A good short day

Semen tested the bulls yesterday and it went well, short and sweet just the way we like it...ahahahaha  no reflection on R of course...  The bulls were all quiet and the vet was in a good mood...  I never thought to take pictures as I kinda had my hands full but next year for sure...  The whole procedure is quite demoralizing on the bulls part. 

They measure his testicles for size and feel around for any abnormalities...then the shove...the probe down his butt hole and crouch down beside the bull while R holds the probe in.

the  metal U shaped handle remains outside of the bulls rectum and the cord plugs into one of the ends. The bulls tail is held down over the U shape and keeps the unit from going completely inside the bull, which would be difficult to remove.  The probe is about 12 inches long and 3 inches in diameter.  Kinda big by human standards...  wouldn't want that enema. ahahahah

 the vet holds a rubber tube with a test tube at the bottom under the bulls sheath and turns the machine on...it gives gentle electrical impulses and stimulates his prostate, which causes sexual excitement and before long ejaculate is dripping out of the bulls penis...which the vet collects in the test tube..  she shuts the machine off and takes the sample to the warm room where her microscope is set up to examine the sperm sample for motility(movement) and any deformities...if it is a good looking sample we pull the probe out...(not an easy job when the muscles are clamped down tight and turn the bull out... he wanders out of the barn alittle bit dazed and with a bit of a sex crazed look on his face...it takes them a few minutes to come back to reality...

We have to do the semen test to make sure the bulls have not sustained any damage to thier testicles and reproductive organs over the cold winter from the weather fighting or illness.  If the bull did not have a good sperm count and we just turned them out with the bulls our calving period the next spring would be extended and the calves later in the fall would be inconsistant in size.  A close, short calving period produces an even, uniform bunch of calves to send to market which in turn generates a higher price per pound. And we would have to send fewer open or unbred cows to slaughter. Which is a good thing since we have a lot of money tied up in the raising of a cow and she has to produce at least 5 calves consecutively to break even with the cost of a lifetime of keep. After the 5 th calf she actually starts to make us a profit.  The average productive life of a cow is 7 years so we don't like to have any open ones...Every cow must produce a calf or we cannot justify keeping her for another year.  Tough love, but that is what farming has been reduced to...all the warm fuzzy feelings have been cleaved away, leaving it strictly business. It is all about profit, loss and margins.