Just so you'll know why I keep thinking my cow is about to calve

She's been doing this for four days.  I've seen lots of cows in labor, and this is exactly how they act.





She'll seem to have a contraction every five minutes or so for perhaps forty-five minutes, then she gets up, goes out to graze, and comes back to peacefully chew her cud.  I think she's doing it for attention!

cow-breeding problems

I took this picture Sunday of Secret and Meatloaf. He's standing behind her like that because she was in heat. You long-time readers from the old AOL site thought she was bred, right?

Meatloaf is a steer, which means he can't breed her. However, he's good at detecting when she's in heat, and that lets us know when to call the artificial breeder.

Well, the man has been here three times without success. Twice, the timing wasn't really perfect because the guy works a regular job, and we did the best we could.

Another thing that has delayed this whole process is that Meatloaf was a fugitive for a couple of months, and although Secret let us know she was in heat by her bellowing and fence-running, it's really hard to get the timing right without another bovine here to let us know when she's in "standing heat". So we didn't even attempt to have her bred during that time.

Last time, though, she was ready to be serviced on a Sunday, three weeks ago. The breeder-man doesn't work at his job on Sundays so he could come at the proper time, and the timing was what I'd consider perfect. I told him that if she didn't settle (see #29 HERE for the meaning of "settle"), we'd do something different. Like sell her, make hamburger of her (yes folks, I could eat her with no problem, but I'd rather not), or try to find a suitable bull, because there's a better success rate with a real, live bull. As an old dairyman once told me, "Of course bulls have better success; they have all the time and semen in the world."

I apologize to all the city slickers for these boring details, but I've had readers ask what happened to Secret, wondering how she's getting along.

Imagine our disappointment when she let us know she wasn't bred this past Sunday.

There's no Jersey bull available. There is one Angus bull to which we have access, but he's huge, and I'm afraid that even if Secret could hold his weight up for breeding, the resulting calf might be too large for her to safely deliver.


We have a friend with a small herd of Scottish Highland cattle. (Click on the picture to get a closer look.)

They have shaggy coats and long horns. They are even smaller than Jerseys, I believe.

Next weekend we'll take Secret there for a two-week visit; this way she can get acquainted with her new boy friend ahead of time. Heaven forbid she should cheapen herself by having a one-night stand.

If she indeed does get pregnant, at least the resulting calf should be very interesting to look at.

Cows come in heat every three weeks, so it will be awhile before we know the results. I'll keep you informed when we know something.