AMJA&R# AMJ615

DOB:       11/14/2007
hip height:   47″  
weight:  660 lbs.
horned
color:     black
chondro-free
PHA-free
milk beta-casein:  A1/A2

Thanksgiving of 2007, Jeff’s family was here for the holiday, I went out at dusk to check on Kitty & her new heifer calf before dark to make sure all was well.  Kitty stood there alone.  After a frantic search of the paddock & it’s fencerows, I still hadn’t located baby, so I ran inside to marshall the troops. Everyone donned jackets & gathered flashlights for my search & rescue mission, amid assurances that she probably wasn’t very far and that Kitty probably knew right where she was, etc.  An hour later after it was fully dark, we still hadn’t found her, but I was being put at ease by a nursery rhyme that kept running through my head.  

 Little Bo Peep
Has lost her sheep
And can’t tell where to find them.
Just leave them alone
And they’ll come home
Wagging their tails behind them.

The search was called off & we all headed back in the house, where I announced that at least I now knew what the calf’s name was.  And thus she was dubbed Bo Peep.  Sure enough, next morning she was in the paddock beside Kitty, contentedly wagging her tail behind her.

So this is our Bo.  She’s a nice, calm cow, quite friendly & halter trained.  She’s inquisitive and well-mannered.  Always one to enjoy a good head scratch, it was hard for her to learn to ask politely.  I knew we had our breakthrough the day she walked up to me, but instead of bumping me with her head (& horns), she stopped about two feet away then bobbed her head up & down mid-air in a scratching motion.  She then stood quietly as I scratched all around her ears & horns.  Bo Peep is second to Keira in the herd heirarchy.

This pretty girl maintains good dairy cow conformation and that lovely, refined Jersey head.  When her first calf was born, I trained her to machine-milk & she’s perfectly at ease with that.  I think she should be a pretty good producer once she gets going on 2nd & 3rd lactations, because I HAD to milk her the first month after this calf was born.  She’d come in in the mornings with two quarters bursting full – I wasn’t separating them & the little guy was only nursing off two quarters.  Out of my two quarters, I would get a whole gallon of milk!  After about 4-5 weeks, he was keeping up with her & I quit milking her.

Calving History:

2009 – “Beuford”, black steer calf by SF Re-Poll, born 6/16/09
2011 – “Hershey”, fawn bull calf by Margarethe’s Dairyman (AI), born 2/26/11