Cow Spa Day

Some of us loved spa day more than others...or did they?

Can you tell what you are looking at?

One of the side benefits of acquiring Chippy the teeeny bull (see previous post) is Chippy’s former owner gave me the number of a cow hoof trimmer that, given the fact he trimmed a single tiny bull at their farm, might not look at me funny when I asked if he would come to my farm and trim the hooves of my Jersey cow and my gargantuan, dinosaur-sized Brown Swiss steer.

If you aren’t already a fan of the many (strangely famous) cow foot doctors, you may not know that A. Cattle (especially dairy breed cattle which tend to have genetically poorer feet) sometimes need their hooves trimmed and B. That unlike a horse, where the farrier holds each foot up while standing directly underneath a possibly unhappy 1,000lb client, cattle hoof guys have the luxury (and relative safety) of having their clients walk in a chute that hydraulically closes and then turns the cow sideways so the feet are conveniently at eye level. While this sounds pretty crazy, cows are …