Then I got to help de-horn five calves with the help of Geoff and Sophie. I got to give an injection of 5ml of anaesthetic into a dip behind each eye and the sign that it had worked that the eye had gone 'sleepy' looking.
After that we headed up a de-horning iron so it was extremely hot and I used that to dig into and around the horn buds and eventually after a lot of movement the bud was able to be flicked out.
I'm glad I've been able to do this as it has helped me to become more firm when dealing with the cattle, compared to the beginning when I gave in if they pulled away.
The first de-horning that I did took a lot of coaxing but I just think that I needed to improve my technique, which happened over the next few goes.
Then moved a herd of about 30 cows from about a mile down the road to a field closer to the farm to help limit the damage to the grass of a particular field.
Then re-bedded a pen for a new batch coming in later that day and gave them more feed. I'm getting more and more comfortable in doing this job and de-horning was an amazing experience for me! Loved every second.
 |
| The dehorning holes where we removed the buds |
No comments:
Post a Comment