Agnes

Agnes, our cow, is a beauty.  She is a Black Angus beef cow, so city friends this means we do not milk her.  Well, technically we could, because she has all the equipment, but it would not be fun.  Agnes is here to produce calves.  Since we could not count on an immaculate conception for our cow, we needed a plan.

We discussed the options at length after more than one late night dinner with Our Friend the Farmer.  We could ‘do it’ the old-fashioned way (with a bull) or the new-fashioned way by AI (artificial insemination).  He was thinking of using AI for the first time on his heifers this year, as his heifer bull had not gotten the job done quickly enough last year.  Yes, we do have some of the most interesting conversations!  Discussing the ‘Sperms r’ Us Catalog’ (or whatever it is called), and the surprising fact that it wasn’t too costly, which surprised me, but then again I’d never had to pay for sperm before, which did make Our Friend the Farmer blush a bit.  He did eventually decide to AI his heifers, which seemed to go well.  He does have a bull in with them as sort of a ‘Clean Up Batter’, because the AI is not 100%.  I’ve named his bull Justin, as in ‘just in case’ the AI did not work.

It takes 3 trips for the AI expert to ‘do’ a cow….a shot & an implant, pulling out the implant and the big day.  Believe it or not, a large beef cow does not just stand around letting someone mess with their back-end, so she must be run into a head catch for each event.  Agnes, My Loving Spouse and I all got better and better at this with each opportunity.The big day!  The expert and the stuff!

There was a short lesson on a cow’s reproduction equipment, which was quite interesting.  Did you know that there are 4 ‘doors’ he must gently get through before he injects the semen?  Nope, me either… or that after injection if he massages the cervix a few minutes it could increase the conception rate about 5%?  See how much you could learn if you lived on a farm?Now we just wait and see…. hoping it worked and that there will soon be the sound of more little hoofs on the farm.

…..because we are really, really not set up here to borrow Justin.