I agree, Ursula is a real beauty queen! She's lovely. Who did you breed her to? Just curious if you bred her to another Brown Swiss or went a different route. Would also love to hear your thoughts on AI if you ever cared (dared) to share!
I agree, Ursula is a real beauty queen! She's lovely. Who did you breed her to? Just curious if you bred her to another Brown Swiss or went a different route. Would also love to hear your thoughts on AI if you ever cared (dared) to share!
No, she was bred to bulls. Let's see, there was a Red Poll, a Galloway, and another Red Poll. We have used AI and I would again depending on our bull situation. There is definitely a difference between a calf that came from the traditional breeding of bull to cow and one from AI, but there are times when we need to bring in AI as well. As an example, we want to breed some Speckled Park into our Red Poll gang. If I buy a quality Speckled Park bull, it's going to be around $4000-5000. I would only use him for one go around and then have to hold while I see if this breeding combination works. Hopefully, we get a nice cross out of there and I can hold the nuts on any special fella to use as a future bull. If it's an abysmal failure, no harm, no fowl. We breed our dairy to beef bulls unless we are in need for a future milk cow in which case we will AI to a purebred dairy breed. With the birth of our twin Jersey heifers, we should be okay there for awhile, but who knows what my whims will dictate tomorrow :)
I agree, Ursula is a real beauty queen! She's lovely. Who did you breed her to? Just curious if you bred her to another Brown Swiss or went a different route. Would also love to hear your thoughts on AI if you ever cared (dared) to share!
No, she was bred to bulls. Let's see, there was a Red Poll, a Galloway, and another Red Poll. We have used AI and I would again depending on our bull situation. There is definitely a difference between a calf that came from the traditional breeding of bull to cow and one from AI, but there are times when we need to bring in AI as well. As an example, we want to breed some Speckled Park into our Red Poll gang. If I buy a quality Speckled Park bull, it's going to be around $4000-5000. I would only use him for one go around and then have to hold while I see if this breeding combination works. Hopefully, we get a nice cross out of there and I can hold the nuts on any special fella to use as a future bull. If it's an abysmal failure, no harm, no fowl. We breed our dairy to beef bulls unless we are in need for a future milk cow in which case we will AI to a purebred dairy breed. With the birth of our twin Jersey heifers, we should be okay there for awhile, but who knows what my whims will dictate tomorrow :)