Friday, January 6, 2012

What's in a name?

Every baby needs a good name. The young heifers on our farm are no different. I just finished naming a bunch of calves. All of our cows are registered Holsteins. Soon after the young females are born, we submit their registration papers our breed association. As part of this process, we select names for each of them. 


Tonight, I picked out names for three: ear tag numbers 1113, 1117, and 1121. To make sure I selected the perfect name, I started by looking at their dams' names. (A dam is the mother cow.) 1113 was born to 927, Paula. Paula hasn't had any other heifer calves. In other words, 1113 doesn't have any sisters. Paula's dam is Panda, so it seemed like we should stick with a P name. After browsing some websites with baby girl names, I selected Paisley. Mostly, because it's a cute name, but I personally wouldn't select it for a child.


Next up was 1117, the daughter of 199, Ronnie. Ronnie already has a daughter, Robyn. Obviously, 1117 was going to be a "R" girl. As a kid, I loved reading the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary. 1117 is now officially Ramona. 


Finally, 1121 was born to Robyn, Ronnie's daughter. I guess if you want to get technical, that makes Ramona her aunt? I needed another R name, so I selected Roxy. I bet she'll be spunky. 


If you've followed along, congratulations. If not, don't worry; it can get tricky keeping track of all of these ladies. I'm glad Diane keeps good records!


Moral of the story, every baby needs a good name. 

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