I experience an excited/dread feeling every year when it's time for ultra-sounding cows and freeze branding heifers. I can't wait to see if my girls are bred to that exciting bull that I have put painful thought into choosing for each one of them. If you have ever had a year when you completely strike out during breeding season you can understand what that anticipation feels like. We used several bulls that had very high priced semen and that always makes me nervous. Combine that with the fact that I thought our heats were pretty quiet and that I never saw one come back around and you can imagine how worried I was that we were just missing heats and nothing was going to be A.I. bred.
With the exception of two cows that calved very late and are very short bred or open yet, ALL of the cows and heifers are A.I. bred. I was ecstatic as each cow shuffled through the chute and was pronounced bred to her A.I. date. Next spring we will have a nice selection of Monopoly, Heat Wave, Rocky Balboa, Who(the original), Grizzly, Uno Mas and Gigolo Joe babies running around the pasture. How exciting!
Freeze branding went terrific as well. All of the heifers are now wearing a puzzle piece on their front left shoulder. Any heifers that are going to stay in the herd are also wearing their herd number and "X" on thier left hip. Brad and I laughed when I ran one of the two smokey heifers into the chute. I honestly have no idea what will happen there but I am hoping that the hair will be whiter than the rest...if not then they have invisible brands. LOL.
It is now late afternoon and I have taken my second shower for the day...probably not my last...and I am going to finish up on the computer and go join Darby and my blanky for a nap before I crawl out to do chores. I feel like a huge stress has been lifted and I plan to spend the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying my family.
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