We had a lot of cows that needed to be moved today! Most of the cows that we moved from our second facility to our main facility were first calf heifers, meaning they have never given birth before and this will be their first calf. One way that we will tell if a first calf heifer is close to calving is based on the size and appearance of her udder. A first calf heifer that is not close to calving will have an udder that might look flat, slightly round, or wrinkly versus one that is close will have lots of edema which makes the udder look very full and swollen. On top of moving all of our first calf heifers and a few cow, we also had to move one of our breeding bulls to the main facility. We moved this guy because he needed a group of cows that could be bred as many of the cows he was currently with were already confirmed pregnancies. When we went to move him onto the cattle trailer we was extremely mouthy and had a bit of an attitude problem. The bull was a little agitated and was pawing at the ground so we were especially cautious when working with him. Luckily he got onto the trailer just fine and was introduced to his new set of cows. Bulls are known to be testy so we will continue to monitor him closely because our safety and the safety of our team that milks the cows is very important!
Today we shipped 5,658 gallons of milk and had three new calves born on the farm.
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