We continued the breeding process last week. We left the CIDR devices in for ten days and then had the fun job of pulling them out again. At that time we gave them a shot of hormone and applied heat detection patches to their backs. The ones we had last year were self-adhesive, but we had the vet order them in for us this year and they were different. When I opened the box and discovered tubes of adhesive I groaned thinking they were really going to be a pain in my butt to apply. Luckily, M's sister and our niece arrived just in time to take over that job. And, an excellent job they did! Our 15-year-old cousin was helping us again. He was helping work the chute and R was pushing so the three of us shared the job of pulling out the CIDRs. Our niece has a 5-year-old daughter who was asking R all kinds of questions about what we were doing. His response was "I just don't know how to explain it to you".
The next day we started looking for the heat detection patches. They were white when they went on and I thought the black cows looked like walking wounded, all with a white patch on their backs. The cows "ride" each other when in heat and when they do that the patches turn color. The next day we started to see red ones, like they were bleeding through their bandages. Those with red bandages were separated and put in pens to be bred in a few hours.
We had a half-inch of rain that night so on Friday we were working in muck again. We bred some early in the morning and then took a break and then we had a big bunch to do Friday afternoon. Our AI person had another friend come help him so that it would go faster and he wouldn't get so worn out. By Friday afternoon (the third time through the chute in ten days) the cows were as tired of us as we were of them and weren't as easy to work with. Plus, the hotshot ran out of battery. Not good. We left a gate open so that once they were bred they could go out of the corral into a holding area before being sent out to pasture. M told me that if he missed catching one in the head gate to run and close that gate. Unfortunately, that either meant crossing quicksand in the corral or taking a longer way around. I said I would run like the wind. M said it would be okay if I didn't get there in time as long as I did a face plant in the mud and he got to see it. Nice guy. I did have to make that run a couple of times, especially toward the end when everyone was getting tired. I was never so glad to see a cattle oiler salesman as I was that day because I had to run home and write him a check so I missed out on the last few. I'm still wondering who thought it was a good idea to do 120 head. We were all pooped.
We took it a little easier over the weekend although R and M put some bulls out on Saturday morning. M has the scar to show he was working. They had a bull loaded in the trailer and were going to gate it in the front of the trailer. When M went to close the gate it kicked the gate which came back and whacked him and give him a nice gash in his forehead. I tell everyone that he mouthed off one too many times and I let him have it.
It was a pretty laid back weekend, though. J and K and the baby went camping at the lake, C and his wife went out of town for a wedding, R went to Glasgow to a demolition derby and we went to see M's parents, sister and her family for the evening. Sunday we had a bit of a come-and-go family day at the parents' house for Father's Day.
Today M and R moved the heifers to their summer pasture. We have a couple more groups of cows to move and a couple more bulls to put out and then we feel like we can take a breath before haying starts and hope we made a bunch of babies.
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