The girls are pregnant!
Getting your house cow pregnant is always a hassle, with just a few cows we have tried all sorts of arrangements from borrowing a bull (not that simple) to floating our house cow to a Jersey farm (farmers often don’t want the responsibility of another cow) to AI (very expensive). All of these methods are reliant on working in a limited time period.
So this year we tried a new plan…..’Bobby the Bull” we got Bobby as a three day old (unwanted by-product) calf and hand raised him, hoping he would get to work while he was young and manageable, then move him on (into the freezer).
Well Bobby did the job! He’s only 8 months old and he’s got the girls pregnant! What’s even better (for Bobby) is instead of going to the freezer he’s going to Merrie Bee Organic Farm along with Trixie our nice house cow. In the meantime we’ll get another little boy to hand raise for next year.
This may all seem a bit callous but if you want a house cow you have to deal with the boys (at least 50% of your calves will be little bulls), this means selling them for beef or eating them yourselves, it’s the few very lucky ones that live to a ripe old age.
