Yesterday, we moved on to the second stage of A.I.ing the neighbors' cows. Once we'd rounded up the herd, we took up stations--though we were significantly shorter-handed this time around. I worked the gates as last time, and Chris had made modifications to the chute so I wasn't in immediate risk of bodily dismemberment. That was nice. Despite being short on labor, things moved smoothly. We pulled the 'seeder' from their nether-regions and gave them a shot (maybe estrogen?) that's supposed to make them all ovulate. We'll actually A.I. on Wednesday at 6 am. Oh boy.
Then, today, we turned our bulls out (this means 'released into the cow herd'). We don't keep the bulls with the cows most of the year so we can control calving season. We turn out for 45 days, the heifers (virgin females) a month before the cows. The heifers we release in mid May for a calving season beginning at the start of March, and the cows are expected to start calving around the first of April. As for the release today, I only helped with the front end of this operation. It was raining today, and there are few tasks less pleasent than 4-wheeling in those conditions. The bulls are close to our house, so it wasn't a long ride. There were 4 bulls, three of which were being turned out today. I did my best to round them up, but when bulls are chased, they get to fighting. In this weather, I was surprised to see them so eager to spar, but they did. It's realyy quite impressive. They are amazingly fast and as they butted heads, they slid around the wet grass like angry, 2000 pound kids on a slip-and-slide. I couldn't break them up, but I could just point the 4-wheeler at the point where their heads met and they would avoid me all the while they fought each other.
I was having trouble keeping them together, so I tried something different: I got behind the leader and ignored the other 3. Somewhat to my surprise (and, as I later found out, my father's), the other three started to follow behind. They're either starving for attention or aware at some level that going where I want = sexy-times later for them. I chased the one all the way to the corral, and the others followed suit. My dad later asked, 'Why'd you just chase the leader?'I didn't really have an answer; I just said, 'Well, the others followed!' He said, 'I guess you know what you're doing.' That was fun to hear.There are instincts in this, and sometimes things work that you wouldn't expect to work. You just have to read the situation.
I had to do more of that reading a few minutes later when we were loading two of them on the trailer. We picked two from the group, but quickly realized they were the wrong two to put together; they fought vigorously and with abandon. I found myself in a very small pen with them when they really went after it. I climbed the gate as quick as I could and about a second later, there was about a ton of bull forced violently into that very location. Instincts are important, even life-saving. If I weren't as attentive or as quick as I was, things could have gotten pretty messy.
Tomorrow, we move the swather! And my girlfriend comes in from out of town! Yay! Hopefully I can keep her alive.
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