Nurse Cow Mania

For Those of you who have wondered about the picture on the blog header it is a pic I took when my daughter and I watched our nurse cow have a calf in the cottonwood trees in our north pasture. The calf is only a couple minutes old in the pic and still wet and slimy. That was a couple weeks ago and I should probably bring yall up to speed on the whole nurse cow program. Sara is the nurse cow, she is a milking Shorthorn cross I bought from my old boss who used her as a nurse cow. She has a terrible bag, I often wish I had a pasture in which I could keep her where nobody could see her. I am a little vain when it comes to udders. Sara's disposition isn't aggressive but she isn't what you would call pleasant either but she makes a lot of milk and with a little coaxing will take care of the calves I put on her, so she works. The calves in the above pictures are calves I bought off of a feedlot that is feeding slaughter cows and some of them up and calved. The exception is of course her natural calf which is the black brockle faced calf. I bought the other two a couple days after she calved and grafted them on, it has been about a two weeks now and things seem to be going smoothly. The two options I have to contemplate are to wean the calves in two months and bring in a new group or to leave these guys on and let them all grow huge on the vast quanities she produces. I'm leaning toward the second option. I would however really like to get another nurse cow or three. I will keep my eye out while in my travels for a likely canidate(s). Now the last question with which my mind has been wrestling is what to breed Sara to? I hate naming cows. I have been contemplating going back to a Milking Shorthorn with VERY strong udder traits but my mind has wandered over into the ABS Beef Catalog and I'm considering a Red Angus Bull. Maybe an Ayreshire wouldn't be a bad move? Well I'll leave yall with that to think on. I hope tomorrow I can get my Hog post done and bring you up to speed on the pig project.