On May 31, our first AI calf was born!! He is a well built bull calf. Officially he is 1/2 Hereford, 1/4 Angus and 1/4 Maine anjou. His momma always has nice calves! This was our first attempt at AI and our first time breeding with herefords. I love the way he turned out.
We had 3 cows to breed last year and thought we would try our hand at artificially inseminating them. It was a lot of work to line up the vet to come out for each stage of it, watch the cows for heat and then watch them after insemination for signs of heat in case it didn't take. We had one first-time heifer that was done 2 times and never took, which I hear is pretty normal. We also had another heifer that took and was preg-checked positive and lost it. So, out of 3 cows inseminated this will be our only calf :( I was really hoping for at least 2/3. The cost was cheaper than buying a bull, but pretty expensive to only get 1 calf!
I have decided to buy a bull for this year and hope he does his job! For some reason I feel much better knowing there is a bull out there doing his job over and over if it doesn't take the first time or the second time. We don't, however, want a bull to keep around all the time so he will probably get sold back and we will have a new one every year.
This year we have 7 heifers and cows to be bred and I cannot wait for all the little ones next year!!
I have tons of farm news to report and hopefully soon I can get it all on here!! Life has just been so busy lately!
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