Farewell Sweet Prince

Prince

Prince, the Irish Dexter bull calf, went home today. Once again, the deal had been made even before he was born.

It all started with last year's heifer calf. Debbie, from Nevada, had been visiting her dad who lives here in Bakersfield. On a lark she looked in the Purebred Dexter Cattle Association's member registry book to see if there were any breeders in the Bakersfield area and saw my name and that I had one cow. After looking at the cow and knowing who she was bred to, Debbie and her husband struck a deal to buy the calf, be it a heifer or bull. They were hoping for a bull, but this time it was a heifer. They knew I had two straws of semen left from that particular breeding and bought one from me.

I used the last straw to breed Ladysmith back. Originally I had planned on breeding her in February, but as it turned out I had to wait until March. My veterinarian, Dr. Michael Kerfoot, was in China at the invitation of the Chinese government doing consultations and grading dairy cows.

When he returned he AI'd Ladysmith. Two months later he came back to my farm to do the preg check. I noticed he seemed to be wincing a bit as he walked and I asked how he was doing. His reply was "Oh, as well as can be expected." Thinking he had been kicked or stepped on by a cow I didn't pursue the matter. Instead, we made small talk about his trip to China. He declared Ladysmith to be pregnant and I happily ran in to write the check to pay him.

pregnant Ladysmith

Not long after that Debbie and her husband, Tom, came up from Nevada with the cow they wanted bred. She was to stay at Dr. Kerfoot's facility for a few weeks where he would inseminate her with the straw they bought from me.

It was just a week later that I heard Dr. Kerfoot had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the prognosis was not good. That's when I realized that must have been why he was showing discomfort when I had last seen him.

Debbie called after they picked their cow up. She said the cow had lost a lot of weight, in fact more than half the bales of hay they had brought to feed her were still there. Something had gone wrong. I told her of the news I had heard. I don't know how the animals at the facility were cared for, if Dr. Kerfoot himself or some other care taker was supposed to do the feeding, but it was obvious because of the circumstances that things were in a state of calamity.

Just two months later, on August 27, 2006, Dr. Kerfoot passed away.

This was terrible news indeed. I had been hoping for a miracle, that he would be cured of his cancer and all would go back to normal. I had come to rely on him for my cattle needs. He was always patient and accommodating. I was really going to miss his jovial manner and inexpensive service.

I had to start thinking of the future. I didn't know of any other veterinarians that had the frozen semen storage tanks. I knew there were dairy farms that did, but they were for their own use. Maybe it was time for me to get my own bull.

I talked to Debbie about it because I knew they had some bulls. I was hoping I could get a full brother to the cow she had brought up because she was really beautiful. And they had the Cornahir Outlaw line in them, which is well known. I brought up the possibility of a trade. If Ladysmith's current calf was a bull would she be interested? She was.

Cornahir Outlaw

As luck would have it they did indeed have a full brother to the cow I had seen. He was 1 1/2 years old at the time. They really liked him but had been planning on selling him because they needed to get new blood into their herd. A trade would be perfect.

Next, I had to find some room for him here. I have three permanent pens, and a larger pen on the side that could be manipulated to make a few more smaller pens. The problem was, the large pen was occupied by the sheep, one permanent pen had the goat, one permanent pen had the pony. That left the largest permanent pen which was occupied by Ladysmith.

The problem was solved while sitting on the back patio with our neighbor Dean one evening. He offered me the use of his pens, which he was not using. So now I moved Flora, the pony, to one of Dean's pens, and Perry, the ram went into Flora's pen. The bull, named Dakota, would move in with Ladysmith and stay with her until right before she calved. Then Perry would go into a temporary pen for a month while Dakota took over his pen. After mother and calf bonded and the calf was older, Dakota would move back in. Depending on what stage of production the sheep were in, Perry would stay with them or move back to his permanent pen.

I had it all figured out. Now Ladysmith would have to cooperate and give us a bull calf. I prayed to God and to Dr. Kerfoot to please make this calf a bull. On December 17, 2006, my plea was answered.

new bull calf

Prince and mom, Ladysmith

Things could not have gone any smoother. Debbie and Tom brought Dakota in February and got their first in person look at their new herd sire. Dakota fit right in with Ladysmith and her calf. He just turned two and so far he has been the epitomy of a gentleman.

Dakota

relieving an itch

Perhaps in another couple of years we'll have moved to greener pastures so I can buy a heifer sired by Prince.

Now I'm just biding my time until the first Ladysmith/Dakota calf arrives, somewhere between November and December.

Prince in the trailer on his way to his new home in Nevada

Sold In Utero!

In 2004 I saw an ad in a Dexter magazine of semen for sale from a bull named Brambledel Redberry Prince. He is a gorgeous red Irish Dexter bull from England. The Brambledel web site is very impressive. It has multiple pages, professional photos of their Dexter herd, and cites notable numbers in regards to show stats, pedigrees, breeding program, and the like.

Brambledel Redberry Prince

The advertisment was actually from a lady in Virginia who had purchased several straws from overseas and was reselling them in the United States. The straws cost more than average but I felt like it was still a good deal.

Although Irish Dexters are no longer on the endangered list (they have been upgraded to "recovering" status--www.albc-usa.org) the gene pool in the U.S. is still fairly limited. Outstanding foreign semen is very welcome.

When I called the owner of the American straws she enthusiastically reported on her personal first crop of calves with the imported semen. I made arrangements to buy three straws.

Everything went as planned and my cow, GRR Ladysmith, became pregnant with my first straw of Brambledel Redberry Prince's genetic material. Cows are preg-checked at two months, and when my cow vet declared Ladysmith pregnant, I was overjoyed. I just had seven months now to await the arrival of this special calf.

Just a few months later a lady called asking about my cow. My husband had answered the phone and he handed the call to me, explaining that the cows were "my wife's thing." The lady on the phone introduced herself as Debbie. She went on to say she was here from Nevada visiting her dad. She and her husband had a Dexter herd and when she looked in her Dexter breeder directory on a lark she saw my name and address in Bakersfield. Would I mind if she came over to look at my cow?

Realizing a potential sale I naturally invited her to come on over. When Debbie and a friend arrived I took them to the back to look at Ladysmith.

She seemed to like Ladysmith just fine and when I told her who she was bred to she seemed to like her a lot better. She took a few pictures to show her husband.

Later that evening Debbie called me back. Would I be willing to sell the calf to her and her husband? They would give me a couple hundred dollars to hold the calf and as a down payment. They liked Ladysmith and were excited about the prospect of having a Redberry Prince baby to infuse new blood into their herd. They were really hoping for a bull calf, but would be happy with a heifer too.

Well, that's never happened before. Did I feel special or what? I actually sold a calf before it was born! I "modestly" had to tell anyone who would listen that my cow's unborn calf was already sold, to people from Nevada. That's out of state, you know. I was very impressed with myself.

The deal was struck and we all eagerly awaited the October due date. As the date drew closer the e-mails became for frequent. Nothing yet...

Then came the nights of getting up to check. 11 pm, nothing. 2 am, nothing. I don't usually wear pj's to bed, so I would grab the sofa blanket around me, slip on my flip flops, grab the flashlight and head out the door. I sure hope none of the neighbors has insomnia. 4:30 am, nothing. 7:30 am, nothing.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Sunday, October 23, 2005 was no different. I was getting tired from the frequent nightly cow checks. I knew it had to be soon. She was three days over her due date. I had checked her several times the previous night and early morning and it still seemed like there was no change. The last time I checked her was at about 8:30 that morning when I got up. Debbie called me and I had to tell her again. Nothing.

I settled on the sofa (I had my clothes on now) and started reading the Sunday newspaper and drinking my morning coffee. At about 9:30 I heard Ladysmith's bell ringing. Ringing, ringing, ringing.

OH! I jumped up and looked out back. She was licking a black thing on the ground. The motion of her head bobbing up and down while licking was making the bell ring. I grabbed my camera and ran outside.

All she wanted was a little privacy and I had been trudging out almost once an hour to stare at her back end, her udder, and her breathing to check for any changes. She must have flopped down as soon as my back was turned the last time I had been out.

There was a brand new calf on the ground, sopping wet, with its ears still flopping, it was so new. I watched as it struggled to stand and then wobbled around a bit before collapsing to the sandy ground. More licking from mom and the calf stood again. It instinctively searched for nourishment, it's lips and tongue pursed. Ladysmith lowed softly to her new baby with encouragement. It found what it was looking for and started heartily nursing.

I could see then that the new calf was a girl. I snapped a few shots on my digital camera and ran in to call Debbie with the long awaited news. I hit the redial button on our phone and kept getting a busy signal. So I fired off a quick e-mail with some pictures attached.

Towards noon I thought I'd call again. I dialed the number directly instead of using the redial feature (which I found out I had not programmed correctly) and this time the phone rang and was picked up by one of the kids. Debbie and her husband were out with the cows right now.

Less than five minutes later Debbie called me back. She was just as excited as I was.

Over the next few months I would keep Debbie and her husband updated with frequent e-mail photos that chronicled the calf's growth. They visited her dad at least twice and came out to see the calf in person. They were pleased with her progress. Since they were happy I was ecstatic.

I let them decide on the name. The first part was easy because it is the farm or ranch name: Wilamar. The registry* they chose allows 23 letters and spaces so there were 16 spaces to make a name. They wanted part of the bull's name to be included also an we came up with WilamarBlkberryPrincess. Somehow though, the registry changed it to Wilamar BlkberyPrincess. Ah, details.

Wilamar BlkberyPrincess aka Princess

By the time Princess was ready to go to her new home Debbie and her husband and I made future plans. I sold them one of the two remaining straws, and a tentative agreement was made for them to buy Ladysmith's next calf. I was hoping for another heifer calf so I could keep it, they were really hoping for a bull calf to use as a new herd sire.

The future was looking bright!

*There are two Irish Dexter registries in the United States. The American Dexter Cattle Association, which allows 21 letters/spaces, and the newer Purebred Dexter Cattle Association of North America. A few years ago there were some major disagreements and one group split from the other. Don't you just love politics! PS-I'm a member of both organizations.

GRR Ophelia

When Ophelia was born, I couldn't have been more happy. I would now own two cows and in my mind that was good enough to qualify as a herd. And when she was old enough to have her own calves, why that was almost too much happiness to bear. I could already see the babies frisking about the back yard together.

A very young Ophelia

Ophelia grew up exactly as I'd hoped. She was easy to wean, easy to halter train, friendly, and brave. One morning while she was being weaned I went next door to Dean's pens to feed her. He was letting us use one of his pens for her until she was totally weaned and we could bring her back to our yard. Her horns were just barely beginning to bud out. While I was admiring her I noticed her head had what seemed to be blood on it. I quickly checked her over and couldn't find any other signs of blood. There were just a few scratches on her head. Just to make sure, I checked the pen for loose wires or anything else she could have gotten snagged on, but I couldn't find anything. Then I noticed the paw prints.

It was apparent. A coyote had tried to attack her. Although we live sort of in the suburbs, our lot backs up to a couple hundred acres of recharging ponds and a dirt canal runs along side of that. Also, we had heard coyotes yipping not too long before.

We made a call to the Fish and Game Department and the officer my husband talked to told us if we caught it in the act of attacking our livestock, we could feel free to blast away. Of course he didn't say it exactly like that, but that was the gist of it.

Beauty and the Beast

Just a couple weeks later another neighbor from the other end of the street told Dean she had been out for an early morning walk and saw what she thought was a coyote near Ophelia's pen. Not wanting her dogs to get involved in the fracas she turned around and left the area.

It wasn't until we no longer owned Ophelia that we think we figured out what happened. What we think happened was it wasn't a coyote after all. We now suspect a neighbor's dog from the other end of the street. His dog was yellowish, medium-large sized, and from a distance could easily pass as a coyote. And, his dogs were always roaming around the ponds.

Grown up Ophelia

Finally it was time to breed. I did not have a bull, and I still had a couple straws left over from the last year. We began the process of starting her to cycle by giving her the lutelyse shots. Everything was on schedule. The vet did the insemination. Two months later he declared her pregnant. That meant in 8 months she should calve.

Eight months came and went and nothing happened. The vet came out and figured the embryo must have been absorbed or aborted and it was too small yet for me to notice. We started again.

The palpation showed her to be pregnant. At about her fourth month I was doing some yard work out back when some acquaintances rode by on their horses. They stopped to chat and one of them said, "Your cow is bleeding!"

I looked at Ophelia and sure enough, she had a bloody discharge. I knew that meant she had aborted again.

We tried once more, and again to no avail. I was starting to get discouraged. The vet recommended a live breeding. The hope was, once she was bred naturally, without the drugs, she would carry to term and after that should have no more problems.

I called a person who had called me once when he was making inquiries about the breed and AI'ing. It turns out he had a bull on loan at his place. He would board Ophelia for a few bales of hay and the small stud fee would be paid to the bull owner once the cow was confirmed pregnant.

It took only about two hours to bring Ophelia to meet "William", the bull. After some small talk we left for home with our fingers crossed. Alas, once again it was not to be. Only this time it wasn't because Ophelia lost a pregnancy, it was because William was an elderly, short-legged bull. The people at the ranch said they actually had witnessed him attempting to mount Ophelia, but he was just too short to reach.

Then I called the first breeder I almost bought a cow from (the one that was out of country earlier) but he didn't allow outside cows to his ranch. I called the breeder I had bought Ophelia's mother from to see if he had an unrelated bull, and if he would be willing to offer stud service. He did, and he was.

We made the arrangements and it was a long day for me. I made the turn-around trip myself, loaded up with CD's and singing at the top of my lungs. I was a bit hoarse by the time I got home.

Long story short: Ophelia did get pregnant but must have absorbed the embryo again. I made the unhappy decision to sell her. I don't have big, lush pastures, so my animals are on a "dry lot" situation, where I have to feed them hay am and pm. If I had had my own bull I would have kept her and kept trying, that's how much I liked her, but I was throwing money down the tubes, as it were.

I took her to the local auction yard. There was an old man who admired her as I was unloading and asked me if she ate "fire weeds". I wasn't really sure what that was but I told him I was pretty sure she would because she sure seemed to eat everything else. I don't know who ended up buying her because they never re-registered her in their name. I hope it was the old man. He seemed very nice.

We're In the Cattle Business!--Part II

Our cattle business had officially begun with the birth of GRR Ladysmith's calf. It was a beautiful dun heifer calf we named GRR Ophelia. (Registration rules require the farm name of the breeder, not the owner at time of birth, as in this case.)

There were a few things I hadn't thought about too much during my initial search for our first cow. Important factors such as: how to get the cow re-bred. You couldn't very well have a cattle business when you couldn't reproduce. I mean, that was the whole idea.

I knew I did not want to get a bull at that time. I needed a little experience with the cows first. So my next obvious choice was Artificial Insemination. I was a little familiar with that process because my sister used that method on one of her horses a few times. It could be a risky venture in that sometimes the straws could be very expensive and they wouldn't take and there were no guarantees, as there often is with live coverings. Horses can be AI'd using fresh or frozen semen, and as far as I could tell, the cow's AI'ing involved frozen only.

My next step was to call the vet I used for our horses. It turns out he did do a lot of cattle business, but he did not have the proper storage facilities. While there are no shortages of bovine specialty veterinarians in Kern County (we have lots of dairies around) he could recommend the only vet he knew to have a storage tank. That was Dr. Michael Kerfoot of Bovine Health Services.

I called Dr. Kerfoot and told him my situation. It turns out he really was quite the specialist in bovines and he was also a very nice man. He let me know that he would be happy to store any straws I bought and they could be shipped directly to his office. He would ensure the straws were stored and the shipping container returned as required. There would be no extra charge for any of this, providing I used him for my bovine needs. That sounded like a great deal to me.

Then it was time to search available candidates for the genetic material. I pored through my Dexter magazine and searched the ads. Since I still didn't really know what to look for I made a list of the possibles. I made a note of color, size, and location. The short legged bulls were immediately eliminated. There were some I could have gotten from Canada, but I thought I'd stay in country for the first time around. After much agonizing I finally made my choice.

Turns out, bull semen is a lot cheaper than stallion semen. Each straw is only $20 to $40 (average). The only other thing was some owners had a minimum of how many straws you could buy, anywhere from three to five.

The man I bought the straws from was very trusting. I told him I would take five straws. I told him where to ship to (all the vet's details) and to send me the bill for the straws and shipping. He assured me this would be no problem.

Dr. Kerfoot's office called to let me know they had received my shipment and we could start with the lutelyse (a hormone) shots used to bring the cow into heat.

There were to be a total of two shots, carefully timed. The timing was important because apparently cows are only receptive to being bred during a very short time frame (like two hours, within about 88 hours of the second shot).

The day and time came for the actual insemination. Dr. Kerfoot arrived and got ready. First he came out to check the cow, to make sure the drugs had worked their magic. Since I don't have a squeeze he suggested putting the cow in the corner of the big gate and using the gate as a squeeze. (Ladysmith never kicked him, even though I used to worry about that.) He carefully worked his gloved arm into her, mildly complaining of how small she was compared to the cows he usually worked with. He declared her ready and the insemination was done.

We walked back to his SUV so he could write up the bill and I ran into the house to get my checkbook. He told me it would be $300, and without batting an eye I began to write the check. To me that was still pretty cheap compared to horse standards.

"No, no! I was just joking," he said. "It's actually $30."

"What? Are you sure?" I asked. I was so used the expensive equine vet bills.

Wow! Cows are ten times cheaper than horses. I was liking this cattle business so far.

Several months passed and I still had not paid for the AI straws or shipping. I had yet to receive a bill. I wondered if I ever would. I finally decided to take matters into my own hands and sent a check to the bull owner. Eventually, the check cleared, along with my conscience.

We're in the Cattle Business!--Part I

One day I went to the grocery store to get a few items for dinner. One of those things was a couple of steaks to barbecue. One little New York steak was about $8.00! That just seemed a little scandalous to me. I checked the price per pound on some of the other cuts of beef. Where have I been? When did beef get so pricey? I guess I never paid much attention before. Even formerly cheap cuts of meat, like flank steak, were not what I'd call cheap anymore.

That's when I decided to get into the cattle business.

Now when I get an idea into my head (previous post mentioned pea brain) I like to act on it as soon as possible. Sometimes that can work out just fine, but in my more outrageous moments it's just as well that the ideas did not come to fruition. This one wasn't so bad, it turns out...

I wanted something that would be docile, easy to handle, have easy calving, and tasty meat. I did a little research on the beloved internet and narrowed my choices down to two breeds: the Irish Dexter, and the British White. I wrote to the prospective breed associations for more info and literature.

Each of these breeds touted their attributes, but it was the Irish Dexter that finally won me over. The reason was they are smaller and advertised as "the perfect breed for the smallholder". Having just under one acre, that was me.

The Irish Dexter comes in two types: short-legged, and long-legged. I chose the long-legged version because they looked more like a cow and not a pet. This can be important when it comes time to put one in the freezer.

My next mission was to find a breeder, hopefully not too far away. I e-mailed a couple of likely candidates. The first one was out of country for a few weeks, but the second had just what I was looking for: a bred cow, still good for a few more years at least, gentle, easy to handle.

After persuading my husband that this would be a good thing (look at the price of MEAT! We can raise our OWN!) we made the necessary arrangements.

We drove to Sacramento and stayed in a nice residence-type hotel. The following morning we found the Green River Ranch where we were greeted by the thickly mustachioed Bill Kirkland. Bill took me to a small holding pen where he had our prospective cow awaiting our approval. She was in the pen with a half Dexter, half Holstein who was six months old, and already six inches taller than the three year old cow. I noticed one of her eyes was a bit cloudy, but she wasn't blind, she looked like a cow to me, and all my other criteria fit, so we loaded her into the trailer. Check, registration papers, and signatures were exchanged and we were on our way back home.

GRR Ladysmith fit right in and soon we settled into an easy routine. I eagerly checked for signs of an impending birth. Since she had been pasture bred all we had for a due date was a three month window, May, June, or July.

One day in early May, I had a "bloody blowout" at work. Without going into any further details, I had to come home. It was a good thing too. After I changed I went out back and Ladysmith was just starting labor. I was able to watch as she gave birth to a beautiful dun heifer calf.

I felt so lucky and blessed right then. I couldn't have been more thrilled because now I had a second cow and I was in the cattle business!