What To Do About Daisy?

Daisy is the matriarch of our little dairy herd.  There is no question she is the boss.  Daisy came to us back in 2007 as a baby calf on the side of her momma.  Her mom was named Buttercup, but we called her momma cow.  She died and that leaves Daisy as the oldest Jersey on Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.

Here is the plot twist.  After having numerous calves, Daisy now is having problems getting pregnant.  She has been exposed to several bulls over the last 2 years, but for some reason, she can't get pregnant.  We've had the veterinarian come look at her and he can't find any cysts or any reason why she can't conceive.  Recently we took her down the road to a friend's home who has a Jersey bull.  Daisy came in heat, the animals bred, and we took her home.  We took a blood sample to test for pregnancy and... it came back negative.

Tricia and I are faced with a tough decision.  If she can't get pregnant, she is a taker and not a giver - just eating grass.  If she can't get pregnant, she can't produce milk.  If you are a "milk cow" and can't produce milk, you have a serious problem.  We can't keep her on the farm.  We can sell her to the sale barn or we can 'put her in the freezer.'  Although we've eaten bull calves off our herd, the thought of eating Daisy or Rosie, is not a nice thought to entertain.  However, selling her to the sale barn where she would be loaded on a big cattle trailer with dozens of other cows to be transported far away to be butchered is not pleasant either.

So...  We talked to our friend down the road with the Jersey bull and he wants to continue to try to have his bull breed her.  We brought Daisy back to his house today.

According to Tricia's calendar, Daisy should go into heat shortly.  As soon as we got her out of the trailer, she ran to the fence and the bull came near.  We put her into the pasture and the bull immediately started courting her.  Here he is rubbing on her rump with his head.

We are pretty sure that they will breed in the next few days, and we truly hope that Daisy is able to have a calf.

If Daisy only knew the pressure that she is under to have this calf!  She's on the clock.  If she can't get pregnant after a couple more attempts, we'll have to make some hard decisions.