When people first said ‘you should put your body on the line for your job’, they most certainly had vets in mind!
My morning of preg-testing, while incredibly exciting in and of itself, gave me more excitement than I had expected thanks to one escaping cow.
The incident occurred while preg-testing my grandparents’ cows (which are lowlines – basically an Angus but a lot smaller). The experience was exciting enough as it was, as it was the first time I had preg-tested a lot of animals with real management decisions resting on my abilities.
Unfortunately some heifers (young cows) had broken into the paddock the breeding females were in so we had to draft them out, an easy enough task. Usually!
This photo is of some of the cows from a different day – this story is set firmly in overalls-and-gumboots territory
The yard that we were attempting to draft them from had a broken fence on one side that we had quickly blocked with some bunting. So, naturally, one of the heifers decided to make an escape by running directly through the bunting, and the virtually non-existent fence on the other side! I don’t know why, but I decided it would be a good idea to chase after this heifer to try to bring her back to the group, unfortunately nobody else had the same idea as me, so I was left alone in a huge paddock trying to herd a single heifer. So I decided, and I’m still not entirely sure it was a good idea, to physically grab her.
I don’t recommend the manhandling of heifers which, although smaller than fully grown cows, can still be pretty big. But this one was a lowline, and a small one at that, so I figured I might be able to at least grab onto her and point her in the right direction.
So, running down a hill trying not to slip up on cow pats, I caught up to her. I then realised that she was only a little bit bigger than a large angus calf, which I’d caught before for ear tagging. With this “logic” I decided I would be able to restrain her and then move her back to the group. We were both moving at speed however so my only option for grabbing her would be to dive.
I’m not entirely sure how I was expecting it to go, but very quickly I realised that it was going to go badly. After diving I got a grip around her neck, and I thought she was going to stop… Not only was I wrong, but she was now dragging me with her! She might have been only slightly taller than an angus calf, but she was certainly stronger, and more determined!
Fortunately my grandmother had insisted on filling me up with bacon and eggs for breakfast beforehand, so I was ready for the challenge… The Heifer on the other hand had been eating lucerne all morning so she was more ready.
A quick turn and a head-but later I was lying on the ground with the heifer grazing nearby. I escaped with a slightly bruised head, and a severely bruised ego. Something not enhanced by me having to be hosed down outside the house to remove the cow faeces that I had been dragged through…
I know we’ll be having better fences when we preg-test next year.
Seeing Practice 