Most days, we are out of the house by 8am and driving to
farms either to register new farms for the study or to do follow up visits
which may include rebuilding/renovating the cows sleeping pen. On our initial
visits, we take pictures, do a physical exam, measure the animals and attach accelerometers
on the cows. The accelerometer records the cow’s location and movement in 3 dimensions.
This will help determine when and how often the cow is resting. You may be
asking yourself, why would that be something we want to know, well it is
simple, a cow that is laying down is generally not hungry, not thirsty and is
making milk.
On our second visit to the farms, treatment farms get a bit
of a makeover. We basically start by accessing the cow’s resting pen then set
out to make it more comfortable for the cow. In some cases, the floors are
cement blocks or very lumpy hard packed dirt so we often start by loosening the
dirt or adding more of it to soften the ground. At the same time, we do a bit
of demo removing boards that prevent the cow from lunging when she gets up
otherwise she won’t want to sleep there as she won’t be able to get up. We also
generally need to add in a neck rail and brisket board so that when she stands
in her stall, any manure she passes will fall outside the stall reducing the
risk of mastitis. It may not seem like important work to remodel one cow’s
sleeping pen but let me tell you, it means the world to that cow and any other
cow that will one day use to pen to be able to lay down and get up without
hurting herself. The proof, as construction was finished at one of the farms, a
cow walked right into her pen and laid down even as there was still commotion around.
Who knows when the last time that cow had a good night’s sleep? (Picture below)
For those of you that know me, you know that the prospect of
demo and construction are not scary, in fact it is just plain good fun. It has
come with its own challenges though. You see, the men that work with us here
are not very used to seeing two young women using hammer and saw. I think it
may be instinct for them to take the hammer and do the job as I was told that
building in men’s work. You can imagine that is has taken me a number of deep
breaths, walking away and repeating to myself that they are only trying to be
nice to keep from stealing the hammer back or saying something that I really
shouldn’t. We did need to let them know that Canadian women like using tools
and aren’t used to just sitting and watching construction getting done. Since
then, things have found a balance of sorts. There is a tool I have decided to
leave to the men and that is the panga
or what we call a machete. It is a very versatile tool that we use to round out
the edges of boards, straighten out beams, remove sharp edges and dig post
holes. I personally feel more comfortable with a hammer and saw but I’m sure by
the end of the summer I’ll have given the panga a try but for right now it is
probably safer that I not use the big sharp nice to hack away at a board near
people and cows.
This coming week, we will be doing return visits to some of
our study farms but we will also be going to farms that were part of last year’s
study. At these farms, we will be doing physical exams on the study cow and the
heifer if it is there as well as taking blood samples and checking for mastitis.
Yesterday, one of the cows we were working with had last
calved more than two years ago and though she had been breed a few months ago,
was not pregnant. There was a discussion on proper feeding, signs of heat and
timing of breeding. We than offered to give the cow a shot of prostaglandin to
get her to come into heat. I normally would not bother to write about this if
it weren’t for the fact that I was the one to give the cow her injection, or at
least try to. Despite distracting the cow and having her restrained in her
milking pen, as soon as the needle broke skin, she bolted backwards, breaking
free of the pen. My short arms and underdeveloped reflexes in this type of scenario
prevented me from grabbing the syringe out of the cow and I was left watching
her walk away with a needle dangling on the side of her neck. Thankfully, the
needle was retrieved after falling on the ground and a second attempt was made,
this time by our supervisor. This time, the cow once again bolted when the
needle went in and broke a second board behind her to get free. Finally, our
driver went and found us a 2x6 to place behind her so that on the third try the
cow received her hormones.
My post has become much longer than I had planned and so you
will have to wait find out about our living accommodations, our amazing cook
and all the wonderful people we have meet so far. Take care!
One happy cow down for the count
Enjoying a cup of tea made from this lovely lady's fresh milk
Some action shots
Just checking the rumination station
This is my office for the summer. The picture doesn't even come close to the real thing.
We take a picture at every farm using our fingers to identify the farm's number. This is farm 37 and it's lovely cow enjoying her breakfast of napier grass.
Just being silly while I wait for my chance to use the thermometer on this three toned cow.
