When you have a registered dairy herd your animals must be named. If the herd has been in the family for a while and you follow the trend of naming a calf something that starts with the same letter as its mother’s name, you soon start to run out of names. Trust me on this.
When I started going out with the boss he was delighted to turn the task of naming over to me. By the time kids came along I can’t tell you how happy I was to start turning it over to them.
Now we are asking you to try your hand. Yesterday’s little heifer needs a name, preferably beginning with either ‘a’ or ‘s’. So far the suggestions are Sprite, Amarillo and some weird place name that I can’t spell or pronounce.
If you have a good idea for a name, just leave it in the comments section.
Please.
We will pick one out of a hat like we did when we named a ‘v’ calf through the Farm Side.
(A word to the wise: virtually every conceivable conjugation of the name ‘Ann’ and most ‘a’ fruits have been taken already.) Have fun.
Doesn’t all this naming and registering stuff make you wonder why we need a national animal identification system? As soon as little ‘a’-whatever is named and looks like she will survive all right, we will take her picture, write that name with our our herd prefix, her date of birth, the date her dam was serviced, the registration number and name of both sire and dam, the name, address and account number of her owner, whether she was a twin or not, her color, and whether or not she was an embryo transfer on a registration blank. Then we will sign it and send it (plus money) to the Holstein Association. Later we will get back her nice new registration paper, clearly identifying her, us, and where she came from. You will not only be able to trace her, but you can have a look at who her ancestors were and where they lived back to the 1800s if you go on the Holstein website. What the heck more do we need? An ear tag that will rip a big hole in her ear when it gets ripped out on a feeder or tree? Nah, it is just a government gimic to keep tabs on our business. You know it.
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Going Forward—Monday, December 23, 2024
2 hours ago
7 comments:
"Serenity"...I guess dairy cows should be calm and mellow :)
Let's see... Alpha, Alfalfa, Autumn, April, Angela, Aurelius (don't ask), Aurora, Azimith. Simone, Suzy-Q, Sharon, Sisyphus, Sitka, Sitta, SixofNine, and Spruce.
That ought to hold you for a little bit.
:D
Great names, thanks to both of you. The best part is the only one of all of those that we already have is Spruce.
We will save all the names that we don't use for this calf to use to name future ones. I already have a whole file from the 'v' calf contest.
Amy, Anjolina, Andrea, Auggie, Sparky, Spanky, Sammie, Smiley, Susan, Sandra, Stephanie, Sunshine, Sunny, Sniffy, SueEllen
This is fun.
my 6 year old says 'Sally.' She loves your farm photos!
My kids said Snowball b/c of the white face.. that pic at the top is of the one you're naming, right?
How about Anna. Then she is a paladrome. :)
As to the NAIS registration, it is crazy. Not just for 'Anna' :) but even worse for animals that are not to be alive in six months. My sows farrow piglets. Someone buys a few to raise for their summer pigs. In six months they want to take the piglets to butcher but with NAIS they can't do that unless they go though the whole tagging thing. It is a waste of money, time and energy. The government has far more important things to do. Now they are admitting that NAIS is useless for BSE (Ag Commissioner Steve Kerr at House Ag Committee Hearing 3/22/06 Montpelier, VT) and claiming it is for Avian Flu. Yet during that same hearing he said that 1) Avian Flu won't be transmitted from birds to peole around here and that the real problem is humans bringing it in on flights from other countries where they will eventually get it. His words. So according to that NAIS and Premise ID aren't going to do a wit of good for Avian Flu either. We don't have FMD. NAIS is just an excuse for government intrusion into our lives.
-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in Vermont
http://NoNAIS.org
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