Work Experience: Dairy Farm

I started my morning, on the farm, at 7:45. I began milking straight away. Getting into the routine of conditioning dip, clusters, iodine dip has become second nature to me. After milking around 90 cows we brought some more in from the barn. The cows and heifers from the barn have either recently calved or are lame. One heifer had calved earlier in the morning, so we milked her for the colostrum.Colostrum is high in energy, proteins, vitamins and minerals, that's needed to reduce the health problems of the calf. The colostrum was taken straight from the jar and emptied into a bucket, which was used to feed the calf. 

My job, after having milked, was to use the hot pressure washer to wash the jars and clusters. This is not as easy as it sounds, because you have to make sure that the suckers don't come loose from the clusters (or they won't be cleaned properly) and because the pressure washer is quite heavy. 

I then went with Michael to see the cows that were bulling and to ring the vet who would be artificially inseminating them. Michael pointed out to me that the cows that were bulling, were sweating and steaming much more than the other cows that were with them.

The cow that was very stubborn and wouldn't move

Following this we went to the barn to bring in four dry cows and three cows that have been having problems with their hooves. The first cow took 10 minutes to get into the crush, because she was being incredibly stubborn and not moving. Using a knife, a rasp and blue iodine spray we tended to her feet. Michael explained that the outside of the hoof, where the pedal bone is, is what the cow walks on. Therefore the middle of the hoof must be trimmed to prevent sole ulcers (caused by bruising) on the softer, overgrown areas of the horn and promote weight bearing on the outer parts of the horn. 

The tools we use for hoof trimming

On the third cow's back left hoof, Michael showed me an inter-digital growth. Not all cows have one and this was the first that I'd seen. A inter-digital growth looks a bit like a middle toe between the cloven horn. I was told that it is best to keep the inter-digital growth, rather than cutting it away. However, the hoof must be trimmed regularly to prevent the pinching of the inter-digital growth, which would then cause swelling and discomfort for the cow. 

The hoof having had the block fitted

The last cow that we tended to had cracked horn on her back two hooves and her front left. This may have been to do with stress, but she has had lots of problems with her hooves in the past. So Michael was unsure way this had happened. We only had chance to set a block on her back left hoof before she began to become too upset. The crack had made some of the horn loose, so we had to use clippers to cut away the horn which looked a little bit like a slipper. However, removing the "slipper" made the hoof bleed. I had to hold some paper against the bleeding to staunch the flow. This was difficult because the cow kept moving and we were using a heater to dry out the hoof, so that we could apply the block, so my fingers kept getting too hot. (You attach the block by roughening the surface of the hoof, drying it out, applying resin to the hoof, and to a wooden block, and placing the wooden block onto the hoof and letting the resin dry.) 

Finally, because I'm learning to drive at the moment, I drove down the farmyard. Laura has promised to give me extra lessons whenever we have any spare time. Hopefully I will become a bit more useful when I can drive, because I'll be able to do the feed round by myself and do a few jobs on my own, which will allow Laura and Michael to do more during the days that I am on the farm.