Babies, Cows and Mouthguards!

Today, FANTASTIC!!

Lectures have moved from just review to some uncertainty! Embryology is really interesting, everything looks the same when we're that tiny...I'll need to invest good 3-D models.

The practicals are getting more hands-on. All the study groups get split up to tiny groups. There was a mere 7 of us to do "Weighing and Conditioning Scoring". It was awesome!! Because of the stomach flu and several students getting Crypto, we weren't allowed to touch the babies in the calf house. (These are the calves under 8 weeks old). The first set of cows were 6 to 10 months old. Very large babies with no handling. Luckily, they are herd animals and where one animal goes they all follow. We herded them from the pasture and into chutes for weighing. With each calf, we guesstimated the weights based on the average calf gaining 1.5 kilos a day from a birth weight of 40-45 kilos. On top of that, you must gauge the muscle on the bones and add/subtract weight accordingly. The largest baby was 330 and the smallest was 136.

Next were the big girls. The barn is divided into 3 main sections: one for the milking cows, the soon-to-calve cows and lastly the newly calved cows/calves. We took the first set of guinea pigs from the milking lines. They went down a chute to a head vice. Wilson, the cow manager, went over the how-tos. Our first task was hands-off condition scoring. To take a CS, one looks at the cow's transverse processes (half ribs behind the ribs), the spine and tail head. The scale is from 1 to 5, skeletal to obese, depending on the fat covering in those areas. Then, we compared our estimations to a hands-on CS. Dairy cows average around 2.5. Next, we estimated weights which can be roughly determined by a Weigh Tape. The tape goes around the girth of the cow. Despite the fact they look like skin and bones, these girls weigh in at 700 kilos!

My favorite part was working through the locomotion grading. Most of the cows were in good walking condition but a few were lame. Things to look for are a straight back, even dewclaw touching and the back foot stepping where the front left off.

We ran a few more cows through the paces. While herding some 1 to 3 week out girls (weeks from calving that is), I saw a brand new calf stand for the first time. Shortly after that, there was heifer starting to calve. Pretty nifty stuff!

After a cow-filled afternoon, Maria and I quickly changed into rugby gear and sprinted to Peffermill. That's the problem with coming from the farms, the bus doesn't get back until 5:30 and training starts at 5:30. Bleh!!

The lesson for the day was TACKLING!! I finally get to use my mouthguard which is a nifty boil-and-mold. It even has a guarantee for up to $10,000 for any dental work. Anywho, everyone started on the tackle bags. The form is get low, hit with shoulder, wrap arms around and drive diagonally up. Yay!! It's like violent football(soccer). I'm afraid that I'm too small to play a forward. The forwards are the bigger players that play in the rucks(more on this later) and tackle. We worked on this for quite some time before all the old players split off and played full contact scrimmage with drills while the newbies watched and learned.

Gonna be sore tomorrow!