Milking!

Today I finally got to see the milking parlour and try it out!  Unfortunately, we've come a long way from sitting on the stool hand milking.  I was really looking forward to this, but it is all 'mechanical' now.  Our farm, Langhill, has a 28:28 herringbone parlour.  It's exactly as you would expect, being called herringbone, with the stalls at an angle. 14 cows per side can enter and the angle allows good access to the udders by the farmer.  This is an example of what our parlour looks like:

The farmer would access the cows in the center aisle and be just at udder height. Directly above his head are the 'computers'. 

One person can handle the milkings, which occur at 5am and 3pm daily.  The milking is pretty high tech these days...the cows are identified by their electronic collars as they enter the parlour. The computers will flash up the number of the cow (which is also branded on their bum).  The farmer checks to make sure the numbers match because each cow is fed concentrate while they are milked and it's matched to their number.  They get different amounts based on their milk production (more milk requires more energy, which means more food), age, body condition, etc.  Also, some cows might be on antibiotics, which means their milk cannot go into the main tank and must be re-routed into a bucket to be discarded.  It is critical the farmer knows which cow is which, and therefore will confirm the first cow in.  He can manually punch in the correct number, if it's not right and all of the computers after will auto-correct.

The procedure is to dry wipe off the cows teats and then place the automatic cluster on each teat. This is sometimes easier said then done!  It's a vacuum system, so it's like a vacuum (hoover) and once you get it near the teat...it sticks to it.  I hoovered one's tail for a moment..oops.  Dairy cows are used to being handled, but you get some that stomp and move, so you do have to be aware of the potential to get kicked.  Plus, you are always on the lookout of the brown shower coming from above! 

Once the system detects the amount of flow decreasing to a point about 30 seconds from the cow being finished milking, a light will start blinking.  At this point, you should be ready for the cluster to automatically be released and hoisted back up to it's resting area.  If you are not paying attention, the cloister can peg you in the head, back...you name it.  They are fairly solid and look like this:

 

The four ends simply attach to the teats and the clear part will be close to sitting on the floor and you can visualise the milk passing through.  Pretty nifty.

Once the cluster automatically drops off, the last step is to take a hanging hose filled with iodine, and spray off the teats.  This cuts down on the likelihood of infection. 

We learned of the tests performed on the milk for it's quality (protein, butterfat, somatic cell count and bactoscan (for bacteria).  Based on the contract with the milk company you sell your milk to, you get premium prices for certain ranges of these and can get fined for others.  For instance, any antibiotics found in the milk result in fines. At Langhill, cows on anitbiotics have red bands on their legs and also have been entered into the computer, so when their electronic collar registers, a few red lights go off and the computer has to be manually overidden to ensure you have re-routed milk out of the main line. 

It was a dirty deal, but not as bad as I expected.  You will get feces on you at some point, more than likely...it splatters a good bit.  But, this is why you wear waterproofs and wellies.  A good hose-down afterwards, a cup of tea, and you are good to go.

AND, I saw Maggie Moo!!!  Unbelievably, I recognized her by her face markings and confirmed it with her branded number on her bum when she walked by.  She is a big girl.  One of the farmhands said she might not be around too much longer.  Her udder is quite stretched out and she has one wayward teat that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to get the cluster on all four.  This, of course, affects her milk production. He said they will keep her as long as it makes sense.  Poor Maggie Moo. 

It was quite a fun practical. I had read up a bit on all of the background of the parlour, the testing and acceptable numbers beforehand, so when our instructor asked questions to our group, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to answer most of them.  It does help in the learning process to be prepared - take a look over the learning outcomes before any lecture, tutorial or practical and I think you will have more deep learning.

Another memorable day in the life of this vet student.  A big 4 day weekend coming up, so that is welcome!

Till next time.....

Over-N-Out   

Week 7!

It's true, I am starting week 7 already.  Craziness.  Over halfway through the first semester.  I have to say that I am absolutely loving vet school up to this point.  Yes, there is a lot of material and yes, it is overwhelming at times, but even this stuff is interesting and it is supposed to only get better each year.  I'm thoroughly enjoying being in an intensive learning environment again with not only intelligent classmates all around me, but at a phenomenal university.  I have been so impressed with most of our lecturers up to this point and can really tell that they are dedicated to teaching us to be the best veterinarians we can be.  The testing methods here are quite different and I'm sure I will completely wig out at some point down the road.  In the US, it is common to be tested quite regularly throughout the semester, or at the very least have a midterm and final exam.  Many of my counterparts in the US have anywhere from 1-4 exams a week!  While I'm sure this is mayhem at times, it allows you to know where you stand pretty much at all times.  Here, we have 3 major 'classes' that run the whole year.  The one class, the Animal Body I, is split into 2 major sections.  It actually covers many modules, that US universities would have as completely separate classes with their own exams throughout the year.  This is called a 'block system'. 

We, on the other hand, finish up the first section in February and only then do we have exams.  Three days of them!  We 'sit' exams here.  They call it that because there is so much writing.  It's basically one day of Short Answer essays, one day of Long essays and one day of Oral and Spots Examinations.  Spot exams are common in say, anatomy, where there might be 20 pins stuck in different structures and the examiner points to one and asks you to identify it.  Once you do, they can then follow up with questions about that bone, nerve, muscle, etc. We will then have the second section of Animal Body I that runs from February to the end of May and then exams again at the beginning of June.  so, needless to say, there is a LOT of information to be covered on exams and it is a bit daunting.  I think that has kept my stress level down for now, but it's likely to skyrocket in about January.  I keep having to remind myself that the mass majority of folks get through this program, so it is doable.

I had a relaxing weekend and studied/revised my notes for most of it.  I finally feel like the information is all coming together.  The lectures seem a bit disjointed at first, but that's only because you have to start somewhere.  Now, things are starting to build on one another and you can understand better why you had a lecture at a certain time.  So, yes, I am ecstatic to be here and slowly but surely getting into my groove with studies and the culture. 

This weekend's big event was turning back the clocks.  No more daylight savings time here.  This was so needed in the mornings, as it was still black out at 7am and now it is light and I can see what I'm doing when I take the dogs out.  The downside, of course, is that it's now 335pm, overcast and drizzling and cars already have their headlamps on!  It gets dark, dark by 430.  This is not good.  At all. 

Last night was a wonderful surprise.  I was out getting my laundry off the line (I took advantage of two absolutley stunningly sunny days) and my next door neighbor invited me over to their neighbor's back garden for a drink.  It was lovely.  They had a fire going outside and we all sat on the patio chatting away.  Two very lovely couples and one little stinker...Suki.  She's about 8 months (I think) and lives across the hall.  She is a cute little chubby-cheeked girl.  Totally adorable.  Her mom, Becky, is stay-at-home mom and dad, Pete, is a photographer.  Really sweet and welcoming couple.  I'm lucky to have them next door. 

I think that catches us up to today.  This week is pretty long (except the usual Wed) because the following week we do not have classes Mon and Tuesday.  Four day weekend!  Yay.  Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to doing the chick embryo practical.  We delicately cut our way into an egg with a live embryo and put a solution on it that ceases the chick's life.  We then prepare a slide to look at some embryologic structures we've been studying under the microscope.  It's like a mini-surgery.  It's the small things that get me excited these days.  Then, Thursday is our practical at the dairy farm on milking!  We get to finally see the milking parlour and experience a milking session.  I understand we will be getting our hands dirty. 

That's all for now.  Time to crack open the books again, before my espresso wears off.

Over-N-Out

Feelin' mo betta

It appears as though I've kicked some nasty stomach flu before it got to me.  Swollen, hard, lymph node is smaller and not sore any more.  Sore throat is absent.  Looks like my immune system may actually be working these days.  Whew! 

So, I must first complain. With that being said, I do promise to do a post on what I love about the UK and what I cannot fathom/stand about the UK.  As a sneak peek, I really despise the delivery system here for mail and shipped goods.  Here's the major problem, a lot of people live in tenements that have a keyed door to the outside and once you are in, has all of the separate flat doors which are also keyed. The Royal mail slots are on our private flat doors, so once the mailman is in, he can just mail through the slot. There is a buzzer/speaker system on the outside of most buildings corresponding to each individual flat (and even a 'service' one that will buzz all flats at once) so that you can unlock the outer door from inside your flat.  The problem, of course, is that deliveries and postal service are usually in the middle of the day and many times...guess what...no one is home. So, the mail or delivery goes back on the truck and you are none the wiser for the most part until you finally get it and see the delivery history.  It infuriates me to get an important piece of mail a week late stamped 4 times with 'no entry', or a package with multiple delivery attempts that I paid extra for the shipping.  The horribly frustrating part about deliveries is that they tell you they will deliver sometime between 7am and 7pm.  Great, so you really think everyone is a stay-at-home mom or a bustout hanging lying on the couch playing video games all day? 

The company that tried to deliver my much needed textbooks on Monday (while I was at university) was kind enough to leave a note outside to either re-schedule a delivery or arrange to pick up.  I would have been fine picking it up (since I don't have any days off), but the hub was about 30 minutes away, out near the airport.  So, I took my chances and scheduled it for the day I only had two lectures and got here 20 minutes before it was delivered.  Terrible system.  Terrible.

Now on to brighter things. Embryology I am finding rather interesting so far.  Things are moving very quickly, but at least we have great lecturers and the material is mostly new for me.  Tomorrow, we get our first lecture in Veterinary Public Health and do a sheep handling practical....read: flipping sheep!  I'm looking forward to the farm stuff, as usual.

So, my next post I think I will actually explain what my program is, what it entails, what I will be when I graduate (note, I did not say when I grew up) and what all the letters behind my name will mean. 

I've been really productive today and need to finish on a high note, so I'm going to look over what I'm doing tomorrow. 

Ciao. 

Over-N-Out

Baaaaaahh Baaaaaahh

I told y'all that I would write about the sheep portion of my Langhill/Easter Bush visit last week, so here it is.  The sheep farm is much, much smaller with only one shed/barn.  There is quite a bit of acreage, but we spent our time in the sheep shed at Easter Bush (5 minute drive from Langhill).  We have approximately 350 Scottish Mule ewes (females) and 20 Suffolk ewes.  The Scottish Mules are a crossbreed and look like this:

They are a cross between a Scottish Blackface Ewe and a Bluefaced Leicester Tup.  The Blackface looks like this: 

These are native to the hills of Scotland.  Extremely hardy and good mothers.  Medium sized with mixed wool.  We do not keep these as purebreds to breed directly from, as they live best in the hills. Therefore, we buy approximately 90 ewes a year from a certified and inspected farmer. They are kept and fed for a year on our farm.  They then are called 'Gimmers' and are bred.

A Bluefaced Leicester Tup (male, or ram) are these:

They are a very prolific breed, often exceeding 250% lambing. They are larger than the Blackface.

The Suffolk is the breed other than the Scottish Mule that we keep on the farm. This is one of ours here:

Suffolks are common where we are, very big, meaty and fast growing. But, they are high maintenance animals and that is one reason we do not breed them for purebreds.  Too dang persnickety.

The only purpose of our lambs is for lamb chops, basically.  They get bred at the end of October and after 147 days gestation period, give birth end of March, beginning of April  They put out 3 Tups (male studs) per 100 ewes in our fields to breed.  One way you can tell if your ewe has been bred is by using paint or crayons.  You mark the Tup's belly and it will rub off on the ewe if he has mounted her.  Sheep cycle every 17 days. If she doesn't take, try, try again. We buy one fresh Tup from elsewhere a year in order to bring some diversity to the flock.

In January, we bring in a technician to scan the sheep for pregnancy.  They should be able to tell us if they are pregnant with a single, twins, or triplets.  This is important to know, as a sheep only has enough teats for 2 babies.  If she is going to have 3, a foster mama will need to be available.  Ewes will kill babies that are not theirs, so you need to trick them into thinking they are.  Normally, rubbing the afterbirth of one of her own all over the foster baby will do the job. 

We sell our lambs for butcher at around 12 weeks if they are nice and fat and have a good body condition score.  They are not even put through the stress of getting weaned.  They should sell around 100 quid at that time.  Later in the season, the average is about 75 quid.  They need to be 40-45kg in order to go to butcher. 

We are required to do at least 2 weeks of lambing during our program.  Many students do more because it is usually a paid placement.  This is why the veterinary school gets 4 weeks of at Easter (one more week than the rest of the university)....we are all off lambing somewhere. 

So, now you know as much as I do about our sheep. In just over a week, I get to go do some sheep husbandry and learn how to actually handle them.  I am looking forward to that.

Here is a picture of some more of our flock.  You can see several different types, including all whit faces.  They apparently do some 'test crosses', so I am not sure what they are.

Time to finish up some work for tomorrow, which is a pretty long day.

Over-N-Out



Week 2 is overrrrrr and Cows...mooooo

Can you believe it?  Wow, time is already flying. 

This week was fun.  My dreaded lab was actually really neat and a learning experience....imagine that!  It was a good ole chemistry lab on separating proteins using electrophoresis and then measuring some stuff.  Without question, it helped me get into my tiny pea brain the differences with some methods of separating proteins.  The lab was explained very well and there were several professors wandering around to answer any questions on the procedure and/or explain results.  It was my most dreaded block of time this week and ended up being a delightful surprise.

Thursday afternoon was my favorite, however.  I got to go back out to Langhill farm to get a tour of the dairy cow operation and then over to Easter Bush to do the same with the sheep.  I looked for my beloved cow (I can call her by name on Sunday), but did not see her.  I brought a picture of her, but really needed her ear tag number since that is how they keep track of the herd. 

My group stopped at the dairy farm first.  It was basically an investigative trip. We had to gather a bit of information regarding the farm, herd, feeding, breeding, selling and management of the dairy cows. 

This is before we left, waiting on our bus outside of Summerhall.  It was a gorgeous day!

The farm is 240 ha, which includes the sheep farm.  It's not an easy farm to manage because it's very spread out. Dairy cows do not like to walk and they must walk a lot to get to/from their fields and the milking parlour.  They are milked at 5am and then again at 3pm. The highest yielding cows are milked around 430-5pm.  This gives them more time to produce.  The herd is comprised of 80% Holstein Friesan cows, which look like this:

These ladies are in the calving barn and are within 1 week of giving birth.  Holstein Friesan's are an extreme dairy breed. They have the highest average milk production over all breeds and are very good tempered.  They try and keep them 'in calf', as they produce more milk that way. 

The herd replacement rate is 30%.  We have about 220 cows in the milking herd, and about 160 'followers', which are the younger generations. There are about 80 calves (0-1yr old) and 80 Heiffers (1-2yr old).  Once they are milking, they are called a 'cow'.  They do not sell the dairy calves even though that is a goal. They all end up being used as herd replacement due to unforseen deaths in the herd, lameness, mastititis, etc.

The lactation period of the dairy cow is 305 days, and their 'down time' is dedicated to doing AI (artificial insemination) in order to try and get the cow pregnant.  It normally takes 2-3 times per animal for it to take and each insemination cycle is 21 days.  Average milk production is 30L/cow per 305 day lactation.  After a calf is born, it only stays with mom for a short while and then it's moved to a calf barn.

Because the fields are so spread out at Langhill, they use an ATV to round up the cows for milking.  This is a picture of the cows doing the Milk March to the parlour in the afternoon.

I tried to take a picture of the beautiful scenery in the background, but my buddy decided I needed a picture of his mug and my camera focused on him rather than the really pretty landscape behind the barns....

It is past my bedtime and I will have to cover the sheep tomorrow. I need my beauty rest, for I am FINALLY headed out to do some mountain biking tomorrow morning with the University's women's mtb team.  See, I am prepared:

Good Night All

Cow Naming Contest

There is an Official Cow Naming Contest going on.  As previously posted, this is my 'adopted cow' out at the school's very own Langhill Farm.

She needs a name.  This was her as a cute little calf back in 2006:

She is adorable, I know.  I am taking suggestions on a name for her....every cow needs a name, right?  Only one entry per person is allowed.  They must be received by Friday, October 1st at 5pm EST.  I will pick the bestest name ATM (according to Me) and post my decision on Sunday.  Bribes are accepted, but I cannot say if they will or will not affect my decision.....the risk is yours to take.

A little history about my cow.  She is a dairy cow and was born January 23, 2006.  She became part of the milking herd back in December 2007.  She has had 3 calves, a male in November 2007, a female in November 2008 and a male last November.  I am very curious as to whether she is pregnant now, as I have not yet 'met' her, so I do not know.  However, I do know according to her mothly milk quality reports, there is no data for August and Sepember.  This only means that she is not being milked right now.  This coincides with last year when she was pregnant and there are no recent visits to the vet that suggest it is due to her not being healthy enough to milk.

That is all I know about my cow, so put your creative hats on and send me some names!

The winner will get some type of prize...a Scottish surprise, if you will. 

Good Luck!