Saturday, October 17, 2009

Cow Tipping


As with horses, cow hooves must be periodically trimmed down. It's like cutting your toenails.

Trimming feet is much easier if someone else does it, but inbetween visits from the local professional (farriers take care of horses, hoof-trimmers do cows) we have the occasional need to do a few cow's feet ourselves.


My brother-in-law Denis demonstrates how it works: a cow enters the chute and is tipped onto its side. The belly straps hold it in place. Then the feet can be easily and safely worked at from the bottom.

Cow goes up; cow goes down; cow goes up; cow goes down.

This rig works as an attachment to the skidsteer; it is borrowed from another farmer, we don't have one of our own.