Promised Land Homestead

Success!

Not in breeding Chloe.  Just in drawing blood from her.  We were only 1 for 4 before today, and even on the one successful try we barely got enough to send in for testing.  This time was wonderful.  I only had 10 minutes to get it done this morning before I had to go to work, and I was not optomistic. 

First off, I thought I was going to have to walk around in the dark pasture trying to find Chloe, and once I did, I'd have to herd her in while trying to herd Pumpkin out of the barn.  Nope!  There was Chloe standing right there in the barn, and Pumpkin is out in the pasture.  I just closed the gate so she couldn't escape.  Then I tried enticing her with some grain in the stanchion.  She was tentative, to say the least.  You could see the conflict in her.  Her addiction to grain vs. knowing something unpleasant was going to happen if she stuck her head in that stanchion.  For the last 9 months, everytime she's been put in the stanchion she's either been AI'd, palpated, or had a needle stuck in her tail.

Eventually the grain addiction won and she sauntered into the stanchion.  Then I expected all kinds of dancing as DW tried to find the vain.  Nope!  She stood like a champ.  Not that she was enjoying it, but she stood perfectly still, which is very helpful when you're trying to find a 1/4 inch vein with a 1/8 inch needle.  DW didn't hit it right away, but didn't have to search long.  For future reference, her tail vein is to the right of where it's supposed to be.  I'll file that one away.  We got more than enough blood in no time, and let her out.  She sauntered out of the barn obediently while Pumpkin sauntered in for her morning milking.

It was just one of those mornings where everything falls into place perfectly.  That means she's got to be bred, right?  We'll see.  I'm mailing in the sample today.  We should know in about 5 days.  I have to admit I did not think we'd get any blood out of her given our past track record.  I even considered calling the vet yesterday to schedule him to come out this week.  I love Biotrack!  Not only can you test your cows 2 months before you can with palpation, but it's only $2.25 per sample, plus shipping.  Palpation costs at least $17 plus another $25 just to get the vet to drive out here.   You can ultrasound at 30 days bred, but it's still $8 plus the $25 "driving fee".  The only advantage to ultrasound is that an experienced technician can tell the sex of the calf.

Let's just pray she's bred, I can sell her, and then we never have to worry about it again. :-)

Untitled Comment

11:04 AM, Tuesday, July 1, 2008 .. Posted by CitySteader

About getting the cows in the stanchion, you may try doing it every so often for no reason. Then they are less likely to give you a hard time when you need to use it. I do that with a mare that doesn't like being caught. I'll go chase her down to where I can get a halter on her, pet her for a while and tell her what a wonderful girl she is, and then I take the halter off and walk away. She's much easier to catch now that she knows she doesn't have to work every time she gets the halter put on her.