Proving Hypotheses, Bovine Version

Hypothesis: Photo quality goes down when responsibilities go up.

After examining my photos from a recent visit from our veterinarian, Dr. Bruce Figger, my hypothesis appears to be proven.

Bruce was there to work a small group of calves and preg-check 25 heifers. (I should probably call him Dr. Bruce or Dr. Figger, but he was in 4-H with my kids. He's been Bruce to me for a long time.)

But I digress. Anyway, since we haven't had a full-time hired man since the end of June, my list of responsibilities during said appointment expanded.

Most of my photos were from the rather unglamorous end of the cow (but not as unglamorous as Bruce's position, I must admit). After I helped Randy get four or five heifers from the pen into the lane toward the working chute, I inserted an awkward 20-pound steel pipe behind them to keep them in position.

Then, after each "young lady" finished her turn at her ob/gyn appointment, I would "urge" the next one in line to take her place. And after they were through the chute, we did it all again with the next group. (It was the country version of weight training to lift that heavy pipe multiple times.)

I think Bruce's other "assistant" would have had a better angle for photos. But Tess lacks opposable thumbs, so that option was out, too. (Even Tess refused to look me in the eye for a photo op. It was not a good photo day.)

I've been called into duty a lot this summer and fall for cattle chores. But after a cursory look through several files, I realized I don't have much photographic evidence to prove it.

It's a little hard to use my right hand for running the throttle on the 4-wheeler and my camera shutter at the same time.

 

And, without an extra person, I didn't figure taking a "time out" for a quick photo op would go over too well.

So most of my photos were taken before or after the actual work.

After we rounded up this group of mamas and babies from Peace Creek and I got them turned south, the camera went back into my pocket so I could "keep the dogies" moving, as they say in cowboy speak. (Not that I'm a cowboy either.)

I've had plenty of morning and evening excursions to the Ninnescah Pasture to help shepherd five pair of perennially escaped cattle back into the confines of the fence. And I've seen some new country as we've chased said cattle out of shelterbelts, through hay fields and back to their summer home. But, again, I've refrained from pulling the camera out during these already-frustrating round-ups. Hard to believe, I know.

I guess you'll just have to take my word for it this time.

Even though the photo quality isn't good, these two photos have to rank among my favorites of the summer/fall.

Many, many thanks to our neighbors, Keith and Hendrik, who penned our five pair of escapees and hauled them to our farmstead corrals while we were in Wichita with our granddaughters. Randy took the renegade cattle to the sale barn at Pratt this week. I had lost count of the number of times we put them back in and fixed fence this summer/fall.

 

I don't believe I've ever been so happy to watch a trailer leave. There's a photo worth framing - no matter the photo quality!

The Birds and the Bees (and Other Sticky Topics)

Randy has a secret to wedded bliss: Instead of expecting me to remember numbers while sorting cows and calves, he prepares a "cheat sheet."

I am notoriously bad at numbers. Give me words any day.
My eyesight is also not the best, even with my ever-present glasses.

But if I have something in black and white that I can hold in my hand, things will go much more smoothly ... for everyone involved. (For the uninitiated, BWF means black white face.)

In a pinch, my hand works, too. (I didn't take the photo of my hand with manure on it. You're welcome.)

But at least my hand wasn't where Randy's was during this particular cattle-working adventure. We needed the list of numbers so that we could sort out four cows that hadn't yet calved and one mama whose baby had died.

Most of our mama cows have already had their calves. So Randy wanted to see if the stragglers were pregnant. After hauling them to the working chute, Randy gloved up with a plastic sleeve and did the exam.

I had to hold the end gate up on the working chute so it didn't inadvertently come down and hit Randy in the head.

All four ended up being pregnant.

We sent them into another pen to await the arrival of their calves. And, in fact, two of them had their calves a couple of days later. The cow whose calf had died was taken to the Pratt sale barn.

For a cow-calf operation, pregnancy is the goal. So the bulls also had a doctor's appointment. This time, Dr. Bruce Figger came to conduct what's euphemistically called a "bull soundness exam (BSE)." In other words, is the bull up for the job that is to come this spring and summer?

 

 "You're going to do what kind of test?" Mr. Bull appeared to be asking.

A BSE has three components:

• Scrotal circumference is highly correlated with semen output and serving capacity. 

• A physical exam is performed to simply ensure that a bull is physically up to the challenge of the breeding season. Are his feet and legs structurally correct? Is he free from injury and/or infection?

• The veterinarian then examines the bull's semen to determine if the sperm cells are normal. After getting a sample, Dr. Figger smeared a sample on a slide and looked through the microscope.

With the first look, he was testing the semen for motility, its "swimming" ability to travel to the cow's egg.

Then he smeared the slide with a dye, which killed the sperm. He could then look at morphology, the shape of the sperm. He was looking for abnormalities in the shape, which could indicate a problem with the ability to breed.

Microscope photo credit to Dr. Bruce Figger

The sperm in the upper left is healthy and correct. The sperm nearer to the light is not healthy. The bulls he tested were all fertile.

After the fertility tests, the bulls were each given vaccinations to keep them healthy during their summer in the pasture. It's similar to giving our children vaccinations for their optimal health. Their vaccinations prevent blackleg and BVD, a respiratory disease in cattle.

He also applied a pour-on de-licer.

The bulls are deemed ready for the job, but it will still be a couple of weeks of  "vacation." Then we'll put them to work for their part in creating the Class of 2020.

I agree with most of the bullet points, though at the County Line, we do "fire" bulls for being obnoxious and destructive - especially if that "insubordination" is directed toward humans.

It's A Bouncing Baby ?????

Ultrasound images of babies typically mean the pitter-patter of little feet will join a family. Yes, we're expecting! We're expecting 25 babies with four feet each from 25 heifers! That's a lot of pitter-pattering.

Preg-checks for our 25 heifers went high-tech this year. Veterinarian Dr. Dayul Dick arrived with an ultrasound machine to evaluate our 25 heifers. All 25 were expecting, though one will be a very late arrival.

This was the first year Dr. Dick used the ultrasound for our heifers. In the past, he or his associate Dr. Harder have manually examined the first-time moms. These heifers are the female cattle born on the County Line in early 2016 who are expecting their first babies, beginning in January 2018 and into February 2018.

Dr. Dick inserted the ultrasound probe and then looked on his headgear to determine whether the heifer was pregnant.

 

The majority were in the 5.5 to 6 month stage. Determining the sex isn't an option with a quick check at this stage of pregnancy, Dr. Dick said. It's actually easier to determine sex at 2 months when the fetus isn't taking up as much "real estate" in the uterus.

After the preg-check was done, veterinary assistant Liz gave four vaccines to each heifer.

The heifers (and at a later vet visit, the cows) are given a blackleg booster shot. Blackleg is a highly fatal disease of the skeletal and heart muscle of cattle. We also give a combination shot that prevents leptospiriosis and BVD. Leptospiriosis is an bacterial infection that may cause abortion or stillbirth. BVD stands for Bovine Viral Diarrhea - 'nuff said. They also gave a shot as a dewormer to control parasites like worms, lice and liver flukes.

The heifers also got a shot of Scour Bos. The vaccination helps prevent scours (diarrhea) in their babies. Cattlemen want to produce healthy cattle. It's better for the cattle, and it's also better for the bottom line. Just like we gave recommended vaccinations to our children, we believe it's important to give our cattle every medical advantage to have a healthy life.

 

Don't ob-gyn appointments just want to make you hide?

But the appointment was soon done, and we hauled the heifers to the pasture, where there still seems to be quite a bit of green. They also have access to an alfalfa field for grazing.

It was a high-tech day on the County Line with the veterinarian's ultrasound and the silage cutters using a prototype draper header. (That story will come up on Thursday.) Who knew we were on the cutting edge?

It's a Boy? It's a Girl? It's a Calf!

I remember opening the wrapped package that revealed whether our first grandchild was going to be a boy or a girl. Right after we opened that pink-framed sonogram, I went to the K-State Union bookstore and bought the first of many purple dresses.

Our heifers recently had their first "obstetrics" appointment. And while we don't know whether they'll be having bull calves or females, we do know which heifers are carrying "little bundles of joy." Well, they won't be so little when they are born in late January or early February. They'll likely be 80 pounds of boy or girl calf.

Veterinarian Dr. David Harder recently did a "preg check" of our 25 heifers. These were the female cattle born on the County Line in early 2015 who are supposed to be expecting their first babies. All but two of them were pregnant. We will fatten the other two and use them for meat in the freezer.

To determine how far along the heifers are, Dr. Harder did a physical manual examination. To do that, we run the heifers through a lane into a squeeze chute to safely restrain the animal and also to keep the people involved safe.Then Dr. Harder estimated how far along the pregnancy was by the size of the baby.

The assistant recorded the ear tag number of each heifer, made a notation about how far the pregnancy had advanced and recorded the shots given to each animal.

I know there are people who don't believe any type of shots should be given to animals grown for human consumption. However, we do have the veterinarian give shots to the heifers, cows and calves as they go through the chute.

The heifers (and later this week, the cows) are given a blackleg booster shot. Blackleg is a highly fatal disease of the skeletal and heart muscle of cattle. We also give a combination shot that prevents leptospiriosis and BVD. Leptospiriosis is an bacterial infection that may cause abortion or stillbirth. BVD stands for Bovine Viral Diarrhea - 'nuff said. Dr. Harder also gave a shot as a dewormer to control parasites like worms, lice and liver flukes.

Dr. Harder gave the heifers a shot of Scour Bos. The vaccination helps prevent scours (diarrhea) in their babies. Cattlemen want to produce healthy cattle. It's better for the cattle, and it's also better for the bottom line. Just like we gave recommended vaccinations to our children, we believe it's important to give our cattle every medical advantage to have a healthy life.

This is the second year we tested for anaplasmosis, a disease that is on the rise in Kansas cattle herds. Dr. Harder took blood samples from under the tail on a representative number of our herd.

Greg Hanzilcek, the head of the Kansas State University Diagnostic Lab, said in a Kansas Livestock Association newsletter that there were as many confirmed cases of anaplasmosis in Kansas cattle last year as veterinarians had ever seen.

Anaplasmosis is a a vector-borne disease, which means it's transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks, fleas or flies. It causes the destruction of red blood cells in cattle and other ruminants, so it can cause anemia. It can ultimately cause death, and it can also result in spontaneous abortions in cows. Last year, after the tests came back positive, Randy had to stir up a concoction of mineral, grain and antibiotic to mix into the cattle feed in a ration directed by Prairie Vista Veterinary Clinic. He fed the mixture once a week for 60 days in an effort to rid our herd of the anaplasmosis.

We don't have this year's test results yet. But, if the test is positive again, we will handle it in the same way. Animal activists - and even trendy restaurants - would like antibiotic use to be banned in feed animals. However, as caretakers of our animals, it's important to treat disease, just like we'd treat an illness in our own families.

It's an extra hit on the pocketbook, since it requires us to purchase additional grain, mineral and medicine. We're definitely not doing it for our own health or the health of our financial bottom line. But it's important to be responsible stewards of the animals, despite what several national restaurants' marketing firm would have consumers believe.

These are the photos you get when your job is to slam the trailer door shut!

After their doctor's appointment, we loaded up the heifers and took them to the pasture south of our house, where they'll await the arrival of their babies this winter. Right now, they also have access to an alfalfa field for grazing.

Later this week, Dr. Harder will be back for appointments with some of the older mama cows, the bulls and the calves to get ready for winter. Busy week!