Thursday, January 20, 2011

Heart of the matter

Lots going on!

Eye - One of our full-time employees called Kris today to tell him he needs to have eye surgery again. This summer he was cutting wire and it snapped back and hit him in the eye. He has scar tissue built up behind his eye, he found out, so he’s going to get it fixed and will be off for a few weeks to heal. Ouch! I feel so bad for him. The phrase ‘eye surgery’ makes me cringe.

Filter - Every milking, you put a paper filter in a stainless steel container that filters the milk. The handle that’s used to pull out the part you put the filter in was starting to crack. But it’s made of stainless steel, so we couldn’t weld it – they weld lots of things but didn’t have the tools for this. A new filter container would be a lot of money, so Kris just took it to the local fabrication shop. They welded it in a couple of hours and Kris got it back in place before the next milking.

Vaccinations – Yesterday the employees vaccinated the dairy cows. Once a year, they get a vaccination for a variety of diseases with long names, like infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR). When they’re pregnant they also get a vaccination to help their calves be healthier when they’re born.

Meat – Kris went to the meat processer and our freezer is full. This is how it worked – this heifer didn’t get pregnant the first year. She didn’t get pregnant the second year. This pretty much confirmed she was a freemartin. A freemartin is by definition a sterile female twin born with a male. In 90% of female/male twins, the female is sterile. It’s caused by the mixing of female and male antigens in the womb. They are technically female but have a lot of male characteristics. Including good beef.

Here’s the heart … mmm! Sure looks tasty, doesn’t it? Our next dinner guests are going to be very surprised ...

1 comment:

Jules said...

You know that bit about the boy/girl twins is my favorite ice-breaker at parties. Do males really have better beef? Because I could use that too...