Animal Husbandry – Belvedere Farms

How to help your milk cow adjust to Daylight Savings Time

03.16.2022 by Raelene Bradley // Leave a Comment

Over the last several weeks, Sandy and I have both been loving the pure early sunlight streaming into the milking parlor each morning.

But with Daylight Savings and the sudden and unceremonious thrust of morning milking back into the dark, we’re feeling the absence of those lovely rays of hope and spring.

Each morning as I’ve come to the barn for milking since the time change last weekend, I’ve found Sandy still laying snug and warm in the straw, barn cats curled up next to her warm side, no one quite ready for the day to begin.

“I hear you, love. It’s a rough week for all of us.”

Milk cows thrive on routine.

It’s no secret that a milk cow can get downright cranky if you’re even 15 minutes late to milking.

She’s engorged and uncomfortable, looking for a treat and impatient with your tardiness.

She may express her annoyance with a particularly well-timed slap with her tail, she may be particularly shifty and restless, or she just may poop right in the parlor, leaving you to frantically scramble to rescue the milk pail out from under her.

So how do you deal with the sudden, unforeseen, and rude adjustment in her milking routine that is Daylight Savings time?

Adjusting The Milking Schedule

The seasonal time change is often a difficult week for all of us. But remember, you’re the farmer. You get to take into account your cow, her temperament, and her needs and then make decisions about what will work best for your cow and your schedule.

And if the decisions you make turn out to not work out great, you’ll get another go in six months.

Here are a few ways to approach the adjustment to a seasonal time change.

Introduce a gradual adjustment

I’m almost certain you know first-hand (or can imagine in vivid detail) what it’s like to try to soothe a cranky toddler whose nap time routine has been bungled by the onset of Daylight Savings. It’s not a pretty sight.

If I were the type of parent to think and plan ahead, I may have tried to prepare said toddler by putting him down for a nap 15 minutes earlier each day for a week or so in advance, thus gradually adjusting his body clock to the new time change.

I never did this as a parent. Didn’t have the foresight or patience to make it happen.

But as a milk cow owner? You betcha.

So one way to ease the transition into Daylight Savings time is to milk 15 minutes earlier than your regularly scheduled milking time.

Do this over four days, milking 15 minutes earlier each day so that on day 4, you’ll be milking at the new earlier milking time.

Vice versa for the end of Daylight Savings. Just milk 15 minutes later than your regular time and four days later, you’ll be right “on time.”

Then just monitor how your cow reacts. If you find that she’s still super cranky, perhaps at the next time change you can adjust milking time by 15 minutes for two days to give her a little longer to adjust, then another 15 minutes the next two days and so forth so that after 8 days, you’re “on time” with the seasonal time change.

If you’re into less planning and foresight, less thinking and adjusting, then this next option may be for you:

Go cold turkey

This is, admittedly, my preferred method. It’s abrupt to be sure, but the time change is difficult for everyone and it always feels better to just get it over and done with.

Also, I’m not great at planning ahead. #fulldisclosure

Milk cows are experts at adapting. They adapt to changes in schedule, changes in demand, changes in feed, changes in weather. Of course, some changes MUST be introduced gradually (like introducing a new feed), but when it comes to the milking schedule, I feel that a change of an hour once in spring and again in fall is best accomplished all at once.

Just rip the bandaid off and move forward.

So on the morning of Daylight Savings when I’m feeling groggy and sleep deprived (more so than usual that is), I get Sandy up early and we milk an hour early. And again an hour early in the evening, fully adjusted now to the new time.

She may very well be a little cranky. And that’s to be expected. You probably are too. So give her a little grace – and yourself too. Brew an extra strong cup of coffee and love on her a few extra minutes for those first few mornings.

Moderation is a Virtue

Instead of going cold turkey, or taking a week or more to nurse your cow into the time change, you can absolutely follow a little more moderate route as you make the adjustment and combine elements of both these approaches.

Adjust over 2-3 milkings

If you normally milk at 7am, on the morning of Daylight Savings, milk at 7:30/7:40am (that would be 6:30/6:40am on the previous time, about half an hour early for your cow).

Then in the evening, milk at 7:15/7:20 (that would be 6:15/6:20pm on the previous time, 40-45 minutes earlier than her normally scheduled milking time).

And the next morning (the day after the time change), milk at 7am.

With this option, you’ve moderated the change over 2-3 milkings so she’s had a chance to adjust, but it hasn’t been too much trouble or needed too much advanced planning on your part.

Win win eh?

Daylight Savings is a rough transition for all of us, but with a plan in place, you can weather the rough patch and know just how best to serve your cow so she can happily keep doing what she does best: liquid sunshine to feed the whole farm.

KEEP LEARNING IN MILK COW 101

Keeping a milk cow is beautiful, but can be intimidating and overwhelming. Even simple things like the seasonal time change can throw you for a loop and make you feel off kilter. I’ve been there; I know exactly what that feels like!

So if you’re dreaming of keeping a family cow and have a zillion questions, join the waitlist for Milk Cow 101. You’ll be the first to know when enrollment opens and you’ll be ready to learn everything you need to feel confident and prepared to care for, feed, milk, and love your very own family milk cow.

How Can I Tell If My Cow Is In Heat?

07.28.2020 by Raelene Bradley // Leave a Comment

In order for your milk cow to produce milk, she must have a calf. And in order to have a calf, she needs to be bred. The simplest way to do this is to have a bull handy, but that’s not always possible or feasible for a small family farm or homestead. Artificially inseminating your cow (either right on the farm or at the veterinarian) is a good option and ensures an accurate due date. But either way, you need to know for sure when your cow is in heat and ready to be bred.

A cow will come in heat 30-90 days after calving and then every 18-21 days after that. Every cow is a little different, so you’ll need to watch her closely for signs of coming into heat for several days around that schedule.

“In heat” means she is ovulating – fertile and ready to be bred. “Standing heat” refers to the 18-24 hours that she will willingly stand for a bull and accept breeding. Those are her most fertile hours and whether you’re doing a live cover (breeding with a bull) or AI (artificial insemination), you want to be sure to time the breeding just right.

How do you know when she’s in heat?

The most obvious sign is mounting other cows. When in heat, she will jump up on and ride another animal. This does happen with some regularity within a herd, even when they’re not in heat, but if she is consistently mounting or being mounted by another animal, and especially if she stands still while another mounts her, this is a clear sign of heat.

Sometimes a cow will even want to jump on you. When our yearling heifer is in heat, she often wants to jump on me; I watch her closely and try to keep from turning my back to her to keep her from doing so.

Another obvious sign of heat is mooing. Depending on your cow and her personality, insistent and consistent bellowing is another sign of heat. Our cow Sandy rarely moos. If she does, it’s for an obvious reason (e.g. we’ve just separated her calf). But she moos much more often when she’s in heat (sometimes it almost sounds like she’s in distress – but it’s just hormones). Our yearling heifer, on the other hand, bellows like it’s going out of style for several hours at a time. I can always tell when it’s “her time of the month” by her bellowing alone.

Discharge is another sure sign to look for. As her body ovulates and prepares for breeding, her vaginal canal will produce discharge to ease the breeding process. You’ll see long strings of mucus from her vulva, often swooped up on her flank by her tail. This is an excellent sign and a good rule of thumb is to breed 12 hours after seeing discharge – so if you observe it in the morning, breed in the evening. If you see it in the evening, breed the next morning.

Other signs include restlessness, general irritability, rubbing on another cow, on trees or fences, or on you, and a swollen vulva.

The best way to know if your cow is in heat is to carefully observe her behavior and combine both the timing of previous cycles (18-21 days) and several of the previous signs.

What if there are no other cows around?

I am asked this question a lot. Because the most obvious signs of heat are mounting and mooing, if there are no other animals for her to interact with, it can be difficult to detect heat. The best way to do so is careful, consistent observation and accurate timing.

For example, our milk cow Sandy calved on February 15th. She came into heat for the first time on May 19th, exhibiting very clear signs: she had been irritable for several days beforehand (she balked when I tried to lead her, was sometimes restless and shifted more than usual during milking, and even laid down one morning when I tried to bring her up to the barn); she tried to mount both the steer she was with and her calf; she was mooing more than usual; and she had clear discharge swung up onto her flanks.

Knowing for sure that she had been in heat on May 19th, her next cycle would have been around June 9th. This was earlier than I wanted to breed her so I didn’t pay close attention.

The next cycle after that should have been June 30th. I watched her closely the day before, day of, and day after and though her vulva was very swollen and she did moo some, there was no discharge. Since the steer was no longer with us, I just wasn’t 100% sure. Without the steer around, she did not mount the calf and didn’t seem to exhibit many of those sure signs of heat.

Because I wasn’t totally sure when/if she was in heat, we missed the chance to breed her. But when the time came for her next cycle on July 21st, I had a better idea of what to look for with her specifically (and specifically without another animal). She was more restless than usual. She rubbed up against her calf and against the trees in the pasture. She was swollen and mooing (not a lot, but more than usual for her).

Having previously observed her behavior closely, when I saw these signs on the 21st, and knowing the timing was right relative to her previous cycles, we decided to breed her via AI on the morning of the 22nd, just after milking. Our friend is an AI tech and brought his equipment to artificially inseminate her. Once he was inside and could feel the condition of her cervix (which softens and elongates when she’s in heat in preparation for breeding), it was clear that though we were on the early side of her cycle, it was still good timing for breeding.

We’ll watch her closely around August 11th (the timing for her next cycle) and hope that she does not exhibit any signs of heat. This will mean that the breeding took and she’ll have a calf in mid-April.

Because they are lactating and much of their energy goes to producing milk, the conception rate for dairy cows is around 44%, so if she does come back into heat, we’ll simply try again.

Observation & Timing Bring Confidence

The three most obvious signs of heat are mounting, mooing, and discharge. But also watch for restlessness, irritability, rubbing, and swelling of the vulva. Combine those signs with careful observation and timing of her cycle (18-21 days) and you can be confident in identifying the signs of heat in your family milk cow and get her bred so she gives you a lively spritely calf next year and keeps on producing that liquid gold.

Have any other questions about identifying heat in your cow? Let me know in the comments below!

4 Things I Learned the First Time I Artificially Inseminated a Pig

05.11.2019 by Raelene Bradley // Leave a Comment

We got our first pigs last spring from a breeder just a few hours away from us. We took the kids and the truck and a borrowed dog crate and brought home two uber-cute purebred Berkshire piglets, about 10 weeks old. We named them Gertie (the gilt – a young female pig who’s never had piglets) and Hamilton (the barrow – a young male who’s been castrated).

We have loved having pigs on our farm. They are wonderful converters of every spare ounce of nutrition from table scraps and pasta water to garden weeds and excess or past-prime garden produce. They’ve made excellent compost for the garden and, since we butchered Hamilton early this spring, have also made excellent bacon.

Our plan from the get-go was to keep Gertie as a breeding sow. Of course, we intended to breed her this winter so she would have piglets in the spring, but time got away from us and with so many other plates in the air, this one didn’t just get spun until now. I’ve been tracking her cycle for a few months and so knew when to expect that she’d come in heat, so this week we bit the bullet and made it happen.

As is the case in every new endeavor you try – we learned a lot on our first go-round. Here are the top four things I learned with a hefty dose of “next time I’ll…”

1. Purchase semen several days in advance.

I had totally assumed that semen was frozen and that it could be shipped and stored for months at time. Not so. As I was reading about and researching this whole process, I learned that most semen operations collect twice a week and will ship every day of the week. They ship the semen overnight to your destination in a small cooler box with refrigeration packs. The temperature should be kept at an even 63 degrees. The semen is mixed with an extender – a solution that essentially feeds the sperm to keep them viable. It should be stored in a dark, cool place (but not a fridge or a freezer!) and gently turned twice a day to keep the extender and semen well mixed.

A pig will come in heat every 18-28 days, but usually every 21. Every pig is different and Gertie is no exception. She would come in heat every month, but her cycle wasn’t super regular; one month it would be 20 days, another 23. This month she was scheduled to come in heat on a Tuesday. There are several phases to a pig’s heat cycle. One day one, often referred to as pre-estrus, her vulva will be swollen and she may have some discharge. Two to three days after that, she will go into standing heat and be ready to be bred. You notice this when she stands still, often arching her back and perking her ears, when you put pressure on her back end (when a pig is not in heat, she will scurry away as quickly as possible). Standing heat indicates ovulation and is the ideal time to inseminate.

I expected Gertie to come into heat Tuesday, but only noticed slight swelling that evening. I placed the order for semen the next morning, expecting that she would be in standing heat Thursday. The first dose should be administered 12 hours after you first notice standing heat. But when I checked her Wednesday afternoon, she was standing. This was earlier than anticipated and so I worried that I had waited too long to order the semen. It arrived the next morning around 9am and so I gathered the supplies and headed out, only to discover that she no longer seemed to be in standing heat!

Disappointed and distraught, I decided to feed her and let her settle for a couple hours. I called and talked to my supplier and he walked me through a couple scenarios. From what I’d explained, he didn’t think that I’d missed her standing heat, but on the off-chance I had, he said, she would still be ovulating and I should try to get a dose in as soon as possible. I asked if he had any advice on how to do that since she was not standing still for me. “You’ll have to be inventive,” he said. “I’ve bred walking before, so it can be done. Maybe don’t have anyone filming you while you do it though,” he chuckled.

2. Order the boar spray. Use it.

Boar spray is a spray full of boar pheromones that helps to stimulate and prepare the pig for insemination. You can spray it just in front of her nose or on a rag that you hold in front of her and those pheromones will stimulate all kinds of appropriate responses to prepare her body for breeding – her back arches and her vulva softens and lubricates, making it easier to insert the breeding rod. She stands still as she would for a boar to mount and take care of business. Her uterus and cervix contract to pull the semen in and ensure successful insemination.

It’s not necessary, though. All these processes can and do happen naturally and instinctually even without a boar or pheromone spray. And so at the last minute, I talked myself out of it. I don’t know why. Seems like such a silly thing to do. I’m a beginner! I’ve never done this before! I should be using all the things to make this as successful as possible! And yet, I did not. I think it totally would have helped the standing heat issue Gertie had. I imagine she was still or could have still been in standing heat, but was nervous (understandably!) and wary. Her vulva was still swollen and so was certainly still showing signs of being in heat and she settled down, arching her back as I wiped her down to be sure she was clean – responding appropriately to stimuli. I’m sure the boar spray would have helped and next time, I’m using it for sure.

3. See it done. In person, if possible. On YouTube if need be.

We meant all winter to make a visit to the pig farm where Gertie was born. The owner there had promised to show us the ropes and give us a hands-on demonstration so we weren’t going into this adventure blind. But between work – hers and ours – and other time commitments – hers and ours – and sickness – hers and ours, it just didn’t happen. This is part of the reason why we put off inseminating Gertie for so long. We felt so unsure of the whole process. But we knew we couldn’t wait any longer and when yet another attempt to schedule a visit fell through last week, I took to the inter-webs.

There’s really not a lot of information available about inseminating pigs. I was surprised. But I read all the information from five or six different semen suppliers (the most helpful resources by far) and I called the supplier I finally chose (based on the thoroughness of their Help section, actually) and asked them tons more questions. They were so patient and helpful and walked me through the process and the timing over and over again. I also watched Kate‘s videos of her pig’s insemination. I’d been following her on IG for more than a year and fond her step-by step video so helpful.

Of course, the ideal would be to see the process in person and participate with a knowledgable mentor on hand to walk you through step-by-step and answer questions in real time. But we don’t all have access to a pig breeder and YouTube is an excellent resource. But by all means, seeing it done matters and it made such a big difference in my confidence level.

4. Be brave. You got this.

It’s hard to push through the steep learning curve of any new adventure. Courage means being afraid or anxious or nervous and just doing it anyway. Confidence comes from doing it again with more skill each time. When you artificially inseminate a pig, you will administer at least two doses, possibly three. Before the first, you’ll be a beginner with zero practical knowledge, but by the end of the third dose, you’ll be well on your way to amateur status. Hard things get easier with practice, and each time you practice, you’ll get a little better and learn a little more.

I learned a lot this go through and am crossing my fingers that all went well. A pig’s gestation is 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days so if the insemination was successful, we’ll have a robust litter of piglets right around August 31st. Cheers to being gutsy enough to keep tryingnew things!