More Hoard Farm intern experiences

Wrestling heifers, chasing dry cows, tagging cows, pulling twins at midnight, and being chased by bumblebees are just a few things that have kept my internship memorable so far this summer.

I have had a great learning experience, as well. I work with the herd health manager, Megan Lundy, and the calf manager, Stephanie Ayoub. In addition to breeding cows, I have learned how to IV cows. However, some of my favorite experiences have been pulling twins at 12:30 till 1:30 at night with Stephanie’s help. Both twins had their heads down so we had to push them back and pull the head up so we could pull them. My latest project has been to check cows that need tags, order tags, and finally tag the cow. After hours of tagging with Megan’s help, we were exhausted and happy that the task was complete.

I found a the nest of bumblebees in the straw pile while bedding the dry cows.

As part of my research project, Hoards had the sprinkler systems installed. One system is in the holding pen and the other in the return alleys. The system in the holding pen is on a timer with five individual sprinklers. When the sensors are tripped in the return alley, the cow is sprayed down when she walks though, cooling her before she returns to her pen.

These are just a few experiences of my internship so far. Now I need some hot weather in August to complete my research on heat stress.