Sunday, March 20, 2016

Don't read this, just don't do it!

Really, just don't. You don't want to read what I'm about to say. It's down and dirty. It's really farmy. It's just wrong.



Really? Are you sure you're ready for this? 



Okay. You asked for it


So I was out milking Elsie the other day, and her keeper mentioned that she was being amorous. That she was trying to mount him and even mount her chunky monkey of a calf. Then I suddenly found myself saying, "now I'm no expert on cow 'units', but it sure looks mucous-y."  Yep, I said that outloud.  Oh, the look on the poor gentleman's face.




Part of Elsie's issues (and why she was so much less expensive than you normally find milk cows for) is that she was not bred back (preggers). The previous owner had told the current owner that her cycles were not regular and they were having a hard time getting her bred because of the irregular cycles.  Now, I've been milking her for about a month. I didn't write down the first time she came into cycle, but I swear it was 3 weeks ago.  Which is about right.  Due to the fact that she is mount-y and mucous-y, my non-expert opinion is that she is cycling RIGHT NOW.  

I decided I should learn a little something about it, since her owner has been talking about trying to breed her. Evidently the best time to bring in the bull is when a cow is in 'standing heat'.  During this period, cows stand to be mounted by other cows, as opposed to moving away.  This is a fairly brief period of time - generally 15 to 18 hours, but may be as little as 8 hours or as much as 30 hours. Other signs of cows cycling are: mounting other cows (she did that!), mucus discharge (yep), decreased feed intake and milk output (I was wondering why she wasn't producing as much!), bellowing and restlessness, swelling and reddening of the cow 'unit' (please excuse the colloquialism, I just can't go there yet).  Learn even more here.

So I learned something new, and hopefully you have, too! Bet you never knew you needed to know that!

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