By Suzanne Atkinson – AgriNews Contributor, Eastern Ontario AgriNews
June, 2008

Bart Nelson is bored. So are his cows.

On a day that could be fraught with bawls of distressed cattle, classic man vs. beast battles of brawn and lost production, boredom is a good thing.

It’s nearing noon on a lovely Spring Friday. By afternoon dairy farmer Nelson and hoof trimmer Jeff Butchers will have trimmed the feet of more than 40 head of cattle. Before their bovine pedicure is completed these Holsteins will have experienced not only the trim, but any serious sores treated, bandaged and sprayed for fungus.

Struggles will have been kept to a minimum and upon completion of their treatment Nelson’s cattle will nonchalantly exit from Butchers’ 24-foot totally enclosed hoof-trimming rig, some pausing to peer back inside at his next client, before meandering their way down a user-friendly ramp to the feed bunk.

In the next year, Nelson estimates thanks to a gravel barnyard and a few older animals, his vet will only have to address a half dozen sore feet.

“This works pretty good,” Nelson says of Butchers’ trailer, explaining the Stirling trimmer has come annually for the past 25 years, including the past two years with this self-contained, totally enclosed trailer.

“I didn’t think they’d go in as well as they do. But they do, they don’t mind it,” says Nelson.

“If I were a cow,” begins Jeff Butchers. It’s a statement you’ll hear not only from Butchers these days, but from veterinarians, animal welfare activists and even farmers, as they seek to reduce stress for beast and man alike in an increasingly vigilant world.

From the time he enters a yard, Butchers is thinking about how he can improve the experience and the service for both his clients. Ideally he likes to park adjacent to the door cattle exit a barn from for their daily constitutional and he keeps the cow’s routine as close to usual as possible. He’ll ask questions about the barnyard, the amount of exercise the cattle are getting and the footing they’ll encounter as well as the feeding program.

“It’s important to know the environment you’re trimming in. You’ve got to know … if they’re going out on stony ground, or they’re inside where they never leave the barn, or they’re going outside on ice and frozen manure.”

With the trimming taking place outside of the barn he can pull up to a 500-cow facility, trim 40 head, and the routine of the balance of the herd is unchanged. Highlights of the self-contained unit are the custom-made tilt table and head gate which folds on to a trailer push out; the lighting, grinders, spray guns, gating, fans and yes, satellite stereo. Indeed at the “business,” end of the cow a trap door provides for the cow’s waste to be deposited on the ground, meaning less work for the cleanup crew.

“As every year goes by I go to fewer places where the cows lead. On some farms the heifers hardly ever get handled,” Butchers says. “I tell them ‘Leave a radio on in the barn then at least the cows are accustomed to voices.’”

Today the cattle are driven out of the barn, through a couple of sturdy, yet lightweight, gates, around a corner and into the trailer’s holding chute before they know they’re there.

“It’s so much easier,” Nelson says.

In Butcher’s mind the battle of the tilt table vs. the upright trim is like the computer age vs. the stone age…. won 20 years ago by the tilt table and pull away floor, with its gentle squeeze which cradles a nervous cow, gently settling her on her side before he goes to work. Nylon straps pull out to immobilise the cow’s feet after she is on her side. She relaxes and there is no struggle.

“It boils down to when you look at the machine think: If I were a cow what would I want? I’d rather lay on a nice padded table then cold steel or rough wood,” Butchers says.

He starts by haltering the cow, tying her head short to prevent a struggle.

“You watch,” he advises, “a cow won’t kick without moving her head first.”

For Butchers, improving cow comfort also means improving human comfort.

“If it’s (hoof trimming) stressful for the farmer, he’s going to put it off,” says Butchers, who insists that a regular foot care program is as important and goes hand in hand with a herd health program. And the benefits: no lost production due to sore feet, and longer lasting, productive, healthy cows, easily pays for itself plus, says Butchers.

“Cattle buyers tell me they’re still amazed at the number of herds they go into with no hoof trimming program and terrible feet. To me it’s easy economics. If you trim twice a year at an average cost of $30, it’s pretty simple maintenance money for the milk value.”

“Once a cow gets a sore foot you’ve lost money, especially in a free stall barn. In a tie stall barn she’s still going to eat because it’s right in front of her.”

For more than 20 years he has made a full-time living criss-crossing Ontario to manicure the hooves of his dairy bovine clients. For 18 of those he used an outdoor rig, working in every kind of weather condition, from sun-baked Julys to the blustery -30C days of an Ontario January.

Butchers was driven to finally put the plans he had in his head to paper, after one particularly rainy Northumberland November day.

“I was so wet the electricity was coming through the grinder and into my body. I went home and told Sue I was either going to build it or quit,” the 42 year old says, only half joking.

“When it was bad weather I still trimmed feet,” says Butchers, who initially started hoof-trimming at the age of 18; a skill he learned from his father, the late Vern Butchers, as a way to make money part-time. Then, he expected to trim feet until he was 25, recognizing it as a young man’s occupation.

“I knew what I wanted,” he says of this new rig…. “I’d had 20 years of thinking about it while I was freezing,” says Butchers. “I never went to bed without listening to a weather forecast, so I’d know what I was going to be working outside in.”

“I thought I built it for the cold. But I enjoy it most when it’s hot out,” he says. He can back the rig into just about any opening, including the barns at the University of Guelph where he is the regular trimmer.

“It’s definitely rejuvenated my career.”

With proper equipment and procedure it’s an occupation that can last a life-time. Indeed the American who designed his tilt table, is now 80 years old and still trimming feet.

“It doesn’t matter what job you’re doing, if you can improve your work environment you’re going to do a better job.”

Advice on the feet of a milking cow:

“Your number one hoof trimming dollar should be to trim her first before she calves. She’s got to have her feet right before you ask her to calve, go into a new barn and milk. Before you ask her to do all that she should be on good feet.”

“Thirty years ago we fed dry hay and dry grain, they got lots of exercise and their toes broke off in the right place. Toes don’t break they way they used to because they’re getting high moisture feed.”

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Posted by Admin on July 13th, 2009 :: Filed under Uncategorized
Tags :: animal welfare, Canada, dairy cattle, Farmers, nutrition
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