Which cow is on heat lots of pics

[regolith]

I took these photos a couple weeks ago thinking it would be fun to see how many of you would pick from the action which of the two cows is in heat. The brown crossbred cow is 175, the black and white Holstein Friesian cow is 285.
When I turned up to move the calves to fresh grass one of the weaners was on heat and being ridden right in front of the fence where they're standing.

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[regolith]

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107: mown twice, chipped twice, chipped them all out a third time after the cows left. That's since October '11.


102,98,85 missing, not uploaded yet.

[hooknline]

My best guess is 175.

[regolith]

175 is the brown cow with the white socks. Which of her actions made you think it was her?

fwiw, the other cow was added to the 'pd at next opportunity' list and if this was mating season would have been watched closely for the next twelve hours... but I probably wouldn't have inseminated on those signs. First to last picture is about six minutes. And I have pd the other cow still holding in-calf.

[hooknline]

From the pics she seems to be the most active/ agitated. The other one seems to have more interest in the grass

[robert]

I'd say 285 (the b&w), she seems more alert and observant of other cows, especially when they are at the fenceline, I would have AI'd her off of that standing heat.

[hillsdown]

The one with the green tag is far too fat for a lactating dairy cow Rego . What is her average production per day ?

[Kathie in Thorp]

I'm also going with the darker/less white-marked cow. She seems distracted . . . .

I had a heifer "in" a couple of days ago that was SOOOO obviously in that she was practically obscene. Dripping, rubbing the posts, totally standing, and she couldn't even put her tail down -- it was out at an angle all day. Wish they all did that.

[regolith]

285 (the black and white cow) is on heat. Video would have been far better because it would have picked up all the subtle movements still photography misses... but someone with a fast internet connection will have to stump up with video of a similar situation, I can't do it.
Rule of thumb, and I don't know why it's true but I've never seen an exception is that when one cow mounts another head on, the one on top is always the one on heat. The reason why there's no sequence of images for that movement is because it was all over in less than a couple of seconds... 175 moved aside looking alarmed.
175 earlier mounted 285 and played about for several seconds up there... you also see that she's drooling on 285's back. Saliva on a cow's back, flanks or tailhead is a good sign of heat.

Hillsdown, 175's condition is at calving target, 5 - 5.5. A lot of the herd are there at this point, calving starts 20 July and the farm will likely be struggling to provide enough grass through winter and spring again, so that's where I want them now.
She's been fat for a long while though and her production this year has been far less than I'd expect of her.
The open cows are the lightest. I suspect they're open because they're light and not vice versa.
175 - production is slightly above herd average, has done 368 kg at 1.55 kg MS/day but I expect more of her, she's a large cow and the F1 daughter of one of my high producers. She was exactly at the herd average on last herd test in mid March.
285 has done 355 kg at 1.77/day. I think that puts her at the lower end of the top 20% within the herd.

[regolith]

326 tonight:


103 was on yesterday, took this photo tonight. The scuffing is still visible though not as dusty as it was. She's nine months old and may have been ridden by another calf her own age to leave those marks... but I did see her with an older cow who was on heat yesterday.