cow gets pedicure.

rustred · Dec 15, 2021

this was todays project. took the old cow for a trimming. she was having a hard time walking. got her all trimmed and polished up and she is as good young now. the guy has this squeeze mounted on the back of his truck. just parks in front of the other squeeze and then she walks right into this one. then she gets flipped over and go to it.

coonie minnie · Dec 15, 2021

It's unusual to see a tip style chute here any more. Our guy uses something that he cow stands in, but only lifts one foot at a time- much easier on the cow. Glad your cow responded to the trim!

el6147 · Dec 15, 2021

our family milked a 100 that were pastured and we never had to trim hooves.

my nephew is a herdsman on a 500 dairy where the cows never leave the cement and every week they trim hooves on a number of selected cows.
the cows know exactly what is going to happen when they are directed down that certain ally and try to do any thing to avoid taking that path. they are strapped to a tilting table also.

Modern dairy practices are not as humane as the public is lead to believe.

there is very few dairy's that have green pastures and red barns.

shaun wallace · Dec 15, 2021

Back when we milked had a few that had to trim from time to time, they only on concrete when in barn. Looked after some beef cows several years ago, had to trim a few.

Hoofer B · Dec 15, 2021

I was a hoof trimmer before I got into trucking. I have just under 250,000 cows trimmed before I realized I do not want to do that anymore. Took me 17 years to find it out though. Hoofer B

Bruce from Can. · Dec 15, 2021

I have to trim my cows twice a year. Its not as much to do with cows not getting out on pasture to walk and west the hooves down as you might think. Its much more about feeding higher quality, high energy/high protein diet to dairy cows that promotes hoof growth. When cows just relied on grass pasture in the summer, dry hay in the winter and maybe a bit of cob meal, their hooves didnt grow as much, and they didnt give much milk either. Now the high quality feed helps to produce higher milk yield, but also grows more hoof too. Cows in free stall barns frequently have wet feet, so the hoof tends to be softer, compared to cows in tie stall barns. Same thing can be an issue with beef cattle kept in yard in winter, if the yards are sloppy and have little dry bedding area.
Tip tables are not very common anymore. Most professional trimmers have hydraulic powered standing shoots. Being a do it myself guy, my trimming shoot is hand crank to lift back hooves, and I lift the front feet by hand. I can do 10 cows on a good day by myself, and still do my other chores too.

Bruce from Can. · Dec 15, 2021

It can be heavy dirty work some days. Ill never come close to your total cow count, lol. But I am not a pro. My hats off to you, thats a lot cod cows. A million hooves !!

DoubleR · Dec 15, 2021

We had a chute we would put them in with a head gate. It had a couple straps that would go underneath and it would hold the animal up while we would pull their feet back and tied them on a shelve like affair and we could trim them up with clippers and used a disk sander. We did our show steers and heifers which were halter broke but never had to do any of our big brood cows that I can recall. This was back in the 50's and 60's. Your set up looks allot better than what we had. Your post does bring back memories.

formerly ny bill · Dec 16, 2021

When I first started milking on my own, I followed the practice of trimming feet myself, rather than hired. I had a tie stall barn and had learned to tie a back foot up using a long rope from the hock, up over the barn beam, around the vertical part of the rope, and up to the tie rail. Worked quite well. Most of the time. Except for the white cow, don't recall her name, that kicked just as I was inspecting my handiwork. Broke my nose, but fortunately, she was about at the end of her stroke when she hit me.

caterpillar guy · Dec 16, 2021

What do they use on the grinder to remove hoof material. I would think a regular grinding wheel would be easy to get hot and cause the hoof to be sore if not real careful.

coonie minnie · Dec 16, 2021

I agree with you on the better feed thing. I had some heifers at a neighbor's this year- they had no feed other than lush, daily rotated pasture. When they came home last month, they needed their feet trimmed!

jaoneill · Dec 16, 2021

I've done my share on a tilt table; a job for the young, hard on ones back!

Geo-TH,In · Dec 16, 2021

<Its much more about feeding higher quality, high energy/high protein diet to dairy cows that promotes hoof growth.>

My friend has 3 horses. He says the same thing about High energy protein causing hoof growth. He has as a hard time finding grass hay for his horses.

Hoofer B · Dec 16, 2021

I am 52 y o and have bad shoulders, elbows, had a hip replaced and just scheduled my back surgery 15 minutes ago. Yeah, it was fun while it lasted. I enjoyed it, and had fun with my farmers/ clients. Bill

BarnyardEngineering · Dec 16, 2021

(quoted from post at 04:16:28 12/16/21) What do they use on the grinder to remove hoof material. I would think a regular grinding wheel would be easy to get hot and cause the hoof to be sore if not real careful.

Finger chopper 9000:

rustred · Dec 16, 2021

they use hoof trimmers. cut all they can off the sides and bottom. then use an angle grinder with a course grinding disc to smoothen it out, then like a dremel tool between the toes. took him like 40 minutes to do the job and 75.00

cow gets pedicure.

rustred

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coonie minnie

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el6147

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shaun wallace

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Hoofer B

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Bruce from Can.

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Bruce from Can.

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DoubleR

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formerly ny bill

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caterpillar guy

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coonie minnie

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jaoneill

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rustred

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