Me again! We’ve officially completed 100 farm visits from
our randomly generated list, and perhaps now would be a good time to describe
what it is that we actually do on these shambas…
First of all of course we have to
get permission from the farmer to use their information in our project. Krista
and I don’t really take part in this step because it’s usually in Swahili and,
therefore, way over our heads. Once they’ve agreed to participate in the study
we get to work. Most often the talking is again done by either Dennis or Joan,
but sometimes one of the farmers will speak enough English that Krista or I can
do the survey with guidance (and assistance!) from one of the others. When that
is the case we ask a series of questions about the animals, their health, feed,
living situation etc, and then we give the farmers a handout and talk to them
about several topics related to animal husbandry. Otherwise we focus entirely
on the cows and youngstock. We take their height and estimate their weight
using the girth of their ribcages, then we give them a body condition score and
thorough physical exam. If they’re zero-grazed cows, meaning they don’t leave
the stall area, we take a blood sample to be used for lab tests later, and we
measure and assess the stalls. For pregnant heifers and all cows, we do a
rectal palpation to assess ovary status or confirm pregnancy, and we give
hormone injections where required. For milking cows we also do a California
Mastitis Test and treat any quarters that are infected. Finally, if deworming
is needed we either do it for them or leave them with some dewormer to use at
the appropriate time. Usually the whole process goes very smoothly, and we can
be in and out of a farm in an hour, but sometimes there are more animals, the
questionnaire takes a while, or the animals aren’t as cooperative as they could
be.
For example, the other day at our
last call of the afternoon, we were all very pleased to see that the farmer had
only one cow and one heifer. They weren’t zero-grazed (so no blood and no stall
measurements) but the woman had them corralled in a small pen. We all heaved sighs
of relief that our last farm would be quick and easy, and Joan and I climbed
into the pen with the halter to restrain the cow while Krista took notes and
Dennis did the survey with the farmer. The cow really was quick and easy, she
was fairly quiet and didn’t fight the halter at all, and while she did dance
around a bit during the rectal palpation, we’re getting pretty used to keeping
up. The heifer, on the other hand, was the craziest specimen of milk producing
bovine I think I’ve ever seen! She must have been part Zebu and part wildcat.
We tried being nice, we tried being sneaky, we tried chasing her around
the 20’ by 20’ pen for a quarter of an hour, we tried lassoing her, we tried to
corner her, we even had Krista, and Dennis in the pen to help. I honestly don’t
know how we finally caught her, but she ended up with a rope around her neck
dragging Joan around the enclosure until we got her tied to a post. Usually at
this point the animal will calm down, once it realizes fighting won’t free it.
Not this girl. She spun and kicked, and twisted till she nearly did herself an
injury. The only information we were able to get was an approximation of her
height and weight and a body condition score based on what we could see from a
safe distance. And then, for reasons I will never understand, we decided that
it would be a good idea to follow protocol and use an oral dewormer on her. In
hindsight I think using the pour-on variety that we usually reserve for
lactating cows would have been a better idea, but I’m sure this way was much
more exciting!
Unfortunately, our Valbazen syringe
only holds 6mL (normally just treating young cattle) and she needed about 14,
so Joan had to be quick on the refill once Dennis, the farm owner, and I had
the heifer restrained. Dennis lunged for the head and got her in a head lock
while the farmer lady grabbed the halter rope and held on for dear life. I
grabbed a hind leg to keep her from jumping. Or at least that was the theory,
and on most animals that would’ve been enough, but Joan only had 12mL or so
into her before chaos broke loose. I swear I’ve never seen a cow do a flip
before that day, but that is exactly what she did. She kicked out with both
back legs and landed on her back, neatly breaking the holds of all three
restraint personelle and giving Dennis a good kick in both shins at the same
time. But she got herself really tangled in the rope as she did it so we had to
let her go to stop her from hurting herself…She never did get the last 2mLs of
Valbazen, but we just couldn’t compete with a somersaulting cow!
Krista preforming a rectal palpation.
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