Morning Sickness in Cows?

Compelling new observations prove that cows may suffer some resemblance of the morning sickness that pregnant women experience………..

Ok pretty much joking about all this, but there is a story behind it!

Meet Beatrice. She’s our Boss Cow or Lead Cow of the herd, pretty much meaning she’s in charge of all the Ladies. She leads them out to pasture, she’s always one of the first in the parlor, she’s at the top of the herd hierarchy. And oh yes there is a hierarchy, every cow in the herd has her place. Some are just plain mean, but Beatrice seems to be a nice leader, a respected leader.

One of the first triggers for us that something is wrong with a cow is that she comes into the parlor out of order. Especially a cow that is always in the same place, being out of order draws attention. So about a month ago Beatrice started missing her morning place in milking. And we definitely started keeping a close eye on her. But everything seemed fine, she was eating and producing normally, just late to milking.

Then one morning we caught her “sleeping” in the back of holding pen, catching her attention she seemed to snap out of it. Looked around and realized what had happened, she immediately headed to the front of the line to be milked. Everyone else scattered to let her through, they were just as surprised she was still there, as she was! This proceeded to happen every so often in the mornings and we joked that maybe she was experiencing morning sickness!

Beatrice has been a problem breeder, and we have been trying to get her pregnant for some time. She kept producing enough milk to stay around for another try, but we weren’t real hopeful she would settle. Sure enough with the new developments in her behavior, we realized she was over for her cycle.

And last week at our herd check, our jokings were confirmed, as Beatrice was confirmed pregnant! So maybe it is true that cows experience some morning sickness just like humans!

Definitely looking forward to another calf from B!!