A few weeks ago, we had Giovanni come out to AI Bethany. He seemed mighty ambivalent about whether it would work or not: she didn't seem to feel fertile. "It might work," he said.
But he had driven to the farm, and so we told him to go ahead. I did check the American Milking Devon listings that night (as I check almost weekly): no bulls within two hours; none in our state. North Carolina could work; maybe we could ship one down from northern Vermont.
Out of the blue the next day, I got a call from a bull owner, ready to sell. He had owned a bull for a few months, and had decided it was too much trouble. An Amish man, he had paid trucking from a farm in Pennsylvania (if you've seen the movie The Village, you've seen the herd of cattle this bull came from).
Further, the bull is so photogenic, he's on a calendar!
I called the previous owner, and asked her opinion about the bull. "In twenty years of breeding Milking Devons, he's the best bull I've had. Extremely fertile, excellent conformation, docile. I walked him onto the trailer when he left." Five years old, when she heard the asking price, she said, "Buy that bull up and be extremely thankful."
So we did. We ended up having him delivered, which was fantastic, well worth the trucking charges. Phil had time to bring Babe and Toots, who we'd rather not breed for three more months, down to the lower pasture (challenging. As he said: "Don't try to walk heifers, unbroken to a lead, down away from the herd. It's easier to just use electric wire to herd them along"). We got the pen all set up for the bull. And when the bull arrived, we made a little walkway, tied Bianca to the corner of the fenced in area, and let the bull walk right down.
My first thought, as he stepped off the trailer onto our farm, was, "He looks like a buffalo." Similar coloring, same enormous chest, same smallish, forward facing horns. He walked straight where we wanted him, and all was good.
Phil and I went out every few hours to watch him. Bianca mounted him right away, but he showed her no interest. I'm hoping that was her way of saying, "Welcome." Bianca followed him around, but he showed little interest.
He has a pleasant face, I think, with lighter patches around the eyes. (You can see Phil in the background, holding up fence posts to look like horns.)
He went to each of the girls and smelled their urine, even taking a small taste and then holding out his nose and sniffing, exactly as we were taught to do at a wine tasting. He must have been getting their essence, because he then attached himself to Bethany and did not leave her side.
I'm assuming that she wasn't in heat when Giovanni came.
He's a big animal. When he stands next to Bethany, as he is, no part of her is visible except her legs and the tips of her udder. He covers her completely: deep chest, straight back, massive head, wide rump. Good testosterone hump over the shoulders.
It was quite an interesting ballet in the paddock. They stood motionless, side by side, and he would suddenly turn his head over her neck, and she would move away. Not in standing heat yet, but enough to get the bull noticeably excited.
And, as to the economics of having a bull: with only five kine to breed this year, it seems a bit excessive. But I was interested to note in the book of Genesis that Jacob, surely a master husbandman if there ever was one, sent Esau, as a gift, "forty kine and ten bulls" (32:15). By that ratio, we're ready for a bull!
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A few other photos of the day. A nice photo of Belle. (I no longer feel ill when I see her ear. It's part of who she is, my learning on the farm, and she is beautiful to me.)
And Beatrice, with adorable little horn buds poking out.
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In this photo, perhaps not appropriate for a family blog, I am simply disappointed that our little ram isn't getting the job done on the ewe, twice his size. He has been trying to impregnate her since November, and is just not quite big enough, I'm afraid. (I keep mumbling something about, "Large sheep who can't be bred need to go," but Phil holds out hope. And since he now controls the finances, and since he would be the one to pull the trigger, I'll let him make the call.)
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Phil built me a beautiful door into the greenhouse. (He actually did it on Friday, but I forgot to take a picture until today.)
I see we have a friend in common - MJ lent us Snowman to breed our cows our first year. I can say we were very pleased - the calves all have great dispositions, were born unassisted and are very healthy.
ReplyDeleteWe never saw him doing much, but you couldn't argue with the results. All our girls had calves right on schedule.
He must have gone to work the first day. He was always mannerly and pleasant to have around - I'm so glad you were able to give him a good home.