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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Great Day in the Morning

With V home on Thanksgiving break, we took the opportunity to work the fall calving cows.  
 I was wrong about the Pear Cow, she was not the last to calve but she did have twins.  There are still 2 left to calve so we didn't work those.
 J is always good about having the cattle up so there is no running around for the rest of us.  Besides, they are trained to the sight and sound of him and we just scare them.
 We sorted out the cows first and just gave them their pre-breeding shot, quick and easy.
 Then it was the calve's turn while the moms looked on.
 The heifers just got a 7-way  vaccine while the bull calves also had to be castrated, or "switched" as J sometimes refers to the procedure.  One of our neighbors just lost a 500 pound calf to blackleg because he hasn't vaccinated his calves in years.
 V has recently changed her major from Accounting to Animal Science Business Option so we thought we would let her help with the business end of the procedure.  She was the official tail holder (hence the latex gloves she was donning in the last picture).   At first she tried it from outside the chute but her arms weren't long enough.
So she ended up inside where she could hold them better.  She did an excellent job and the whole day went along without a hitch.  J at one point was a little frustrated with a very slippery object and I thought he might have used some bad language.  I said he sounded like he could have been in the movie "The Grey" which we had recently watched on Netflix   It could never be run on network television because they would have to bleep 90% of the dialog.  V then clarified what J had said and said, "I don't think they said, 'Great day in the morning!" on The Grey."
Anyone have a good caption for this poor calf?

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great day, getting lots accomplished! We just spent a morning vaccinating heifers as well...this time a vaccine that we squirt up the nose to ward off respiratory infections. I think they give us more trouble with that vaccine than when we give them the 10-way with a syringe!

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  2. Looks like a good job done. Makes me glad we only calve in the spring and only have to this once a year.

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