Down on the Farm

I've assisted on quite a few geldings and had some interesting conversations with vets re marking calves. Those that had a few small herds would anesthetise.
We never used an anaesthetic on calves either, the same with de-horning.

I hated de-horning, the fear and pain was too much for the old girls, it wasn't fair and I still feel terrible putting then all through it.
Some of the old cattle had been let go for too long when my partner and I took over the running of the (family) farm and had to go down the race with their heads sideways, their horns were that big.
Those I used a wire saw as they are far too big for the de-horners.
Far less blood with that, it sort of cauterised as it cut but the pain was still horrific.

Why did we de-horn?

270 odd head went through yards fairly frequently and I didn't want to end up as an inadvertent shish kebab while drafting.

The average modern-day city slicker, if they eat meat, picks it out of the supermarket fridge in the nice little plastic packet in which it was grown from an organic plant, of which a stork delivered the seed for.

And when they go for a drive in the countryside in the suv, on a sunday, and see a farm operation, they object and send an letter to their MP.

They don't want to know the realities.

What city folk do to each other and the environmental damage they do in the city is FAR worse than what the average farmer does in the management of his livestock and the upkeep of his land.
Why are there so many opinionated know all **** all's in the city that wouldn't have a clue what actually happens on the land making such a song and dance about things that they have NO bloody idea about???
Maybe they should take a good hard look at how the bacon and eggs that they eat for breakfast is produced and the conditions that the chooks and pigs have to put up with before they start flapping their limp wrists around about mulesing sheep, At lest the sheep get to live in a paddock under the sunshine.

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Originally Posted by Old Farang

I guess that there are a few of us that either grew up, or worked on farms when we were young. The PC brigade appears to have invaded farms now in more ways than one:







I have done my share of lambs, mostly using a rubber ring. Calves are not much of a problem but are of course, much more difficult to restrain! Never done a horse or a pig. Never used to use anything on the scrotum afterwards if using a knife, as it is better left open to drain away any blood.

I had a Doctor friend(RIP PHIL), that had a mongrel male Siamese cat that had the idea that he was the King of all he surveyed. As a Doctor ethics stipulated that Phil could not "operate" on animals, but he thought that anaesthetising the cat would not infringe on ethics if I was to do the deed.

So, a small injection and Mr. Moggy obliging laid back while I did the deed! I have done a few cats and they have to be the hardest to do. We used to put their head and back legs in a bag with just the required area exposed. Surprising just how strong a cat is, but then I suppose I would be too put in that position! Definitely a two person job!

Another thing that I think the PC brigade has outlawed is de-horning cattle. I used to help my late Father doing this. We had a fearsome hand held device that had a guillotine like business end with long wooden handles. My late Father was a very strong man and I have seen him bend the handles doing this. Once the horn came off there would be a jet of blood which covered me and everything else in sight for a few minutes. I believe now that this is supposed to be done by a vet.

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Maybe they do it with a Chainsaw like Rhinos?[bighmmm]

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Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

When did mulesing come into fashion? I can't remember anybody doing this.

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Ditto. I’d never heard of it and I grew up on a wheat and sheep farm.

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Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

I do remember some stations that dipped constantly.

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I think that we dipped once or maybe twice a year. I wonder if the absence of big cattle stations near us meant that there were fewer flies around than further inland?

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Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

Some of the flock sizes I remember of the big runs were Wellshot 400,000, Lerida 250,000 - 300,000, Elderslie 150,000 sheep and 15,000 cattle. Others like Dagworth, Vindex, Rangelands, Brighton Downs, Warrnambool Downs, Llanrheidol, Cork had sizable flocks. A bloody big lot of sheep to neuter and mules.

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Those are huge flocks! We have neighbours though whose wool clip is still over a million dollars a year ....

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/bu...post-right.png
When did mulesing come into fashion? I can't remember anybody doing this.

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Ditto. I’d never heard of it and I grew up on a wheat and sheep farm.

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Mulesing is named after John W. H. Mules, who developed the practice.^[11] While shearing a ewe which had suffered several flystrikes, Mules's hand slipped and his blade shears removed some skin from her hind end. Mules noticed that this prevented the occurrence of flystrike. The procedure was refined, experimented with, and demonstrated to reduce flystrike. It was approved for use in Australia in the 1930s. In Australia, it is thought that the fly primarily responsible for flystrike, Lucilia cuprina, was introduced from South Africa in the nineteenth century.^[12]
Originally, mulesing was carried out on sheep after they were weaned because it was considered "too rough" for lambs. However, lambs appear to cope with the procedure better than older sheep as the actual area of skin fold removed on young lambs is quite small, and they are protected for an extra year as well. For young lambs older than two months, the discomfort period seems to last for approximately two weeks by which time healing is almost, if not entirely, complete. Current codes of practice ban mulesing for sheep over 12 months of age.<sup>[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulesing</sup>

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Originally Posted by 4bee

Maybe they do it with a Chainsaw like Rhinos?[bighmmm]

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Dehorning Wire Saw Farmhand 12m
- Dehorner Wire Saw - Knife & Saw - Dehorning - Farm Animal

If you have been watching the Yorkshire vet they have used one of these. Also shown was dehorning very young calves using a gas fired hot iron.

Hot-Iron Disbudding | Hot-Iron Dehorning

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Originally Posted by 4bee

Maybe they do it with a Chainsaw like Rhinos?[bighmmm]

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The biggest problem with mature cattle is restraining their head. It is not practical to anaesthetise cattle as is done with a Rhino, and I for one would not want to be waving a chainsaw around an animal tossing its head around.

My job was using the following while the animal was in a crush with a head lock closed.

Attachment 165231

Attachment 165232

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Originally Posted by Old Farang

The biggest problem with mature cattle is restraining their head. It is not practical to anaesthetise cattle as is done with a Rhino, and I for one would not want to be waving a chainsaw around an animal tossing its head around.

My job was using the following while the animal was in a crush with a head lock closed.

Attachment 165231

Attachment 165232

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I wouldn't either.:Rolling:

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Originally Posted by Arapiles

I think that we dipped once or maybe twice a year. I wonder if the absence of big cattle stations near us meant that there were fewer flies around than further inland?



Those are huge flocks! We have neighbours though whose wool clip is still over a million dollars a year ....

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I always associated the flies with sheep. Although my uncle's racing stables had flies as bad as any sheep operation. The flies were supposed to have been an unwanted import from South Africa about WW1.

Big flocks, yes, but the runs were big. Elderslie at its peak was 2,500 square miles. One of Elderslie's owners was wont to boast that he could ride 100 miles in a straight line on his property. I have often wondered about the logistics of shearing 200,000 or more sheep. How many stands in the sheds? How many shearers and other shed workers? Cooks? Stockmen and so on. I know of at least one shearing shed with 100 stands still standing but only a few used as the property now has irrigation and grows cotton and grain mostly.