well i was supposed to be doing my AHM assignment and sought some comic relief. i love the shoes!

life on a dairy farm

just got back from farm work and had one heck of an adventure...

On Sunday, Eug and i drove down to Heyfield to start work on a dairy farm there. My neighbour, Ross was leading the way as it was his hometown. Somewhere about 20 or so km from Heyfield we hit some gravel and although Eug wasn't speeding, the Jazz is a light car and we lost control. He tried to get the car back onto the road but couldn't so Eug steered onto the grass hoping to slow us down. It all happened so fast and next thing I knew the car overturned twice before it came to a halt. We had drove into a ditch which flipped the car.

Eug's side of the window was smashed and so was the back windscreen. I was too shocked initially but I was really relieved that we survived. Eug had shards of glass in his hand and a stiff neck from the whiplash but otherwise he was okay. I was left unhurt.

I really praise God for watching over us that day. If we had loss control any earlier we might have hit a post...or the nearby dairy, complete with cows.

So that was the beginning of farm work.

The car was towed away, it's a right off and we started work the next day. The dairy which is 900 acres, grazing about 1000 cattle is run by only 8 workers.
Now every time I drink milk I think of:
3 am starts
long hours battling stubborn cows...
suffering a nasty attack loose bowel syndrome.
Yes, milk from the supermarket's pasturised but there's a good chance its had contact with manure.


cows on the milking machine, still looking pretty clean

It takes an average of 7 mins to milk a cow, not by hand but by vaccuum suckers and one cow can produce up to 60 L of milk a day. My ultimate experience was when I was spraying the cows udders with iodine at about 6 am. all of a sudden, i felt warm, smelly liquid splash on my face. My work colleagues, Rob and Angie were laughing their heads off. I had been shat on, big time. I was officially welcomed into the joys of farming life as no one no matter how experienced, avoids the occasional big fat splat of cow poo.


Another highlight on the farm was probably watching the vet stitch up a cow's eye. It previously had its cancer eye taken out and its eyelids were stitched together. But for some reason, the cow decides to bust open the stitches. There was caked blood on the outside and inside of the eye, which the vet cleaned out before stitching the eye and injecting it with antibiotics. If that wasn't gross enough, the farm manager's dog, Jess was sniffing around and she ate all that gunk. well...i'm not letting that dog lick me, ever



no eye cow




here's pic of a another cow that had its 3rd eyelid removed

and i suppose what cattle farm work would ever be complete without the rectal examination. the vet was sticking his arm down about 100 cows bums to check it they were pregnant. our manager arranged for us to try it out. and surprisingly, it feels nice and warm inside the cow... just try to disregard the poo and the fart expelled after u take ur hand out. i could feel the skull of a calf through the rectal wall.


me posing with rectal examination glove

our last exciting experience was watching a calving. for the non-farmer/vet, this is giving birth. the cow took about 2 hours of standing up and lying down. I guess no one wants to give birth in front of an audience. Stuff was coming out of the vulva for awhile and then two little hooves and then as quick as a pop, the small, wet body came out. it would be a lie to say that the calf was cute, coz it wasn't but it was worth the wait. thank goodness, or else we might have had to pull it out.

me small asian girl + 30kg calf + 600 kg cow : not a good combination.