A pain in the neck...

A busy one today. Out early to get everything fed before Mike the vet and his 2 final year vet student assistants arrived for day one of our cattle TB test. This happens every 4 years and means running every breeding cow, heifer and bull through the cattle crush. They get 2 strips shaved on their neck, the skin thickness measured with callipers, then injected with a type of bovine and avian TB , similar to when you used to get your BCG jag at school.
The vet will come back on Monday to check the injection sites for swelling as the body immune system reacts to today’s injections. This is the most nerve wracking , as any fails mean your whole herd is locked down until you get a clear re test 60 days later. You can’t sell any cattle and if you are short of feed and space it can become a very expensive problem.
I think we did well today, we managed to get 220 cows, 35 heifers and 11 uncooperative bulls done by 5.30 pm. Then it was just another couple of hours to get everything fed and feed ready for the morning.
Roll on bed time.