Sticking to the plan…

Once you start the process of embryo transplants or artificial insemination, you have to stay on schedule.  And again this year, as it has for the past two, Nature decided to see just how serious we were about this business.

The cows certainly kept to their schedule despite the snow; they went into heat early in the morning and now at the end of the day were ready for artificial insemination.  

Once again, Rose Hill Veterinary Clinic’s Jane Narrimore was in the chute.  At least Jane could drive to work.  Last year we had to load her boss, Dr. Tom Massey, into our tractor’s front loader with all his paraphernalia, and plow through the snow to the chute.  The bull we’re using is a great English champion, Cutcombe Jaunty.  Actually, he’s been dead for a number of year’s but his semen had been frozen for future use.

The next “non-negotiable” date on the schedule is a week away.  That’s when we bring the cows back in and select five of the seven which should be ready for embryo transplants.  This time the target is to hit the hour, if not the minute.  Once we’ve done that, we let the bull into the pasture and he finishes anything we haven’t.