Already an eventful year...

Both good and bad news :(

First the good news: I got to see cd1 . Chris came out to Tennessee on business and stopped by the farm. It was a lot of fun Chris!. I hope you visit for a whole weekend or even longer ^.^

Joey graduated and passed his boards. He's now an LPN and has a job interview on Tuesday :) I, on the other hand, am in my second semester of nursing school.

Yesterday I picked up Hailey, a Nubian/Alpine goat mix. She's 100% milk goat and she's due to kid on March 18th. And I do plan on milking her :) She's actually Shelley and CiCi's mother. I can't wait to see her new babies.

Roger's bottlefed Beefmaster calf, Scarlett, decided she didn't want to be a cow anymore, refused to integrate with the rest of the herd, and learned how to jump the cattle gap just so she could get some human companionship. Well, she wound up sleeping in the flower beds and leaving mud pies in the garden and patio, and even walking on the front porch - plus she got real skinny (we think the other cows wouldn't let her eat). So Roger decided that since we get along so well he brought  her over to me to keep Anita (my Jersey heifer) company. Anita and she got along very well most of the time, but when it came to food, Anita bullied Scarlet around a bit. But lately Scarlet turned the tables on her :P But I think Scarlet has food issues now. She no longer likes to be handled while she's eating...which is unfortunate because we kinda do stuff (like milking) while they're eating. I hope that changes soon. Plus, though she's very sweet, she unintentionally is rough. If I can't get her to stop, I'll have to send her back to Roger.

Ok, now the bad news, and it's kinda really bad. At least for me:  I found out that Anita is a Freemartin. Her previous owner had told me that Anita has a twin brother, but didn't explain the ramifications other than to say that she couldn't be registered until after she calved. And the registration part she told me after I brought Anita home. However, I found by accident while browsing the US Jersey website for registration information, that when a heifer is born twin to a bull, there is a 90% chance she will be sterile. They share the same blood supply and the testosterone from the bull gets absorbed by the heifer, and results in her having missing, underdeveloped, or not working female reproductive parts. The bull usually is less fertile, but is still fertile. So I went ahead and had the vet come out, draw the blood and send it to the lab. And yep, she's positive for Freemartinism. I told the previous owners I wanted to return her and they agreed (though, of course) they weren't too happy about it.  The lady insisted that she told me that Anita "wasn't a sure thing" and thought I understood, however, she also sold me a pasteurizer and was helping me look for milking machines, etc. She knew very well that I wanted Anita to be our family cow. But because she tested positive, they agreed t take her back and refundme.  Whether it was intentional or not, partial disclosure doesn't absolve one of their responsibilities when they sell these guys. I'm not quite sure if the previous owners knew as much as I found out, or realized the severity, but I do appreciate that they took her back. So I brought Anita back Friday and it sucked really bad. While prepping her for more regular and routine handling, I had gotten attached to her. And I'm not ashamed to say I was crushed.

On the upside, I have an appointment to meet another Jersey next Saturday. I hope that will work out. I'm having the vet examine her before I commit.... She already has calves (and in fact, is bred to an Angus bull right now), so I know she's not a freemartin ¬.¬;; She's four years old, and while "coopertive" wasn't regularly milked. Soooo, we'll see how that turns out....

In the meantime, despite all the commotion, I've gotten in a lot of study time, and I'm off for another round again...