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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Random Pictures of Happy Cows (and a small rant)

We had about five cows/heifers calve this month. This is one of our twin heifers. She had a twisted uterus. The vet is trying to untwist it so the calf can be delivered. After untwisting the uterus the head was still down and away from the birth canal but the front feet were in the proper position. Kurt is standing on one side and a vet student was on the other side.

The decision was made because she was not dialated yet to wait an hour. Another vet came back and the calf had died which does happen. Sometimes there is too much stress on the calf or it is too big and can cause problems. After the calf was delivered, the decision was also made to give her antibiotics. Reason why to prevent infection in her uterus and other reproductive organs and or body. When a cow has just calved we milk her in what is called a bucket. Not the bucket you are thinking of but a pressurized milk-like can that her milk goes into instead of the pipeline that carries the other milk to the bulk tank. When cows have been administered drugs, antibiotics, or whatever is unhealthy for human consumption, that milk does NOT go into the bulk tank which is the milk that is picked up by the milk truck. No, that milk goes in the gutter (essentially down the drain). See the more antibiotics we give our cows the less milk we can use. Where I am going with this is there has been a lot of crappy reporting on "happy" cows and wondering where our food comes from. We can not ship milk that has antibiotics in it. You are not sold milk with antibiotics in it. All milk is tested before it leaves the farm and the whole tanker load is tested at the milk plant. Trust America's farmers they bust their butts for pennies and people whine about products costing too much. Walk a day in my shoes...pay $10,000 worth of bills with only $6,000 of income that is what I dealt with last year. American's do not have it that bad. We are giving you a quality product. Do not question our integrity. There are so many regulations in the dairy industry your head would spin. Bottom line. Non-organic milk is good for you. Please don't be fooled you are not drinking milk with drug residue.


A happy 2-year-old to make you smile. Her aunt and uncle (me and Kurt) and her grandparents make milk



One of our many happy cows (Sweet) with her brand new calf, Spice. That is why her udder is rather full. They get swelling precalving and it goes away after a day or two. Just something females get to go through. : )





1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am so glad you posted this. Someone just last week had me questioning whether I needed organic milk or not. In the past, I always figured that if a farmer produced a product they were willing to feed their own family, it must be good for us too. Thanks for reinforcing my beliefs!

Andrea