Tatoos and pregnancy tests on clinic day
Vet Kevin tatoos the ear of one young calf,
while another checks his work.
It was herd clinic day here at Howmars Farm, and we had 9 cows to check, some calves to vaccinate, and a bull calf that needed to be steered. We had chores done and the animals all sorted by 8:30 a.m., the usual time Dr. Steve gets here. We were surprised when one of Steve's associates, Dr. Kevin Tobey, pulled into the barn driveway. He was here to do the clinic for Steve, who had to attend a conference today.
We hadn't seen Kevin for awhile, so it was nice to chat with him as we went about checking the cows for pregnancies and vaccinating the heifer calves. Kevin, like myself, is a graduate of the University of Maine at Orono. I think he started at UMaine the fall after I graduated. In Steve and Kevin's practice there is another vet, Pete Averil, that also attended UMaine while I was going there. I enjoy talking with the two of them about school memories.
Clinic went very well with most of the cows checked being pregnant and the fresh cows checked cycling normally with no problems. We vaccinated and tatooed 6 heifer calves ranging in age from 4 to 6 months. One of the calves was a Red Angus heifer born in July. Kevin also had to put an ear tag in her ear to show she had been vaccinated. A little before 10 we were done, Dr. Kevin had scrubbed up his equipment and boots (bio-security is very important), and he was on his way to his next client.
Below: Vet Kevin gives his boots a steam bath
before leaving the farm, a necessary precaution.
--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont
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Posted by Blogger Chris at January 25, 2005 04:10 PM
Good afternoon! I've been reading your Bovine Bugle update for a few months now and find them very interesting and wanted to write to personally thank you. I took a liking to cows when I lived next door to a farm in Mont Vernon, NH when I was in my 20's. Each cow certainly had a personality. #9 was my favorite cow. Sometimes several would escape and on a few occasions I awoke in the morning to find the tiny little house I rented which was next door to the pastures, surrounded by cows. And, on one occasion cow #9 was standing outside my bedroom window. However, I knew nothing about how a dairy farm (or even farms in general) operate. I just understood it was a lot of hours and very hard work. I'm fascinated by reading your daily logs. How nice that you do this so we uninformed can have a first hand account of what dairy farming is really all about from day to day. You do a great job writing the update, too! Thank you.
Jonathan Gates reports from Howmars Farm in Franklin, Vermont.