Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Pregnant cows!



Today was ultrasound day!  We bring in a vet - today it was our friend Russ Seifferlein - to give an internal ultrasound to the heifers and cows.



 He has an ultrasound wand similar to the one used for humans, but with one huge difference - he is wearing goggles that show him the ultrasound picture!



He let me look through them where I could barely see a teeny tiny spot on the screen.  But imagine how good you must get at this doing this many ultrasounds as part of your job...



Again, we have such good people on our farm, and in a situation like this, it just makes everything go so smoothly.

Russ walks to one side of the parlor and yells the number on the tag to Kris.  He performs the ultrasound and gives us the news - open, which means not pregnant, is delivered in a hushed tone, like a doctor giving bad news.  Pregnant is delivered in a celebratory manner, partly because everyone really likes good news.  (I am prone to cheering.)  He then goes back to the end of the parlor, then back through to the other side ... switching sides and giving ultrasounds for a couple of hours.

Josh and Adam were in charge of moving the cattle, moving the doors in and out to let Russ in and out, but let just one cow in at a time, plus yelling out the tags for Kris.  The cows can only go in one at a time because Russ has to have enough room to do the ultrasound.  Lots of cattle to move!



Carolyn was in the pit also, giving treatment to any cows who Russ diagnosed as having a problem.



Kris was writing down for our records each ear tag number and diagnosis.

I was slowing everything down by asking Russ million questions like always, and Max was very interested in the whole process.  Someday, a million years from now, I hope he doesn't compare his wife's first ultrasound to the times he was in the barn ... directly to her face.





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3 comments:

dairy farming said...

nice one there!!!!
i am from india and we are also into the dairy farming business too.... this is a great blog carla!!!!
a lot of stuff for me to read and get inspired... Primarily the tagging system and how organised your dairy farm is.....
keep posting.... this has been really enlightening me.
Thank you, good luck

Carla said...

Thank you! Thanks for reading, too.

Carla said...

Thank you! Thanks for reading, too.