Sexed Semen: It's time to make babies

Alright, the title of this blog grabbed your attention and now I have to explain myself. The fact is that it is that time of year again when I have to think about adding to the herd, and the best way to do it is by applying artificial insemination to my cows. Nine months later: POOF, I have a calf.

Much like people there is a best time of the month to enter the butt end of a cow and place a sperm sample for insemination. So for the last several days I have been walking among the herd and watching the cow's behavior looking for signs that they are entering their heat cycles and will soon be in standing heat. But there is a lot of prep work in order to get to this point which I'll explain in a minute.

I talk to my 93 year old Father once a week, and when I shared with him my activities during the past week, he asked if I thought about this aspect of farming while I was in engineering school 45 years ago. Who would have guessed; I thought about sex, just not animal sex.

I have registered Red Angus cows and heifers. My business plan is to build up a herd of these cattle and eventually offer cuts of meat from them in a cafe associated with the winery. It will be beef that I had total control over, from birth to slaughter, being grass fed without the use of growth hormones, and that meet or exceed the Beef Quality Assurance guidelines. The small herd I have now are the beginnings of my breeding herd, and I am trying to put together good, solid, and healthy stock that have the best EPD's (Expected Progeny Data) that support this endeavor. EPD's are today's answer to the Big T, little t genetic traits we learned about in high school biology. EPD's may include characteristics such as calving ease, feed efficiency, docile mood, weight to carcass ratio, or marbling. There are 12 traits to consider.   In order to get the ones I want, one has to match a cow with a bull that shares these desired traits. You can always buy a prize bull for $20,000 to $30,000, but unfortunately after just a couple of years this bull can no longer be used in the same herd or it will be jacking its daughters. Also, by using a single bull, there is no guarantee you'll get just daughters.....you might get bulls too.

Which brings into the discussion sexed semen. There are dozens and dozens of prize bulls out on the market, each with their own special EPD data that I can use to match with my cows. And once you identify the best bull for breeding, one can purchase sexed semen that provides maybe an 85% chance of it breeding females . This is an important feature for rapidly expanding one's herd: to constantly bring on more females.

So now that I have found the best semen for the desired traits, and then had it shipped to the Vets for nitrogen storage, the next thing to do is to coordinate all the cows to have similar estrogen cycles. Why is this important? For one thing, I don't want to have all my cows cycling at different times. I don't have 30 days to watch over each of them to understand their heat cycles. Also, my Vet needs adhere to a plan too, without knowing when I would need him to perform A.I. would really mess up his schedule. Hey, how often do you hear about a doctor wanting to stimulate a birth so it doesn't get in the way of his golf game on Saturday? Same thing, but here the Vet is involved in the insemination, not the birth. Lastly, knowing that all the calves are going to be born on or about the same day will allow me to monitor the pregnant cows in late September (after harvest) and if there are any complications I can spot them quickly for corrective action. Just a few days ago on Wednesday my Vet came in and gave the 2 cows a shot to stimulate their estrogen cycle; by each of them getting a shot at the same time they both should come into heat within the next 3 to 5 days.

Which brings us up to current events. Twice a day I have been walking back to our pasture and watching cows. The time for activity is generally the first hour of the day (sun up is 7:10 a.m.) or the last hour of the day (3:50 p.m.). I watch the cows eat. I watch the cows drink. I watch the cows chew their cud. I watch the cows nuzzle each other. And I watch the cows......

That's right, female on female. But that's not the point. The bottom cow is in standing heat (i.e. they stand still while they are ridden by another cow, heifer, steer, or bull) and this is the best time to inject them with the bull semen. Unlike mares where there is a 4 - 5 day window to get this done, with cows we only have 12 hours or we lose our window of opportunity. I gave the Vet a call and we scheduled a rendezvous for the next day, Sunday. There is no rest for the wicked.

There is still frost on the ground when the Vet shows up the next morning. I had already done my mandatory chore of getting the four cattle in the pen adjacent to the sweep pen and the squeeze chute. Our first job was to get the two cows that were to be bred into the chute leading to the squeeze pen, and with just a little prodding we were able to get them headed in the right direction. X406 was the first in line, and she was the one observed the previous night in standing heat. My job was to lock the head into position.....no cow with a hand up its butt will stand still on their own and let the Vet perform his duty. A squeeze pen is a necessity to control a 2000 pound animal.

With a glove on his right hand which extends all the way up to his shoulder, the Vet reached in and felt the inner workings of X406. Everything was in place and sized accordingly. He confirmed she was in heat and proceeded to take a straw of semen and insert it into the uterus for dispersal. Wam. Bang. The job was done in just a few minutes. The Vet's arm must have been warm; the cow never put up a fuss.

Now onto X446. This was the other cow that received an estrogen cycle shot but so far had not shown any signs of heat. That was no excuse however to avoid the tender hand of the Vet. After I opened the head gate and allowed X406 to leave and join the 2 heifers who were eating grass within her view, X446 was prodded into the squeeze chute and I proceeded to close the gate to restrain her. She wasn't happy but she recognized her predicament and took it in stride. The Vet then repeated his prior actions, but this time he was exploring more to see what her inner activity was. He concurred she was well into her cycle, but not quite ready. Tomorrow would be the likely day and I should just be vigilant in my observations in order to spot her in standing heat and be ready for her being artificially inseminated.

This story was certainly more than you bargained for. Ah, life on a farm.

UPDATE: X446 was A.I.'d Monday morning, 5 days after her estrogen shot.

Now the big question is whether we were successful or not. Ultrasound can't be performed for 25 days, but before that time the cows may or may not go into their ordinary heat cycle. If I don't see them perform in 21 days, "we" are good to go. January 4th and 5th will be the telling days. If all is well, the new calves will be warming in the sunshine of mid-September.

Signs - Building the Winery: Part 6

As you can conclude from my previous posts, there is more to building a winery than just throwing up some framing and a roof. There are so many things that one must consider beyond the obvious visible aspects of the building. As the winery gets closer to completion (we are still a long ways away), one has to consider other things. One is just making sure you have enough product to sell (more on that later), but the other is to consider the marketing part of the project. Without people coming to the winery, all is lost.

So I took a careful look at all the signage we will need and then began reading the County statutes that apply to putting up signs. There are nine pages specifically dedicated to signs and how they can be installed within the county limits. Nine pages! Recognizing that nothing is smooth sailing within this County, I started to read through these to see where my particular signs fell within the codes.

The regulations began by talking about how the signs shouldn't interfere with the pleasant rural scheme that has unfolded over the last 300 years. I guess that kind of eliminates huge billboards (think: "400 miles to SOUTH of the BORDER"), which I don't have. Whew !

As you read more and more of these statutes and other regulatory manuscripts, they all tend to have  a phrase like" intended to protect the health,safety, and welfare of the public." If this isn't a catch all, I don't know what is. Almost anything you do will either piss someone off, or at best they might not care. This one little phrase, influenced greatly by someone with a legal sense, allows County administrators to get in your face and try to tell you what to do in every imaginable way. And what better way to make their presence known than to get involved in the approval process of a simple sign. A sign is your entry way into the market. It is a way to say "I'm over here !" It is your defining message. And it is open to government intervention.

How's this for a line in the regulations: "Distribute equitably the privilege of using the public environs to communicate private information." Huh ?

So I plod through the regulations. There are general requirements. I'm OK with these. These things include location, construction,materials, manner of illuminating and/or securing or fastening, and number of signs applied for, and the wording of the sign or advertisement to be carried on the sign. I suppose if you have a "normal" sign, none of this is worth arguing about.

And then there are Prohibited Signs. Wind sail signs (think of those in front of an auto dealership on Presidents Day), flashing signs, signs on a roof, signs attached to vehicles, or those put on an unapproved supporting structure. So far, so good......missed that bullet.

There are exempt signs,traffic signs, No Hunting signs. There is the typical disclaimer that the County does not wish to stifle free speech by limiting political signs. There are on-premise signs, and off-premise signs. There are rules for signs within an Agricultural - Residential District, and an RVC District (whatever that is), a R-1 District (I know this one, it's a level of residential), a B-1 District (i.e. Business) , a B-2 District (which is kinda funny since our downtown has a single traffic light and has maybe a dozen buildings total, but somehow we managed to have 2 levels of Business), an M-1 District as well as a M-2. Really ?

Now in each of these areas the sign is restricted in different ways by how large it can be, where or how it should be mounted, how high it is allowed, whether illumination is permitted , and possibly how long they can be up before they must be removed.

So now having an in depth understanding of how confusing all these rules are that need to be applied  (square footage and an associated height requirement are the most mathematically challenging), I put my sign request together, showing the signs I wanted (3 copies required with each request), descriptions of each sign (materials, fastening, method of support), its location including number of feet from roadways and access points, and description & purpose.

I had four signs, and to be honest once I was in the groove cranking out all this info., it didn't take too long. But to really understand which technical statute they each fell into was beyond me. Was a sign intended to promote the bank a "Construction Sign"? This is one of those temporary signs that state "Another building project financed by ABC Bank" . And then I had a sign to be mounted just outside the building promoting the Winery. It was 500' off the major road and you couldn't see it in a drive buy if you squinted. Why does this need to be approved anyway ? And then there was the sign by our entrance. I sort of knew where this one fell, and fortunately it was sized appropriately. And then there is this sign, being used as a directional sign out by the main road that is a 1/4 mile away from our entrance, so I guess this is a "directional" sign.

So in the end I was able to get them all approved, with no debate I might add. I would like to think it was because of my prep work, but deep down I suspect it might be more because I am one of the few people who actually tried to follow the statutes before I erected a sign. The Planning Director said that about 7 signs come in for approvals annually; my request was over half their quota.

C-Projects: What you do in the off season

I have a personality flaw (or at least one I'll admit to). I tend to work on a gazillion projects, most of which are well publicized, and many take forever to complete. These projects, when started, seem to be very important at the time, but as other jobs come along, these projects slip backwards in priority and some may never seem to get done.

There are several downsides to this. First, because these are apparent to those that are following the building of the winery, or the expansion of the vineyard, I am asked repeatedly how this project or that project is coming along. All I can do is try to defend why it is delayed.....there is only one of me and other things jumped ahead of it. The other downside is that I generally collect all the materials required to complete the job, so some investment has been made waiting for the job to regain momentum. If I start a project, I will have a pile of tools next to it that will stay on "Ready Alert" status until I get back to it. Fortunately I have accumulated seven hammers, five sets of wrenches, numerous boxes of screws and nails, a half dozen tape measures and Sharpies, and easily two dozen various clamps (C-Clamps, F-clamps, pipe clamps, & pony clamps) such that I am seldom looking for that tool I put down somewhere to start a next project.

All this gets me to my list of "C-Projects". Somewhere in my management training I was told to prioritize my to-do list every day. This is very easy to do while in season (March through September); the vines take firm hold of the top items on the list and become A-projects. Of course when the winery needs attention, it has a season that overlaps with the vineyard in August and September, and oftentimes it easily bumps vineyard items, especially if there is manpower available whom I can delegate some of the vineyard tasks to.

A-Projects are required to be done right away. B-Projects need to be done but they aren't in a life or death category. B-Projects delayed can easily jump up to A-Projects instantly. And then there are the C-Projects. These tend to fall within the definition of needing eventually to get done, and their primary level of importance is tied to future improved efficiencies, so to ignore them completely only adds more work later on. A good example of a C-Project is the spraying of weed killer. Not to do it in a timely manner means tall weeds may ground out the electric fence (which leads to cows escaping & hence chasing them around the County), or requiring days upon days of weedwacker work when the weeds get too tall for traditional mowing to handle. Do not ignore C-Projects !

So here I am in the off-season with all these C-Projects. Some of which I'll move along a little, but still not completing them. Others I will review and analyze and possibly change completely how I will conquer them. Still others might fall off the list entirely. Then there are others I prefer to do when it is a little warmer, or when it either is raining (like inside projects) or is not. I am not sure if it is clinically defined ADD or just a desire to keep entertained by jumping around in these assignments. Never the less, the important ones do get done, and others just get completed because I am tired of walking around them.

There is the portable wine lab for Diane. Here is this 8' x 12' lab I am making that is perched up on skids, so when we expand in a few years I can just pick it up with a fork truck and move it to a new location. Diane needs a place to keep all her winery materials, and to remove her testing from our kitchen to a more appropriate place. Our kitchen has piles of lab data, pipettes, alcohol and sulfur and acid analysis equipment, 2 scales, and gallons of distilled water. I think this stuff deserves a home of its own. The lab is almost done except for the finish work, which was halted so I could get some giant-sized plastic bags to put over all the wine tanks and protect them from airborne dust that I would be creating when I finished taping & sanding wallboard joints. The job was delayed, but the bags are now in. It is now firmly a C-Project in hold status.

Then there is the cattle feeder. A welded framework which holds a halved plastic barrel so I can feed the cattle cracked corn or baled hay without it being spread everywhere. Almost done, just need to find the time to finish mounting the barrels.

How about sanding the back porch? After several trips to Lowes to identify the perfect color, and the priming & painting method I wanted to use, the paint sits in our foyer waiting in line for the perfect day to spend on one's hands and knees to prep the porch. How exciting.

The chickens have had some unfortunate experience in being introduced to a neighborhood hawk. One of their sisters took one for the team and became a filling meal for the hawk. The hawk has seen that they are easy pickens because they are truly free range, and spend more time looking down for bugs instead of looking up for incoming danger. I need to do something here or my egg output will drop below usage. Why didn't the hawk grab Fred?

The list goes on and on. A pump house needs to be built and another one repaired. Irrigation systems need to be built or fixed. A hay pavilion should be built. A hoist system for the winery has all the parts in a pile that require a day's worth of installation on high ladders. The Virginia Health Department says we need to set up a closed room specific to our wine bottling operation prior to our February bottling effort. And I am juggling the demands of building the winery and pulling its marketing together, along with completing a research project I am involved in with Virginia Tech.

So much to do, so much to do.