Animal health & handling

About animal health & handling

Cattle handling and health tools: an adjustable anti-kick bar, a hoof trimmer, a copper dehorning rod, an ear-tag applicator and a weighing tape for calves and cows. These are the jobs a smallholder does a few times a year and usually improvises — which is how people get hurt and animals get injured. A kick bar makes a fresh heifer millable by one person. Untrimmed hooves are a leading cause of lameness, and a lame cow eats less and gives less long before anyone calls her sick. A weighing tape costs almost nothing and is the only way to dose correctly. Guessing weight is how wormers get under-dosed and stop working.