Out riding fences

The Eagles sang a song "Desperado" about a rugged loner.  You probably know the part of the song where they sing, "You've been out riding fences for too long now."  What they are singing about is that in the old west, a cowboy would get on a horse and ride around the perimeter fences to make sure that the fences were in good shape (i.e. no broken barbed wire, posts, etc.)  It was lonely, unglamorous, but very necessary work.  Today's cowboys do it by 4 wheeler, truck, or even helicopter.

This morning at 5:30 I performed the task in the dark and on foot and found... Gasp!... a broken fence.  It took me only 5 minutes to fix, but the events that occurred last night involving Magnolia, our Jersey heifer, and the perpetrator, Stryker, our Jersey bull, are irreversible.  While we're on the country music and cowboy theme, there was a song by Johnny Lee in the movie "Urban Cowboy" called "Lookin' for love."  This is what transpired last night - love was definitely in the air and Stryker went lookin' for love.  We were trying to keep them in separate paddocks, but our fence was no obstacle for the power of love.  We'll know for sure in 21 days, but I think we'll be expecting a calf from Magnolia in 9 months.  Here she is posing below. 

Love me tender, love me sweet, never let me go

The reason we were trying to keep them separated is that for dairy heifers, the optimum time to breed is when the heifer is 15 months old.  Magnolia is 14 months old.  They say that if the animal is bred prior to 15 months, there is a greater probability of dystocia.  Dystocia is a 50 dollar, fancy way of saying, "difficult child-birth."  We pray this isn't the case.

So in mid-December Rosie will calve.  You can certainly tell that she's carrying, can't you?


Wide Load

 Then in July 2013, Daisy will calve.  And in August 2013, Maggie will probably calve.  Our little herd and dairy is growing. 

We'll be awash in milk.  That is a good problem!  Maybe we can begin to make cheese.