Heifers Galore!

Spring is here and it’s calving time again.  And what an exciting time it is!  Heifer calves are good…they grow the herd, they can be milked, they bring more income.  Heifer calves make me really happy, so there has been a lot of ‘happy’ going around the farm for quite a while now, because we’ve had nothing but heifers born since early 2013.  I’ll take this chance to quickly introduce the girls.

BoPeep kicked things off in Feb.2013, giving birth to Tinkerbelle.  She is a very well-built heifer & has turned into quite the beautiful young lady.  She has recently been bred to Milkman in preparation for moving to her new home.

Next, Ladybell gave us Bunny on Good Friday, followed shortly by Ebony’s first calf, Zoie.  They’re both Mace daughters, fairly short-statured, with nice personalities.

In May, Prissy & Maple were born two days apart.  Prissy is taller & homozygous polled like her momma, Trixie.  Maple is an absolute sweetheart, typical of Rousseau babies.

Tundra is next in age, though she wasn’t born here.  She moved here with her momma, Sara, when she was a month and a half old.  Tundra will be our second Taco daughter in our herd.  She is fabulously built & a very friendly darling.  I can’t wait to see how much Taco has improved her udder over Sara’s.

October brought us Shortie…and that’s just what she is, a shortie.  Izzy was AI’d to Rainbow Hills Comet when we bought her and this was a much anticipated calf.  Though we are disappointed with her chondro-carrier status, she is still a very special girl, and we’re excited to add this old bloodline to our herd.

The run of heifers has continued so far this year.  The 2014 calving season started out in March with Annie, another Taco daughter, this time out of Red Girl.  She is a very nicely put-together heifer, and is growing well in spite of her dam’s teats & udder disaster.  I really hope Taco has significantly improved things there, then she should be a great little cow.

Later in March, Trixie had Cecilia, a gorgeous Jersey-cross girl.  She was sired by Hershey, BoPeep’s son by the old Isle of Jersey bull, Margarethe’s Dairyman.  Cecilia is 5/8 Dexter & 3/8 Jersey, and hopefully should be able to crank out the milk when she grows up.  Trixie & Cecilia will both be going to their new home in TN this summer.

My “flower girls” both calved in April, both first-calf heifers.  Tulip gave us Jammy on the 8th, and Iris had Scarlet the 18th…another Good Friday baby.  I’m really excited about these two little red girls, and can’t wait to see how they grow.  They’re pretty as can be.

We’re still waiting on Sara & Izzy to calve, due May & September, respectively.  So we will see if the heifer run continues or not.  I can hardly believe we’ve gone this long with no bull calves!  And other friends with cows want to know what’s in our water, or what we did, and ask me to please send the heifer fairy their way.

I am just thankful that God is blessing us with heifers.  Whether it’s because of choices we’ve made concerning our animals to honor Him, or “just because”, He is indeed pouring out His blessing, and I give glory to His Name.