Post by Applelonia on Mar 7, 2019 0:22:58 GMT -5
France is the sweetest cow and her daughter Cordelia shares the same calm, respectful, mellow temperament...except when they are in heat. They are CRAZY! I thought “oh she can’t be any worse than France”...and I wanted to wait until she was older and bigger, so I didn’t breed her this past fall/early winter.
She is way worse than France.
Each heat cycle she seems to get more intense ...last heat she crawled up on the stall wall trying to climb over, but she seemed to stop after she got herself stuck for several minutes.
But today ...she was completely out of control 😩 It was a disastrous situation. I was milking and all of a sudden France picks up her right back hoof and gently puts it on my hand and moves my hand away from her udder ...odd 🤔...”Frances what are you doing?” I paused and stood up and moved the bucket back and she carefully moved way over towards me just as Cordelia tried to crawl up on the stall wall. France is a good cow.
It’s icy out back behind the barn still, but I opened up the heifers’ door this morning in hopes Cordelia would take her crazy mooing self outside. She calmed down some this afternoon but this evening was bad.
She jumped up on the stall wall three times in a matter of ten minutes. She got stuck once and I pushed her caught leg back over. The third time her front legs and front end were hanging over and it was clear as she tipped forward that she had every intention of falling into France’s stall. France caught her with her horns and pushed her back up on the wall. Cordelia’s front legs were hanging over as France repeatedly horned at her chest and underside of neck trying to get her to back off. Cordelia was like a beached whale. France then just put her horns on the base of her neck and pushed her back over the wall. Cordelia’s leg got caught and she struggled but got it pulled back. Chunks of her fur were along the top edge of the wall.
It looked like a disaster waiting to happen...Cordelia immediately attempted her fourth jump...I got her and Dazzling locked outside of the barn.
They are not used to being out in the snow at night. I made them a hay bed. Last check they were waiting behind the door in the snow wanting in. I needed to close the top Dutch doors because Cordelia was trying to crawl over them.
We have bulls in the neighborhood...I just hope she doesn’t go to find them in the night 😳...our fence is drifted in to the top in areas ~ I’m hoping her weight makes her break through the snow drifts and she can’t escape but there are really hard packed in areas. She was thundering around in belly deep snow trumpeting. And in the less snow area that’s icy, Dazzling was trying to crawl up on her.
But I decided it’s better to leave her out than have her get stuck on the stall or injure Frances in the process. I wanted to get Dazzling inside but there’s no safe way to separate them in Cordelia’s current state ...
Think I’ll have her bred in June ...March calf isn’t ideal for a Minnesota calf, but she’s going to hurt herself or a herd-mate or me at this rate. As I was getting her locked out she decided she might want to come over the Dutch door. I just kept bopping her on the nose with my pvc pipe to get her to stay down as I got the top door securely latched.
She is way worse than France.
Each heat cycle she seems to get more intense ...last heat she crawled up on the stall wall trying to climb over, but she seemed to stop after she got herself stuck for several minutes.
But today ...she was completely out of control 😩 It was a disastrous situation. I was milking and all of a sudden France picks up her right back hoof and gently puts it on my hand and moves my hand away from her udder ...odd 🤔...”Frances what are you doing?” I paused and stood up and moved the bucket back and she carefully moved way over towards me just as Cordelia tried to crawl up on the stall wall. France is a good cow.
It’s icy out back behind the barn still, but I opened up the heifers’ door this morning in hopes Cordelia would take her crazy mooing self outside. She calmed down some this afternoon but this evening was bad.
She jumped up on the stall wall three times in a matter of ten minutes. She got stuck once and I pushed her caught leg back over. The third time her front legs and front end were hanging over and it was clear as she tipped forward that she had every intention of falling into France’s stall. France caught her with her horns and pushed her back up on the wall. Cordelia’s front legs were hanging over as France repeatedly horned at her chest and underside of neck trying to get her to back off. Cordelia was like a beached whale. France then just put her horns on the base of her neck and pushed her back over the wall. Cordelia’s leg got caught and she struggled but got it pulled back. Chunks of her fur were along the top edge of the wall.
It looked like a disaster waiting to happen...Cordelia immediately attempted her fourth jump...I got her and Dazzling locked outside of the barn.
They are not used to being out in the snow at night. I made them a hay bed. Last check they were waiting behind the door in the snow wanting in. I needed to close the top Dutch doors because Cordelia was trying to crawl over them.
We have bulls in the neighborhood...I just hope she doesn’t go to find them in the night 😳...our fence is drifted in to the top in areas ~ I’m hoping her weight makes her break through the snow drifts and she can’t escape but there are really hard packed in areas. She was thundering around in belly deep snow trumpeting. And in the less snow area that’s icy, Dazzling was trying to crawl up on her.
But I decided it’s better to leave her out than have her get stuck on the stall or injure Frances in the process. I wanted to get Dazzling inside but there’s no safe way to separate them in Cordelia’s current state ...
Think I’ll have her bred in June ...March calf isn’t ideal for a Minnesota calf, but she’s going to hurt herself or a herd-mate or me at this rate. As I was getting her locked out she decided she might want to come over the Dutch door. I just kept bopping her on the nose with my pvc pipe to get her to stay down as I got the top door securely latched.