Wednesday, October 22, 2008

House of Hormones

This morning as I went through my routine with the cows, it occurred to me that I am always dealing with bovine hormones in one way or another! Edy and Mayfield are both bred and about half way through their gestation. They are pretty stable at this point other than having voracious appetites. Edy literally runs to the milking shed to be first in line at milking time. Then she will come back a second and a third time to see if she can sneak back in line again and get another share of the vitles! Mayfield is not quite as pushy, but usually comes with a string of hay hanging out of her mouth enroute to get her grain.

Then there is Maya. Maya should calve sometime in the next few weeks. She can be very pushy with the other cows, although she never shows any agression with humans. Right now she seems to be almost glowing with her very pregnant belly.

Poor Dixie just calved a week ago and had a rough delivery. She still does not feel the best and it almost makes me think she has post partum depression.

Sugar is still young enough that she has not hit the hormonal stage. Nelly and Scarlett have regular heats (every 21 days) and are the teenagers of the group! We have to keep the away from the bull so that they do not get bred too early.

And today, Butter is in heat for the first time since she calved about six or seven weeks ago.

And the bull...................well, he's always hormonal!

What does all this mean? Interpreted it means that I have moody cows and I never know for sure what milking time will bring!