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Tuesday, October 27, 2009

I'm Sorry I called you Meatloaf Jack.

I can 't find the treat, so it must be a trick, husband has Saved by the Bell on. hhmmm. . . I'll figure this out.

Good neighbor came over yesterday to show me how to trim up the goats hooves. They have been kept relatively trim just from running and jumping all over the rocks and cinder blocks, but Patch is an old lady, running and jumping just doesn't have the appeal it once had. Plus if my breast dangled like hers, I don't think I would go any where near anything jagged.

Trimming hooves is rather simple, I just like to see it done at least once before going for it. I don't want anyone coming up lame. He showed me on 3 of them, and I did the 4th. Not bad if I do say so myself.

As Good neighbor started to leave I asked him if he had ever trimmed up cow hooves before. I got that wonderful bewildered look. "Never even heard of that. Who told you. . . " just about every cattle care book, and a lot of people advertising on craig's list talks about their for sale cow needs hoof trimming. I was standing their with our bull Undies, who by the way was dead set determined for me to love on him so much, that my finger would be protruding from my shoulder, he is a rammer. I told good neighbor that right now everyone's hooves looked good. His brother runs cattle, and he thinks that his brother has never done a thing like that. I shrugged, just thought I would ask. A good slab of concrete right inside the barn should solve any issues, but there is no way I will be attempting to trim any ones hooves. These gals will kick if they aren't in the mood to be scratched, can't imagine trying to hold a leg up. oh, hurts just thinking about it.

2 comments:

Kelle at The Never Done Farm said...

We have a few cows and we've never trimmed them. When their hooves get to long, they simply break off along the growth rings on their hooves.Even though our cows are gentle, they do NOT like their legs picked up and like you said, it's going to hurt if you try!
We do however trim our horse's hooves, about every 4-5 weeks and in between we keep them rasped.

I know from friends, you also trim goats hooves, but know absolutely nothing about that, no goats or sheep here.

Stephanie in AR said...

We read a children's book written by the vet that wrote the series that had "All Creatures Great and Small" - there is a picture & a clear description of the vet trimming the back hooves of a cow. He tied a rope to the back leg, tossed it over a beam and had the farmer hold the leg up while he trimmed. The leg still pistoned back & forth while he worked up a good sweat but the job got done. This was a dairy cow so maybe the ranchers in your area don't keep their animals as long as the dairymen did back when this vet was working.

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