Post by josiegirl on Feb 18, 2024 21:36:45 GMT -5
Ok nina s post about her mini jerseys got me thinking. Maybe I should get some mini jersey semen. I hadn't given much thought to mini cows before but am wondering if that would be a good direction to go in. If we decide to sell, I think that would be a plus that they'd be bred to mini jerseys cuz people love em, and if we stay with cows oh my goodness they're so cute. And since I will be rearranging things so that I am able to do things myself and therefore feeding small bales it'd be nice to have cows that eat less hay.
Ok so my main concern is I am not paying 250 per straw for sexed semen, as great as that would be. So it will have to be conventional. We got two heifers in a row, so. Odds are we'd get a bull. Maybe Emmy would give us a heifer but she doesn't have a great temperament so I don't know if I'd even use mini jersey on her.
What do you do with a mini jersey bull? I suppose sell them? They'd be useless as meat I imagine.or are they? I thought hey maybe keep him around to breed Lottie (yeah they'd be related but I think Josie's worth line breeding anyway. I assume this is fine for one generation). But.... By the time he'd be ready to breed would he be dangerous? I would assume yes, and that's not a risk id take. But it'd be sort of convenient to use him to breed Lottie before selling or banding. Does banding after theyve reached sexual maturity reduce aggression?
Yep, lots of questions. Easiest thing to do would be to bring Josie over to the belted Galloway. That's still an option. But we've had JoJo for 4 years now , she's 8, and she is truly a wonder cow. Her udder still looks great, she's always bred easily, very few problems with mastitis, and only really gave us a milk fever(actually probably magnesium deficiency) scare once. She's amazing and I'd love to get a true jersey out of her before it's too late. True, maybe she'd go til she's 14. But I'd kick myself if we lost her before getting a beautiful jersey heifer out of her.
Also, I am open to nz jersey genetics but assume it's as expensive. Maybe someone can weigh in on that. Don't really want standard jersey cuz it'd be nice to do less grain.
Ok so my main concern is I am not paying 250 per straw for sexed semen, as great as that would be. So it will have to be conventional. We got two heifers in a row, so. Odds are we'd get a bull. Maybe Emmy would give us a heifer but she doesn't have a great temperament so I don't know if I'd even use mini jersey on her.
What do you do with a mini jersey bull? I suppose sell them? They'd be useless as meat I imagine.or are they? I thought hey maybe keep him around to breed Lottie (yeah they'd be related but I think Josie's worth line breeding anyway. I assume this is fine for one generation). But.... By the time he'd be ready to breed would he be dangerous? I would assume yes, and that's not a risk id take. But it'd be sort of convenient to use him to breed Lottie before selling or banding. Does banding after theyve reached sexual maturity reduce aggression?
Yep, lots of questions. Easiest thing to do would be to bring Josie over to the belted Galloway. That's still an option. But we've had JoJo for 4 years now , she's 8, and she is truly a wonder cow. Her udder still looks great, she's always bred easily, very few problems with mastitis, and only really gave us a milk fever(actually probably magnesium deficiency) scare once. She's amazing and I'd love to get a true jersey out of her before it's too late. True, maybe she'd go til she's 14. But I'd kick myself if we lost her before getting a beautiful jersey heifer out of her.
Also, I am open to nz jersey genetics but assume it's as expensive. Maybe someone can weigh in on that. Don't really want standard jersey cuz it'd be nice to do less grain.