Today

Today...

our Herdsman and I went at it early to sort through a few hundred heifers to see which ones were pregnant, which ones were not, and to find the ones in between. We have another pending international sale in which we need to locate all of our ladies that could be pregnant from 1-5 months. From our standpoint, we want to find every possible girl on site that might be pregnant within that time, so we can sell as many as possible.

How, one might wonder, do you decide whether a heifer is pregnant, could be pregnant or is definitely not pregnant? Especially when we are going through girls that are no more than a month or two along?

 Eeny-meeny-miny-moe?

He loves me, he loves me not?

Rock, paper, scissors?

Red light, green light?

Sometimes, it definitely feels like that's how we do things - just pick every other one and you're good.

In reality, we have all of the information we need at our fingertips in order to determine which heifers are pregnant or not (or in between) via technology.

Everytime the breeder (the guy who comes in every morning to, well, breed via artificial insemination) comes in, he records what girl he bred, with what bull, and on what day. After a two week period, we take the compilation of all that data and plug it into the computer. From those figures, we decide when those girls need to get checked in a few weeks to determine pregnancy.

With that knowledge, along with steady record keeping of tracking what pens contain what heifers, we are prepared for drop of the hat sales like this one we are currently handling.

Today...

is also a beautiful day. Temperatures in the 80's-90's. Where did the Central Valley California summers disappear to? The ones where we had several days straight of 100+ degree weather? The ones that didn't have a nice breeze? The ones where you couldn't see the not so far away mountains and foothills?

Today...

cows got fed a lot of food.

Oh wait, that happens everyday.

Today...

I got paid to hang out with these black and white balls of fun. Well, mostly fun. I got slathered in manure a few times, but that's to be expected of nearly every job ... right?

Today...

Stoney played Superviser all morning.

Today...

I'm missing my best friend, boyfriend, and roomie as he starts his first day of school. See ya in three years Texas.

As you can tell, I'm a drama queen.

But dangit! I've been so spoiled the last 7 months to be living and working with my man, I've gotten used to having him around all the time. It still amazes me that we don't get sick of each, but maybe it's because that's how our relationship began, two friends amongst other peers living and working together.

Today...

is not over yet, so I must be on my way! I have to ride TWO horses this afternoon because my exercise rider is being studious. I need to get some barn chores done. Last but not least, I need to work out, so I can keep this new bod of mine in shape which is now twenty pounds lighter.

Happy trails!