AMJA&R# AMJ615

DOB:       11/14/2007
hip height:   47″
weight:  750 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 line from the nursery rhyme that kept running through my head…”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 tame & 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.  She now thoroughly understands the rules & knows she’s not to give me any sass, and is very easy to work with.  Bo Peep is not one that is big on “lovin” though….she’s much too dignified & independent a boss cow for that.

This pretty girl maintains good dairy cow conformation and that lovely, refined Jersey head.  Bo Peep has had absolutely no health problems and seems to be a bit hardier due to her Dexter half.  When her first calf was born, I trained her to machine-milk, and I have done a little hand-milking just to get her used to it.  After weaning her third calf last year, 6 months into that lactation, I was milking her once a day and she was producing 2 – 2 1/2 gallons a day.  This year, on her 4th lactation, she seems to have finally decided she’s really a milk cow and has really settled into the routine of it without any of the dancing around, peeing & pooping right at freshening that we had previous years.

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
2012 – “Buster”, fawn bull calf by Belle Fourche Rousseau, born 2/21/12
2013 – “Tinkerbelle”, red heifer by Belle Fourche Rousseau, born 2/1/13

Current Production:

BoPeep’s production has peaked around 4 1/2 – 5 gallons a day of lovely, rich, creamy milk,  about half way between Dexter white & Jersey yellow.  She does this on just pasture, getting only about 5 pounds of GMO-free dairy grain mix at milking time, along with a 3 quart scoop of alfalfa cubes…to slow her down & make her chew!  She is bred back to Rousseau for a January calving.  Bo will be available after Aug. 1, when I can wean Tinkerbelle.