She doesn't look happy, does she? But see how those front hooves are starting to touch? That's not good for her feet.
Last year we had the trimmer out sometime in the summer, and I was worried the whole time that she'd miscarry from the stress. Neal said he didn't think she'd ever had her feet trimmed, so this was all new to her. This year, I knew I wanted to have her hooves trimmed before I tried to get her artificially inseminated (AIed). The fact that she doesn't walk on concrete here means that her hooves grow really fast.
She handled it better this year than last, perhaps because it was familiar to her. I kept telling her how lucky she was to be going in for a pedicure since I've never had one.
7 comments:
They never do seem to appreciate their pedicures do they? You should see my doe when I try to trim her hooves. You'd think I was killing her.
We taught our cows to pick up their feet for trimming, like horses do. There isn't a traveling cow trimmer that I know of were we live, so we have to do it ourselves.
It wasn't much different than trianing horses to pick up their feet, although they are so much more flexiable on their back end then horses, and the back leg is a little harder to hold. We have found that it works best if I hold and my husband trims. I separate out and manuver the claws for him, and he can concentrate on nipping.
The second photo is the look on my face when the alarm clock goes off on my rest days.
Oh the life we lead when the cow gets a pedi before we do huh?
I'm working with our calf Buster Brown in training him to lift his feet. If your cow doesn't want to lift her feet, you could also use a small chisel and hammer to take off the long toe.
Yeah, but for $25 bucks, I can have someone come out once a year and take really good care of her feet. Seems worth it to me in the long run, especially since she's never on concrete or anything that would help wear them down.
Danielle, I know this is an old post, but it's still good. We live in western Howard Co and have 2 Jersey family milk cows....can you please send me the info on your traveling foot trimmer? Thanks. I did find a good AI tech and it might be the same that you use??? Thanks.
email me at butterfliesandbumblebeesshop at gmail dot com
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