It's Valentine's Weekend and love is in the air.
Friday it became apparent that one of the open cows was in heat. Since we do not have a bull old enough to service the cows at this time, that meant that I needed to call and get the girl a date! First of all, I had to determine which cow was in heat which is not always an easy task when all three bovines in that particular pasture were going through the antics of mounting each other. It also was made more difficult because It had been not quite three weeks since we artificially inseminated Butter. My first thought was that Butter was coming back in heat. After watching the girls and their antics for most of the afternoon, it finally became apparent that Maya was in standing heat.
I got on the phone to call the match maker. The match maker is my niece's wonderful husband who knows how to AI cattle and was gracious enough to volunteer to help us out. The last time he came to AI Butter, it was pouring down rain and there was mud up to our knees! This time when I called there was snow up to our knees in the barnyard and although he had a long list of things he needed to do, Matt was gracious enough to arrange his schedule so that he could come by and help out.
The actual Romeo chosen for the occasion was 7JE1044 Schultz Jevon Chili-P. Chili's dam is pictured at the top of this post. I chose him because he is a polled bull and I am really trying to get to the point where my entire herd is polled. He is a standard size bull and Maya is also a standard registered Jersey.
I am not sure if Maya enjoyed her romantic encounter or not. She calmly ate her hay while Matt played match maker. I guess that was her dinner before the romancing started!
The cows were not the only one's getting in on all the romance this weekend. This morning my wonderful husband rolled out of bed, went to the barn and began milking the cows. When I got down there in my lovely Carhartts with my mud boots and winter hat he gave me a big smile and said, "Happy Valentine's Day! I love you!"
Ah...........nothing sweeter than my farmer expressing his love while sitting on a bucket and milking my cows. Love is in the air!