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.