We Hope It Will "Take" This Time

We were disappointed to see Luna go into heat again.  We had brought her down the road to be bred about three months ago.  A friend of ours has a registered Jersey bull and charges $100 - $150 stud fee.  The fee is guaranteed in the sense that if the cow is not bred, we keep bringing her back until she becomes pregnant.  The friend only lives about five miles down the road.  The close proximity is important to us because if the cow we bring to have bred is still in milk, we travel to her each day to milk her.

We track our cows' cycles and when we noticed Luna go into heat after having been exposed to the bull, we contacted our friend to schedule the services of his bull, loaded Luna up in the trailer and rolled north on Highway 26 to Hathaway, Louisiana.  We unloaded her from the trailer as the big bull came to check out the new girl. 

On Saturday we got a call from the friend with an update.  The bull and Luna stayed together for several days and although he didn't see the breeding take place, he saw signs of breeding on her tail.  After that the bull and Luna stayed on opposite sides of the pasture.  Hopefully a fertile seed was planted.  We made arrangements to go pick her up Sunday after church.  We hooked up the trailer to Benjamin's truck and made the short trip.

We retrieved Luna and the big bull came up to the fence to tell her goodbye after we got her out.

He had mud caked all over his head.  Bulls are notorious for rubbing their heads all over everything.  What a muddy guy!

When we pulled back up to the house, Luna was excited when she heard the cows at home moo-ing to welcome her back.  She lifted up one ear in anticipation.  I take that back about the cows welcoming her back.  They were probably lamenting her return.  Luna, although a runt, is the bully of the pasture.  She has lots of self-confidence and thinks she is big and bosses the other cows around.
 

We opened the gate and let her back into the pasture.  She glared at us and then trotted off to re-assert herself as Queen of the pasture.

We are hoping that she is bred this time.  One thing that worries us a little is that she is fat like a beef cow instead of a dairy cow.  We have been told sometimes that will affect their ability to become pregnant.  We've got the date marked on the calendar.  If she comes in heat again, we'll make the short trip back to try again.  If at first you don't succeed...