Sometimes it can mean "artificial insemination". This is what happened to our sweet Buttercup today. Well, it didn't totally happen, only the first hormone shots to bring her into heat happened. Being newbie farmers, we have no idea how to know when a cow is in heat. All the reading I've done indicates that the best way to know is if the cow stands to let another cow mount her... called "standing heat". Despite my best pleading, begging and batting of eyelashes, we don't yet have another cow. So - hormone shots.
Buttercup stood in the stanchion like a champ while Emily (the wonderful, wonderful AI technician) gave her a shot and gave us a crash course in administering the shots. Lock her head in the stanchion, smack her on the ass a few times to fake her out, then jab her.
We will give another shot next Saturday, then another on Monday, then insert the straws of semen (yes, I'm writing an internet post about semen.. bizarre) on Tuesday.
Then, if all goes well we'll have a calf (and more importantly, milk!) in 9 months.
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