Saturday, March 24, 2012

Big Tub O'Dorie

I'm sure she's tired of me following her around with a camera.
I'm also pretty sure there's the beginnings of a baby bump there, on her left side.
She can't really be that fat, can she?  I mean, if it was just fat, she would look fattier along her back bone, right?

We got Steaks last August, so the earliest we should expect calves, is May 22nd.  We butchered him Nov 14th, making our last possible calving date August 23rd.

 I have a while to wait.

9 comments:

  1. Will she pee on a stick if you promise to stop following her with a camera? Maybe if she poses her baby bump, you can get her on a magzine and famous.

    Hmmm, wonder if a human pg test would work on any animal? How on earth would a person know with 100% certainty that a cow is pg without using a vet. Can you feel her to see? If you get really close, can you see or feel the calf move?

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    1. LOL, no, definitely not. Well, she might be willing, but I am not holding the stick for her. Have you ever seen a cow pee?

      There are cow pregnancy tests, and of course they can be vet checked, and some more experienced folk might even be inclined to stick their hands up in there and feel around as well.

      For me, 100% certainty will be when the calf is on the ground. Even if she isn't pregnant, we wouldn't attempt to rebreed her until July, so there's no point in rushing or causing possible harm.

      It's just exciting to think that the experiment may have worked!

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    2. No, I have not seen a cow pee. I presume it is a gully washer. So, tape the test to a yardstick...lol. just kidding!

      So, I can see why you will wait and see. Boy cow and girl cow.......Your experiment should have worked. Steaks will have left you something, and Dorie will give you milk. That's a good system you have. It's too bad that a time-tested tradition should be so foreign to most of us. People with bulls/steak, milk cows/Dorie, meat and egg animals get to see all this played out.

      I suppose you never had to give your boys much of a talk about sex...just position...lol.

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    3. Well, the experiment was with the age of the bull, 14 months when we got him, 17 months when we butchered. We never saw him in action, so we're hoping he was old enough to do the deed.

      No, I think the boys get the general idea.

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  2. I don't know anything about cattle, Wendy, but the ones I've seen at exhibition have huge bellies and are still pretty boney in the hip and back areas. Do you show your animals?

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  4. To Practical Parsimony,
    Cow pee goes like this. The cow lifts its tail and this pressurized stream of yellow come squirting out, splattering anything within a 3'-5' range behind the cow, much like a random garden hose, but much ickier.

    Dorie is pretty as cows go. What breed is she? Holsteins are still very bony in the hips, even when really pregnant. Haven't seen too many other varieties of cows in the motherly condition; my Aunt and Uncle's farm had mostly Holsteins with an occasional Brown Swiss as a "pet" for the kids and to increase the butter fat percentages in the milk yields.

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    1. lol, great description!

      We believe she's a limousine, or limousine cross. She was brought into the auction with a bunch of Herefords, bred, roughly three years old. She was a bit of an oddball there.

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