Post by Lannie on Jul 18, 2014 19:51:10 GMT -5
Bandit AND her daughter Helen. I was pretty sure Helen was, and now she's starting to make her little heifer udder so I KNOW she is, but Bandit threw me a curve ball last year and lost her calf somewhere along the way, so she never did calve. I was finally able to get someone out to palpate her and he said everything was in order, and to get her to a bull, so I did, and since then there has been no sign of heats. But there weren't any heats last year, either.
So I've been sitting here thinking, well at least Helen will probably give us a calf in September, and I hope hope hope Bandit is really pregnant. But then there would be that one black grain of sand on my white beach... what if she ISN'T? All that changed this morning!
I've been trying to bump her calf for several weeks now, which isn't as easy as you might think, given her size and "good condition" at the moment. A couple of times I *thought* I might have felt something, but it could have been a muscle contracting (trying to keep her balance as I pushed), or even gas. You know Bandit. But this morning I gave a good hard push with both hands and felt something hard and round (a calf's head?). No WAY was that a muscle contraction, and unless she's been eating some pretty big rocks, there's a calf in there! WOOHOOOOO! She's due in about six weeks.
Cricket's going to visit her beau in 11 days, so as of now I have two calves due in the next two months, and another in May-ish next spring. We could sure use all three! We're about out of beef from the last steer, and having one to raise for the freezer and two to pay for hay will be wonderful! Our animals always eat before we do, so we weren't able to get beef last year because Cricket's calf has to go for hay. I wouldn't want to eat Little Miss Bean anyway.
So please, Heifer Fairy, go visit someone else this time. I've had enough girls for a while, and now we need a boy or two or three.
~Lannie
So I've been sitting here thinking, well at least Helen will probably give us a calf in September, and I hope hope hope Bandit is really pregnant. But then there would be that one black grain of sand on my white beach... what if she ISN'T? All that changed this morning!
I've been trying to bump her calf for several weeks now, which isn't as easy as you might think, given her size and "good condition" at the moment. A couple of times I *thought* I might have felt something, but it could have been a muscle contracting (trying to keep her balance as I pushed), or even gas. You know Bandit. But this morning I gave a good hard push with both hands and felt something hard and round (a calf's head?). No WAY was that a muscle contraction, and unless she's been eating some pretty big rocks, there's a calf in there! WOOHOOOOO! She's due in about six weeks.
Cricket's going to visit her beau in 11 days, so as of now I have two calves due in the next two months, and another in May-ish next spring. We could sure use all three! We're about out of beef from the last steer, and having one to raise for the freezer and two to pay for hay will be wonderful! Our animals always eat before we do, so we weren't able to get beef last year because Cricket's calf has to go for hay. I wouldn't want to eat Little Miss Bean anyway.
So please, Heifer Fairy, go visit someone else this time. I've had enough girls for a while, and now we need a boy or two or three.
~Lannie