A Little Bit At a Time

Dairy cows are a lot different from beef cattle.  Dairy cows' bodies are lean with bones showing as their energy goes to produce milk.  Beef cattle are muscular, bulky since their energy goes to produce beef.  I've found that dairy cows' hooves need trimming often, whereas we never trim beef cattle hooves. 

Every six months it seems that it is time to do it again.  The hooves show signs of lengthening and if you let it go too long, they'll either begin to limp or you'll notice that the longest part of the hoof will break and eventually fall off.  Hoof trimming seems to be not a pleasant experience for the cows.  We try to do it a little at a time since it is less traumatic for the animals and less exhausting for us.  The front feet are the easiest, so we start there. 

We keep the animal's head securely tied and I simply pull one of the front feet up, resting it on my leg and bending it at her knee.  That gives you a good vantage point to see what needs to be done.

The first thing I notice is... wow, I have a lot of grey hair!  What is happening to me?  Let's focus on Rosie's hoof.  The first thing I'm looking for is a smell.  If it smells bad, the animal has hoof rot.  We generally treat with a product called hoof 'n heel, but have also used Coppertox and iodine.  In Rosie's case, we smelled nothing.  There didn't appear to be a stick or anything caught between her hooves.

I don't have fancy equipment.  In fact, I use tin snips that I bought at a hardware store.  They are really used for cutting through galvanized tin.  They seem to do the job on hooves, I've found.  I've looked at purchasing a rasp, nippers, and a hoof knife, but so far, the tin snips are doing the job.  Before I begin cutting, I use a knife to scrape dirt and mud out from under the hoof.  Once this is gone it really shows me what I must do.  The first thing is to cut the ridges on the outside edge of the hoof.  We go really slow and try not to clip off everything needed at one time.  Slow and steady.  Then I'll cut the ends of the hoof where they tend to grow out to a point.  Again, slow and a little bit at a time. 

Cows don't really enjoy this process.  It doesn't hurt them, but they don't like to be messed with.  They often pull away.  This job takes persistence.  It is hard on the back, though, so we generally try to get one front hoof done each evening,  So far, we've gotten both Rosie and Luna' front hooves. 

The back hooves are a different story.  Cows will kick the fool out of you with their back hooves.  We generally try to wait until they are sitting down and we'll sneak up and rub their necks and then begin clipping.  They don't let us get much done before they stand up.  Hoof trimming takes great patience and perseverance.  You have to be content with just getting a little at a time done.  If you are patient, sooner or later, you'll get the job done.