Breeding

We've designed everything in life to be as simple/convenient as possible. We have cell phones that keep up our calendar, emails that sync to our calendar, call/text anyone anytime to get our thoughts communicated. But, we haven't figured out how to make nature convenient or simple. We've developed tools to help, but nature is still completely out of our control.

Every year we take our cows through a cycle. Starting in December, we select the ones we think we can breed to special bulls through AI (artificial insemination), and those that should be put with our Angus bulls. We've done DNA tests to make sure we aren't putting any cows back with the wrong bull.

It's all quite technical and scientific. Who'd have thought?

So we start the last week of November or the first week of December. We get the cows up to the barn and we sort out the ones going with the bulls, then the ones we need to set up in the first group. We do them in groups to extend our beef season, and to limit how many breedings have to be done in 1 day.

So the groups for the bulls get moved, and the other cows start setup. They have 1 week of set up, then another week to check heat. We watch the cows in the group to catch them in heat and breed them at the right time. Once we've done AI on a cow, she goes with the bulls so they might catch the next cycle.

We have special tools designed for this: heat patch, a semen tank with liquid nitrogen, tweezers, snipper, straws, gloves, and AI gun are just a few. We do this for many of our own cattle, as well as cattle for some friends.

When things go right, someone that's really good at it can get up to 90%ish success rate. We've done that well with friends' cattle before, but never our own.

The next several months we just monitor the pregnancy. This takes a lot of training, dexterity, and confidence. Imagine putting your arm inside a tight, hot sleeve, and trying to feel a golfball amidst a bunch of rotten tomatoes. Then you have to tell what kind of tomato each one is because the golfball will be inside one of the tomatoes. Gross, right?

Well this has to happen 4 or 5 times along the way. Each time, the golfball becomes a new, bigger object until we expect a hoof or nose or something. Eventually, we can tell from the outside if a cow is pregnant and have even seen the calf moving from the outside.

Finally, in mid-late September, we have calving season. Our little babies starting running and playing and just being super cute. Most cows only have 1 each, but we seem to have at least 1 set of twins every year. If they are the same sex, everything is fine. If they are opposite, the female will always be sterile. Thankfully, this year, they were both boys.

Sometimes a young cow needs help having her first calf. Sometimes the momma cow gets extra protective. Sometimes she doesn't understand what's happening and doesn't take the calf. Sometimes, especially with twins, she forgets she has a calf. Rarely, a cow will take any calf that needs her.

All in all, it seems none of it is in our control. We can do our best to keep the cattle calm, do the AI correctly, get the timing right, keep the best records and triple check our work. But ultimately, its out of our hands.

Nature is something we will never be able to control. We cannot create or even maintain all life. It's something I don't really want to responsibility of controlling. It makes me grateful for the one who is powerful, and wise enough to control it. All we have to do is trust that it's the right way even when it feels like it would be easier to control nature than to trust.