A reprieve, and other bovine things

After I did the entry yesterday saying Jody was scheduled for the butcher, Cliff and I went on our walk.  When we came upon the cows, Jody was getting around pretty darned good.  Oh yes, she limped, but it wasn't so bad.  Cliff said, "If it were MY cow, I'd try letting her wait and have her calf.  She's walking around grazing with the others all the time.  But it's up to you."  
So when we got back to the house, I told Cliff to call the butcher shop and cancel.  If Jody should take a turn for the worse in the next couple of months and we decide to butcher her, Cliff will have to do it himself, here at home, because the local butcher shops will not be taking anything but deer for awhile once the season starts.  We're rolling the dice.  Don't you wish we could make up our minds?  One thing we're sure of, Jody won't be a keeper.  We're just trying to hold out for a heifer calf, and of course there's a fifty percent chance it won't be a heifer.  Shortly after she calves, we will take her to the butcher.  There will be more meat then anyway, because she is still growing.    
We bought a yearling Red Angus bull yesterday.  We put the horses out of the big lot and shut the cows in for the night, so the bull could get used to his new herd.  We've learned the hard way not to turn a new animal loose in the pasture.  They go running the fence looking for their old home, and usually escape.  
This morning I opened the gate.  Of course the horses had to play their usual game of chasing the new guy awhile, but they didn't go to extremes with it.  So the new bull is out in the wide-open spaces, and we're hoping for the best.  He'll have to learn about the electric fence; I hope that goes well.  We checked on him during our walk, and things were fine.  

Meet Red.  He isn't registered, but he is purebred (we think) Red Angus.    

Babe will be the first order of business on his new job, probably within the next month sometime.  As you can see, he is smaller than she, so it may be a challenge.  Bulls are very persistant (like horny males of all species), so we're hoping the hills around here work to his (and our) advantage.  Bonnie will be no problem for him, I'm sure, because Jerseys are small.  As a yearling, Red has a lot of growing to do and will be as big as Babe next year.  He'll get bored for awhile with only two cows, but we are going to look at a group of Jersey cows Thursday.  We may come home with one.  And next year, if he works out and stays here, he will also have Babe's calf and (if it's a heifer) Bonnie's calf to romance.    

I'm showing you this picture so you can see how very pregnant Bonnie is looking.  It's about five weeks until she calves.