Heifers.
They’re young cows in their first pregnancy (hopefully). These are the same heifers we did the pregnancy blood test on earlier this year. This time we are having our vet palpate the calf fetus to see 1. If they are still pregnant 2. How old the fetus is. (which he can tell by the size) 3. Then tell us approximately his calculation as to due date. 4. By the date, we can tell if they took on the AI (and compare it to the blood test) or if they were “covered” by a bull in “clean-up” or their next heat cycle.
Does that mean anything to you, or is it too full of confusing details?
How about we start with gathering the pasture…
Yes, smoke is bad out here from all the wildfires. I’m zoomed in with my camera some, and you can see Daniel and the heifers coming down the hillside. If you enlarge the photo, you can see Tina (Daniel’s dog) off to the right of Daniel.
I ride up a different draw looking for heifers. All I find is someone watching ME!
Then it’s by the homestead, through the gate…
Up and over the hill, through another gate, then down to the corral.
It’s an easy gather… and the heifers are cooperative. We’re done well before the vet is due. You already know what Tess and I did to pass the time.
Our Good Doctor pulls his hydraulic squeeze chute up the mountain with his pickup and the guys set it up. It’s a process! But soon we’re running heifers through the chute, the vet is checking them, Daniel running the squeeze chute, Brandon vaccinating, Tess and Vernon running the heifers up the alley, and Johnny and I on paperwork duty.
You’d think we’d done this before!
We’ll do it again on Thursday, so if you have any questions… ask them fast and I’ll try to get you an answer!
How many different bulls do you use for AI? I’d guess you’d have to keep track of what calves were out of what bulls, or no? I used to be fascinated by my Dad’s bull books when he did AI for the farmers around our area. I also loved if I could be part of picking bulls for our own cows, especially my cow.
As a devoted fan of The Incredible Dr. Pol tv show, I understood all those details!
That hydraulic chute looks amazing and it looks pretty new! How does the vet transport it? Does he tow it on a trailer behind his truck, or what? I’ll bet he feels a lot more comfortable preg checking with that than he used to, without it. How often is he unable to use it and why might that happen (terrain too rough, or it’s a little temperamental?) What does he do then?
Beautiful photos, Carol!
Is clean up their next heat cycle? (I understand covered by a bull) So a fetus from a bull would probably be smaller because it got a later start? This is interesting.
Good looking girls!