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9.10.14

Listen to many, speak to a few

The less fortunate events of this year and the vagaries of the season remind me that it's never a good idea to be counting heifer calves too soon. It's a good lesson in life to experience some of the disappointments that befall us all and hope that I will only have to endure a few along the road.

We lost JOLIE mid-year and the current spring season has provided us with very slim pickings as far as heifer calvings.  Anecdotally, high rates of bull calves seems to be widespread.  We had an unfortunate case of a gorgeous LET IT SNOW heifer from the Lila-Zs being unable to stand, probably due to a brain lesion.  Then, there was a couple of still-borns, and again, all those bulls. C'est la vie.

On the bright side, another flush heifer from JOLIE, 12 sexed IVF embryos (by four sires) from Clydevale Informer Panda in the care of Dr Mike Bourema, and five SAVIOR embryos from Semagen Jasper Jolie.  There have been some pleasing classifications, including a BONAIR daughter, well-bought from Ingoldale, who went VG86 on her second showing.  And, a nice selection of freshly calved heifers are shaping up very well in conformation and production.  I also understand that there are 11 JOLIE pregnancies (muliple sires) in Germany, due early 2015.

Finally, a very nice addition is Semagen Goldsun Camelia from the BLITZ heifer out of the Ingoldale Camelias that came to us as an embryo.