Countdown to CUPCAKE

My Jersey, Carmelita, is due to calve around April 11th.  Her udder is starting to BLOOM.  Her baby will be CUPCAKE...unless I change my mind again.  I'm hoping that little Cupcake will be as big of a blessing as her mother.

I bought Carmelita with some of my premium sale money from last year.  I was not in the market for a Jersey.  I thought I was going to buy a Brown Swiss or a Milking Shorthorn.  Instead, I bought TWO Jerseys.  The little one got Reserve Breed Champion at the Oklahoma State Fair, and Carmelita got Grand Champion at our county show.  Grand Champion is the only dairy heifer allowed in the premium sale.  She brought $5100 plus some booster club money plus some add-on money I also don't know the amount of.

OH! I almost forgot!  When I bought Carmelita, he A.I.ed her, too, but he used conventional semen because it was a freebie, and we're getting a heifer out of her anyway!  So it's like I bought one, and got one free!

So I think it's around two weeks from now that little Cupcake will make her debut.  We are praying for protection, an easy delivery with no complications, and great strength and health for daughter and dam.

Godbless Shebull Cupcake!

Time for some ultrasounds!

Since my girls are in separate pens, and we don't have any way to check for heat on them like that,  we need to take Carmelita and Juicy and maybe Ayan for an ultrasound to see if they are pregnant or open.  Both Carmelita and Juicy are virgin heifers.  That means that neither one has ever had a calf.  I can't wait to see the results!  We've been talking about naming Apple Juice's first heifer calf Appletini and just call her TINI!  I can't believe I'm going to name her after an alcoholic drink, but it's just so darn cute!  She comes from a LARGE family of "Apples".

*******

Well, we got good news and bad news and worse news.  The good news is that Carmelita is pregnant.  The bad news is that we don't know if it's a heifer or a bull.  (Conventional semen was used on her.)  The worse news is that both Juicy AND Ayan are OPEN.  As Hutch, the ultrasound tech, would say, "Nobody's home."

Breeding breeding breeding

We took Ayan (Brown Swiss nurse cow) to my good friend Alan to get A.I.ed awhile back.  I've got an appointment on July 6th to see if it took!  I'm praying for it, and for it to be a heifer...of course.  We're taking her for an ultrasound at Cross Country Genetics.  I can hardly wait!






Juicy (Brown Swiss heifer) should be coming into heat in the next day or so, and she will be A.I.ed too.  It's hard for me to believe that she is already old enough!  In my mind she's about the size of a six month old, but she's over a year old now.  She dwarfs the other heifers in the pasture.

Posey is due the first week of August.  I'm nervous.  Really excited, but nervous something will go wrong.

I've raised Posey since the day she was born.  It took a long time to get her bred.  She was one failure away from visiting a bull.  This calf has been a long time in coming.  I keep praying that everything goes beautifully, just like it did for Faith and her little Fara.