An Almanac of Farming – A Series

As the farm population in North America gradually dwindles, ‘corporate’ knowledge related to basic farming practices is being lost. Simple farming points that were passed from father to son are starting to pass to the wayside. Below is a selection of bon mots related to running a farm and caring for large animals.

• Do not feed horses dusty or moldy hay. Their lung system is designed to be conducive to running so bad hay pulls the dust in deeply and creates breathing issues. When haying selection has to be put into the proper grass to be cut. It has to be dry and when you think it is dry enough, still wait a few days before baling. If rain hits the hay, forget about using it for your horse.
• If there is skunk grass in your bale of hay, it should be rolled out instead of being fed in a bale ring. The grass is liable to poke cattle in the eye or damage the inside of their mouthes when eaten out of a ring.
• When checking young calves, here is a couple of points. When they stand up and have a good stretch, they are probably feeling ok. Check for alertness, see if their ears are up or droopy, and examine their navel for signs of stiffness. If the animal is standing all hunched up or will not get up easily, they are probably sick. Infection of the navel can easily kill the animal especially through the tube that leads to the liver. Turn off your vehicle and just listen. You’ll hear the wheezing of a calf with pnemonia. Also, keep half an eye out for cows whose udders don’t look as if they’ve been sucked. If their calf isn’t sucking, it’s not feeling well.
• When carrying large loads with a hydraulic loader, keep the load close to the ground. If you hit a rough patch, it will help prevent a shock load on the hoses which could cause them to pop.
• Clean bedding in the pens is important for many reasons. A dirty cow sells for less at market partly due to looks and because when they are slaughtered, the plant has to spend more effort cleaning the hide. Good, fluffed-up straw helps keep the animals warm and clean. Cows will lie in their own manure and if their bags get dirty, their calves will come down with scours.
• Horses are cleaner than cows and you can stand up a bale of straw and they will use it for bedding for months with little maintenance.
• Older hay in bale rings will go uneaten if the ring is not lifted. Once the ring is moved, the cattle will stir up the hay and eat up the leftovers.
• Sometimes when cattle do not eat a bale of hay right away, the outer crust needs disturbing so they can start digging into it.
• To prevent excessive wear and tear on your tractors during the winter, remove spilled hay from the roadways. During the freeze/thaw cycle, the hay or straw will create lumps that the tractor has to bounce over. The material is extremely effective as an insulator and will prevent the snow and ice underneath from melting.
• Push down the snow in the hay yard as you pull down on the hay supply. Hardened snow makes for a rough ride while bouncing over it with the tractor.
• If the sides of the cattle look dirty as you drive by, it is probably time to bed the pen. If the cow’s udder becomes dirty, the calf will come down with scours.
• If a cow loses its calf, a twin can be grafted on to the animal by skinning the dead calf and tying the hide on the other one. This should fool the mother into taking the twin.

• To keep a cow from kicking while you are trying to get her calf to suck, tie a rope nice and tight around her just forward of the udder.
• Occasionally, when a cow is ornery and you have to work with her calf, open a gate and the cow will rush through leaving the calf behind. Then you can work on the calf without fear of the animal coming at you.
• When starting a slow calf on the mother, milk the cow a bit first (with warm hands), wet your fingers with the milk and get the calf sucking on you first.
• To differentiate between foot rot and lameness in a cow, look at the hoof for splitting. Excessive spacing and smell indicates the presence of foot rot.
• When trailering cow/calf pairs out to pasture let them out in a way that the cow does not take off without her calf. Point the trailer at a fence line or even consider letting them out in a corral just to slow the cow down before she takes off without her calf. Cows will sometimes head for the hills and leave a lost calf behind. Unless you’re dumping them in a corral, it is best to trailer the animals as a cow/calf pair.
• Newborn kittens can survive on their own for about three days if their mother abandons them. Sometimes, you can entice the mother to return if you put some food out and leave the area for a good period of time. Probably after a couple of days, if the mother has not returned, she is gone for good and you would have to eye-drop feed the kitten to save it.
• If a cow is calm enough, she will let other calves suck from her udder. Most will just let their own suck but enterprising calves will steal milk from whoever will stand still.

• 

  Most animals will self-wean themselves but occasionally a younger cow (two to three years of age) will steal milk from other cows. This would deprive the calf of milk so the offending animal is fitted with a hard plastic nose attachment called a Calf Weaner. The barbs will irritate the udder of the other cow and she will move off.

• Part of checking calves is to determine if they have been hurt by their mother or the other cattle. Occasionally, the calves can be stepped on and have their legs broken. If you can find the break, it can be casted and the animal can still feed itself.

Blair’s LinkedIn Profile

Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.