{"id":5991,"date":"2019-11-29T18:13:11","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T23:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/?p=5991"},"modified":"2019-11-29T18:13:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T23:13:17","slug":"breeding-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/breeding-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Breeding…part three…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Heat<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

…and now it gets really interesting…starting in the pre-dawn darkness… and a pasture alive with blinking red lights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the heat detectors…right on schedule at 48 hours. When a cow goes into heat, another mounts it, crushing the chemical patch on its rump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Carolyn\u2019s jobs is thawing the semen straws. That\u2019s what that pot next to her arm is for. No time to waste!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"One<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And the deed is done. But it\u2019s a slow process at the end…finding just the right spot…then pushing the plunger to deposit the semen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a process that\u2019s repeated 29 times over three days…matching cow, heat, and the right bull. Hard work…and cold…but satisfying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"But<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The results won\u2019t be known for a couple of months…some of the pairings are experimental…and some of the semen is suspect. But it\u2019s the most ambitious breeding project Thistle Hill has ever attempted!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Church\n reports the actual number of cows bred was 26. Three did not have the \nproper heat. That\u2019s normal or average. Calves will be on the ground in \nearly September of next year. But again, whether through artificial \ninsemination or a bull, we can only hope for about a 60% success rate \nand in some cases we were using sub-par semen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Some\n cattlemen immediately follow AI with a bull. Church wants to delay a \nfew weeks. That break in the resultant calving will make it easier to \ndetermine the sire…but we\u2019ll pregnancy check before that and also DNA \ntype the calves.\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…and now it gets really interesting…starting in the pre-dawn darkness… and a pasture alive with blinking red lights. It\u2019s the heat detectors…right on schedule at 48 hours. When a cow goes into heat, another mounts it, crushing the chemical patch on its rump. One of Carolyn\u2019s jobs is thawing the semen straws. That\u2019s what that pot next to her arm is for. No time to waste! And the deed is done. But it\u2019s a slow process at the end…finding just the right spot…then pushing the plunger to deposit the semen. It\u2019s a process that\u2019s repeated 29 times over three days…matching cow, heat, and the right bull. Hard work…and cold…but satisfying. The results won\u2019t be known for a couple of months…some of the pairings are experimental…and some of the semen is suspect. But it\u2019s the most ambitious breeding project Thistle Hill has ever attempted! Church reports the actual number of cows bred was 26. Three did not have the proper heat. That\u2019s normal or average. Calves will be on the ground in early September of next year. But again, whether through artificial insemination or a bull, we can only hope for about a 60% success rate and in some cases we were using sub-par semen. Some cattlemen immediately follow AI with a bull. Church wants to delay a few weeks. That break in the resultant calving will make it easier to determine the sire…but we\u2019ll pregnancy check before that and also DNA type the calves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,134,16,19,105,13,146],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breeding","category-calves","category-carolyn","category-cows","category-curtis","category-david","category-thistle-hill-farm"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5991"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6009,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5991\/revisions\/6009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thistlehill.net\/wpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}