FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: THE BEAST

If you are active in the twitter world, you might know of the hashtag beast mode. This is a phrased used for when one is always at the top of their game, cannot be stopped, and draws the attention of everyone around them. This describes 106, "the beast," in our barn. She is a big girl and one of the oldest cows on the farm. She produces 109 pounds per day and is always in beast mode.

When this cow walks into the barn you cannot miss her; she commands the attention of everyone in the room. She has her spot, and NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, can go in her spot. If someone does manage to sneak into that spot, she will wait patiently for you to move them out, then she will saunter into the spot with grace and ease. She will get this spot no matter what and will not even think of going anywhere else. She's a big girl with an attitude and that is why she is my featured cow of the week.

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: OUR BULLS

This weeks featured cow of the week is going to be all the bulls that help out with our farm.

We usually use AI, artificial insemination, on our farm. We do this for many reasons. One is because of its convenience. All we have to do is have a tank to hold the semen straws, and then when a cow is in heat (aka ovulating) we will AI her with the bull that fits her best. Another reason is to prevent in-breeding. Because we only need to semen straw, we could breed our cows with bulls from all over the world. Where if you only have a couple bulls, you may need to worry about crossing breeding lines. A third reason is safety. Bulls are dangerous animals, especially Holstein bulls are known for their aggression. If we use AI, no bulls will be needed on the farm. One of Cindy's favorite bulls is Jeeves, from ABS.



Jeeves

We do also have a herd bull. We use him to help breed the heifers that we could not get with AI, it can be hard to get some heifers bred with AI because it is only done once and there is always room for human error. We will put her out with the herd bull and he will do the job. To help keep our farm safe, we only have a young bull, usually sell them by at least 4 years of age, we also keep the nicest one.

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: SUGAR BELL

This weeks featured cow of the week is Sugar Bell. Her story is also a unique one on the farm. She was originally a cow on Cindy and Ray's daughter's farm, but for right now, Katie gave Sugar Bell to her mom and dad. She showed up as a dry cow (a cow that is not milking because she is on her two month break between lactations,) with a bell on her neck, hence her name Sugar Bell.

Here is a close up on her bell.

Sugar Bell had a calf on June 18th, a beautiful little bull calf, who Cindy is thinking about keeping for the herd bull (a bull who we keep on the farm to breed the cows that we cannot with AI, I will go more in depth about herd bulls next week.)

I now get the opportunity to milk her everyday. She is a very nice cow, enjoys a good petting, and she even can be led on a halter. Soon you will be able to see more pictures of her because Sugar Bell will be the cow I will take a picture with for my top 12 Princess Kay of the Milky Way article in the Agrinews.