Post by Mitra on Apr 19, 2010 16:30:56 GMT -5
Next month Helen will have been here for two years. She will also have her 14th birthday! During these two years we have been unable to get her bred in spite of seven different AI attempts. Four of those times, she stopped showing heats for five months at a time. Each time the vet checked her at five months or so, he declared her "open", including when he was here last Friday. Well darn it! She's had hormone shots which did result in a good heat, another AI attempt and 5 months later....open. Dairy farmers and the vet all agree on one thing, she is too fat.
In about two months Helen will be moving back to Joann's Coburn Farm, also Helen's birth place. The idea is that with all of the beautiful rolling pastures, she'll get to graze and walk off some of the tonnage and hopefully start cycling regularly again. We all want another Helen calf but mainly we want her fantastic milk so we hold out hope that she will be bred again.
She's also going to have to deal with being a nurse cow when she moves which we all agree she is going to HATE. But we don't want to dry her off. Joann has her hands full with milking her cow Jasmine so milking Helen is not an option - a calf will have to keep her in milk until Sally, Joann's daughter, comes back next winter. She loves to milk Helen so this is our solution. BTW, Helen also HATES the machine so she can only be hand milked or calf-drained .
I love hand-milking Helen. She has trained me well - my first cow But it's only in the last 6 months that we've really bonded. She actually prefers me to DH now ;D. I'm going to really miss her and her " 'tude".
In about two months Helen will be moving back to Joann's Coburn Farm, also Helen's birth place. The idea is that with all of the beautiful rolling pastures, she'll get to graze and walk off some of the tonnage and hopefully start cycling regularly again. We all want another Helen calf but mainly we want her fantastic milk so we hold out hope that she will be bred again.
She's also going to have to deal with being a nurse cow when she moves which we all agree she is going to HATE. But we don't want to dry her off. Joann has her hands full with milking her cow Jasmine so milking Helen is not an option - a calf will have to keep her in milk until Sally, Joann's daughter, comes back next winter. She loves to milk Helen so this is our solution. BTW, Helen also HATES the machine so she can only be hand milked or calf-drained .
I love hand-milking Helen. She has trained me well - my first cow But it's only in the last 6 months that we've really bonded. She actually prefers me to DH now ;D. I'm going to really miss her and her " 'tude".