Too Much Bull

Greetings on a chilly morning in WyoCo!
   I dont know what it is about working from home that moves me to do a little writing, maybe it's the bright blue walls or all-you-can-drink coffee supply... either way, here we are again.

   For anyone eagerly awaiting an update on CalfWatch 2012- the wait is over!
   Unfortunately it was a bull. Another bull...
   Which puts us somewhere around 100% bulls in the last two years (to be fair, we only have a few cows so it's only 4/4, but still, c'mon already!). But he's huge and healthy and the reports from NH say he's eating well. Fair warning folks, we don't get too attached to bulls because they end up in the freezer.
   More importantly, Deiter, now officially a cow (can't call her a heifer anymore) came through calving like a champ, despite having a 100+ pound first calf. That's a good Swiss for ya' :) While it's not initially looking like she'll have the show udder I was hoping/praying for, it may improve as the swelling goes down. More than likely, I'll find a herd in WNY for her to hang out in and she'll live like a normal cow instead of a total show pet. But of course I'll visit her, since she's been a pet too long to go cold turkey and I need to see a brown cow every so often.

   In other news, I held a meeting with a few dairy industry folks who were kind enough to offer their insight as my advisory group for this new job. 
   Since this was the last of my initial objectives to check off the original to-do list, I'm going to stop referring to it as a new job. 
   Bringing together a group of people with such enthusiasm and experience in serving dairy farmers, or being dairy farmers, was a great reminder of why it's important to spend as much time as possible with people who know a lot more than you do. The group included a few progressive dairy farmers, a financial consultant, veterinarian, nutritionist, animal health company rep, cooperative field people, extension specialist and my excellent adviser, and they didn't let me down- I picked up some good ideas, was given a few things to rethink, and was left feeling a huge amount of gratitude to be involved in an industry that supports young people and new initiatives to help dairy farmers as much as this group of people do.  
  
That's about it as far as happenings, but I'm heading to a calf symposium tonight where I will again be nowhere near the smartest person in the room- so I'm sure there will be a lot of good calf-raising information making it's way back to WNY. If you don't already, find me @calfadventures on Twitter- I'll try to remember to tweet any really cool updates from the meeting. 

Oh, and Happy 12-12-12!