04/07/2026
Today is a hard day.
There will always be a special place in my heart for JJ—our first calf born on our farm, and my first successful AI attempt. When I first decided to try AI, I bought the cheapest semen straws I could find. My thinking was simple: I could afford to fail quite a few times at $6 a straw before it would cost as much as having an AI tech come out again. We had already spent a few hundred dollars on two unsuccessful attempts with a tech, so it felt worth trying on my own.
Those $6 straws were hard to come by, though. The only option I could find was from a young, local, unproven Hereford bull named Yarborough. I went for it—and on my third attempt, it worked.
On October 23rd, 2024, we welcomed a beautiful little heifer into the world.
That same day, my best friend lost her mom.
To honor her, we named our calf Jaycee—JJ for short—after Tami J, whose middle name was simply “J.” From the very beginning, JJ carried more meaning than we ever could have planned.
We were over the moon. Not only was she special, she was also a heifer—a future milk cow, or so we thought.
But in our excitement, we overlooked something important.
We’ve committed to building an all A2/A2 herd. Without getting too technical, that means we aim for cows that produce only A2 beta casein milk, which is easier to digest. JJ was guaranteed to inherit an A2 gene from her mom, but because her sire was a Hereford—a breed that often carries the A1 gene—there was a strong chance she could be A1/A2.
And we didn’t test her.
When we finally did, the results came back: A1/A2.
In that moment, we knew her future wouldn’t be as a milk cow in our herd.
We were left with two options—sell her, or raise her for beef. After losing our steer T-Bone last summer to a tumor, we already had a gap in our beef rotation. Still, that didn’t make the decision any easier.
We chose to finish her out for beef.
Yesterday, we dropped her off. Today is her day.
This is the hardest part of homesteading.
It’s hard enough not to grow attached to steers you know are destined for the freezer. But it’s something else entirely when it’s a heifer—one you raised with a completely different future in mind.
We love all of our animals deeply. They are cared for, respected, and given the best life we can provide. But they also serve a purpose.
JJ had a good life here. A meaningful one.
And I will always love her. My heart is breaking today.
