Spring Break & Cows!

What. A. Week. I faced my fears head on and worked with over 700 cows!

My week long mentorship started at the sale barn. I had no idea what to expect, just that we would be "processing" 200 cows. So basically what happened was someone would gather a group of cows and put them in to the chute, and then one by one we would age them (based on their teeth), record their tag numbers, and preg check them. It's a very quick process (less than a minute per cow). We did this again on Tuesday and Wednesday. The sale was held on Wednesday, so I watched it for about an hour. It was...interesting! They put groups of cows into a pen in the center of the auction room and people bid on them. One person bought a group of cows for 44,000 dollars! I couldn't believe my eyes!

  

On Thursday I visited KABSU, KSU's bull stud service. I watched how they collect and evaluate semen samples. The bulls will mount a steer, and someone will collect the semen in an artificial vagina. Even though I plan on never working with cattle, I can use the knowledge of semen evaluation in both small animal and aquatic animal medicine. During the day I was also able to do a physical on a Jersey steer named Rocky. He was adorable! On Friday, I went back to the sale barn and helped the vet process another 100 cows. Afterwards I was able to watch the vet band some calves (a method of castration), and I gave some injections and palpated some more cows.

It wasn't terrible, but I can't say it was the best week of my life...I have a lot of pretty strong opinions about the food animal industry. It's just hard for me to understand a type of medicine that revolves around keeping costs low for the producer, even if that means slaughtering an animal that could've been treated. So with that being said, I would've much rather spent my last spring break doing something I enjoy rather than working with cattle! But all in all, I'm glad for the opportunity to expand my knowledge, meet new people, and to really be aware of the type of medicine I do and don't want to be involved in!