The scorecard…

…for artificial insemination this year.  And it’s a year where we seem to be focused on up-grading our regular herd.

The first step is to get the cows in of course….and a new unrolled tasty bale of hay is a good appetizer.

Over several days Church has ai-ed about 10 cows.  The bulls he used included Tilbrook Sunset and Rotokawa 982.

We’ve had excellent results with both perhaps 10 years ago but the progeny somehow got away from us.  Our English friend Gavin Hunter was the breeder of Sunset…and he was also the source of embryos from Cashtiller, our favorite all-time cow.

Rotokawa, of course, was developed by the legendary Ken McDowall of New Zealand.  He has been to Thistle Hill many times and consulted on our herd.  We learned a lot from both Gavin and Ken.

David