivered:

The three of them were nervous while we waited, but I got to work herding them individually into the squeeze chute and separating them with sturdy boards, fore and aft:

The A.I. man declared Rosella to be most assuredly pregnant. Scarlett was most assuredly in heat, so he inseminated her. Her due date should be about January 16 of next year:

Violet was the mystery. I told him that I was beginning to fear a mummified calf inside her and he said that indeed, that's what it felt like. I decided to give her a bit more time and then call the vet. Violet needs to have the calf removed and re-bred if possible. If not, she may need to become hamburger:

A Day Of Artificial Insemination

It began early in the morning when I saw three cows acting as if they were in heat. Two had not yet been bred and I had been worried about them. The third had been bred but perhaps it hadn't taken. So I called the A.I. man and he said he'd be out at 2:00. I went out to the barn at 1:15 and rang the bell to call the cattle in for grain. When they arrived, I gave full bowls to the three I was after, and the others just got a dribble of grain. I locked a chain on collars of the three to be inseminated and then chased everyone else out of the barn. When I had the three I wanted alone in the barn, I closed the barn door, unhooked their chains and began to prepare:

 Miraculously, I got all three in the squeeze chute, separated by boards and waiting patiently. Gracie was the first in line, with her head in the locking gate:

 Amy and Violet were behind her, separated by boards, with a safe space between Gracie and Amy for the A.I. man to work:

 Gracie was the first to be checked. He said she was not in heat, which was good news because she'd been bred previously and was presumably pregnant. I let her out of the gate and out the barn door:

 Then we moved Amy up to the head gate and the A.I. man checked. He declared her in heat and inseminated her with bull semen I'd purchased months ago and he keeps stored in liquid nitrogen. Then we let her go:

 The next in line was Violet. She had not calved last year and didn't seem to be coming into heat this year. I feared that something was wrong and that she might have to turn her into beef:

 I brought Violet up to the head lock gate. She was so very wide that she barely fit in the squeeze chute:
 

 The A.I. man checked to see if she was in heat:

 And then he checked again. He said that I'd better go back over my records, for there was a 7 or 8 month old calf in there. I later checked my records and found I hadn't marked down any breeding date. But I did record her being in heat on June 22. She must have been bred on that date and I just forgot to mark it down, making the calf due about March 28. That's great news for both me and Violet. Stay tuned for news of a March birth:

The A.I. man and I left the barn and were chatting when a neighbor rode by and stopped to talk. Her appearance seemed to fit the day, the landscape and my retirement hobby. Such is the beauty of rural life:

The Red Poll Girls In August

I moved the Red Poll girls back across the road and into the south field, which is their home base. They seemed happy and contented:

Scarlet and Amy  were hanging out together when I took this photo. It is clear to me that cows, like people, form friendships based on their mutual personalities:

All six of them have been in high condition, perhaps even a bit fat:

Jasmine, number 32, has a distinctive face and ears which I can recognize at a distance. It has taken several years, but I've gotten so that I know them without even seeing their ear tags - well, usually:

The northern border of the field is soggy and filled with inedible Sedge. Nonetheless, the girls sometimes find some tender grass there:

Amy's udder is no longer swollen but it still shows signs of having been overfilled:

The girls usually stay so close together that they are touching and I have come to believe that is so they can rub the annoying flies off on each other's sides:

Life has been idyllic - except for the flies:

 Jasmine grew so huge and wide that I was anxious for her due date:

But one evening I saw Gracie and Jasmine in heat. They seemed enamored of each other, splitting off from the herd and acting amorous:

I got the artificial insemination man out the next morning and he confirmed that neither one of them had a calf inside and that Jasmine was most certainly in heat. Whether Gracie was in heat was less sure, but neither was pregnant and both acted like this was the time, so I had them both artificially inseminated:

Jasmine was locked inside the barn while Gracie was inseminated. Then it was her turn. They don't seem to mind the process at all, though they are a bit nervous about being restrained. So it's been a bad year for calves. The first calf died and then I discovered two cows who were not pregnant: