Dairying It Up

Today was a day for the exploration of new things. I learned so much today that I'm going to be hard-pressed to tell it all to you! I went out to meet Dr. C. at 8:30 am at his house/office. I had only spoken to him over the phone, so this was our first time meeting one another. I knocked on the door and out comes this late 60's/early 70's balding old man, lithe and spry and beaming at me over his half-moon glasses, dressed in coveralls with a collared shirt peeking from underneath it. He looked to me like a figure straight out of a James Herriot novel.

We headed out to our first call, a small dairy with about 60 milkers. The visit began in the calf barn. They had pens for the younger ones individually, then  group pens for the older calves, separated by age. There were probably 12-15 calves in the barn. They were cute as can be and very friendly. All of them had names on their tags with everything from Fuzzy to Glacinda. Dr. C. explained to me the process by which they cycle the cows through and what they feed them, etc. Cows have their first babies around 2 years of age, and aren't fully mature until about 5.

One of the pens of calves had already been "de-horned," and the next oldest pen was ready to have it done today. Dehorning is the process by which they are well... de-horned. This is for owner, worker and other cow safety, and serves to keep the herd healthy and with few wounds. The dehorner was basically a very hot metal ring that was pressed around the base of the horn nub, cauterizing and killing the cells which signal the horn to grow. The calves were put in a head gate, and a halter was placed on them, which served to hold their head to the side so that they didn't squirm too much. They were then "de-horned." I held their heads to the side while he performed the procedure, and let me tell you, that smells awful. It was really the smell of burning flesh, and it clung to my hair and clothes for the rest of the day.

We then headed to the mature cow barn and did palpations and checks. We looked at 26 cows for pregnancy, breeding cycle stage, and various wounds. We lanced a huge abscess that pumped out (no exaggeration) at least 2 cups of pus. It was awesome. I saw some progesterone implants meant to encourage the cows to go into cycle, vaccines, etc. I really learned how much it is necessary to teach the dairy farmers rather than just vet the animals. They gave all their own vaccines, fluids and the implants, and kept their own mini-pharmacies on stock from vet prescription. They knew what to look for and how to treat it. This allows them to be cost effective. They could not pay to have the vet out to vaccinate everyone and do all of this, and still allow us to get our milk for $2/gallon.

Our next visit was to do some podiatry on limping cows. Both of them had rear hoof injuries. One was an abscess, and the other an ulcer. He hoisted the leg up via pulley to work on it. One of the cows did crack him in the knee with it's hoof while he was working on it, which had to suck. Dr. C. was absolutely hilarious and ornery and let me ask him a thousand and one questions.

Our last stop of the day was to Dr. C's son's goat dairy farm. They are one of 2 producers of goat milk in PA, and have a really neat operation. They have around 20 milking goats, and a ton of bucks and young goats. They are really just getting it off the ground, but it's a cool process. They had La Mancha goats there, along with Alpines. Have you ever seen a La Mancha? They look like this:

They have no ears. And are adorable.