This summer has been revealing to me what effect a small thing can have. Battling flies is a constant issue for livestock. Just YouTube "dealing with flies on cattle" and you'll see the struggle in their faces. Cows are large animals and yet when swarmed by hundreds of them it has a pretty detrimental affect.
What I have seen is it stresses the cows out, they then clump together and often go down into muddy low areas to try to get away from the flies. The two effects we have seen this summer is Pink Eye for one. where the eye begins to go pink and then white, resulting in blindness. It can be treated if caught and we've had a couple have a slight recovery of vision, but it can result in having to get rid of the animal. The main reason is they are more dangerous to work with, especially a bull. Here is an example of pink eye.
The other effect of the flies is not directly from the fly, but instead from standing in the mud. And that is Foot Rot. Foot rot is a bacteria that develops in the hoof and can result in the animal being lame. This can be treated with an antibiotic as it is bacterial, but dosing it is the tricky part. Thankfully we have had a dart gun that we can fill a dart with the antibiotic, load it into the air gun and shoot it. I believe we dosed around 15 cows or calves with at least 1 and up to 4 rounds of medication. Believe me by the forth time I drove up on the 4-wheeler with the dart gun you'd have thought the cows was a deer by the way she lifted her head and took off on 3 legs to get away from me. Here's a short clip of dosing a calf.
One solution to the foot rot is fencing off low areas, so they can't even go into the mud. Easier said than done though. A pasture just north of the place had really thick grass growing and was ready to graze, but we had to keep them out because they would just stand in the mud. I made it my goal to fence the area off so it could be utilized. Took a couple goes at it, my first resulting in needing to pull out electric wire out of the mud hole after being tromped down. But kept at and it is still standing today. Here's a clip of when I completed it. I really quite proud of myself, I was rather intimidated by electric fencing, so give me a little grace.
Another solution I saw recommended was fly paper. It has something on it that attracts the flies and does a pretty good job of only catching flies. I've replaced it every couple days and it's always full. But there is still plenty around that find the cows.
The most effective solution is using oilers or spraying. It is a liquid mixture filled with insecticide, water, and diesel fuel. This is put into either a tank connected to an absorbent cloth for the cows to walk under and rub against, or is put into a spray bottle and applied manually like this:
Overall it's been very interesting. Lots to learn. Anyway since you got to the end of this post here's a fun video as a reward. This cow had gotten foot rot and recovered, but as a result that hoof had grown out and needed trimmed. She was in a holding pen waiting to get a ride to the hoof trimmer man and she decided she was going to find her own way out.
Well whether your life is primarily spent inside or outside I'm sure we've all dealt with flies this summer and fall. We all have that in common.
May the God of Peace bless you richly in Christ Jesus, and may you work unto Him even with the flies buzzing around.
Upon returning to the ranch I've felt on a number of occasions that I have a lot to learn, mostly in moments working with my dad when he sees something I missed, like the signs of a heifer in early labor or being shown by the previous hired man how to change the bearings on a tractor tire. I for sure have as good of a foundation as one could have coming into a job, having done a number of things up until high school, Yet I'm lacking in certain technical skills, like welding, or oversight skills like herd and land management. But its exciting to have things to work toward. I'm an old dog learning new tricks. But, I didn't really want to talk about myself with this post. I've been trying to get Baron (our currently 10 year old dog), acquainted with moving cows, and maybe even more so get the cows acquainted with him. He hops and spins and whines when I move toward a pickup or 4-wheeler, hoping to come along. He has obedience down...
Throughout the summer we had several cows die in seemingly unrelated ways. Two died in late July in two separate pastures. One was 9 years old, and another was 10. The life span of a cow can be 15 years old. I've heard of steers getting into their 20s if they were treated like a pet. Though My dad has typically sold them as cull (to slaughter for hamburger) around the age of 11 or 12. The first of the July deaths we simply found a cow dead in the pasture with no obvious reason. A week later cow #649 had gotten foot rot, so was lame. She seemed really weak and immediately pretty irritable. Covered in flies as well. Pitifully she would get easily into fight mode and try to charge but then her legs would give out and she'd crumple beneath whoever she was charging at. After getting her sprayed for flies and bringing in a tractor and a lot of patience we got her up into a small pen. Fed and watered her, gave her an antibiotic shot, ...
I have felt compelled to journal these beginnings days after moving from an office job back to ranching. I want to use this to help me observe to details, difficulties, and joys in the time of life, but mainly to see God's providence in things. Upon arriving on February 27th I did the 11pm check of the first calf heifers. First one I went to was #315, upon her standing up at my driving up to her on the 4-wheeler I see 2 feet sticking out. I decided to check on the others then come back to her. After a quick lap around the lot I came back to her, she had laid down again, but though I tried to keep my distance at my slow approach she got up again, retracted the calf's feet back in, walked 20 feet away or so, laid back down and resumed pushing. I debated trying to work her up to the pen, but decided I could give her a few moments. She pushed and got the legs out again, pushed another time and I could see the nose. Another push and the h...
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