Mother Nature doesn’t like to trim toe nails either!
At least that’s how I’m choosing to interpret the arrival of close to a foot of snow last night. The last time we were due to trim nails herd-wide back in January it snowed several inches as well. Seems to me the evidence is pretty clear. Either that or the good Mother is just poking fun.
Of course while the weather kept our kids home from school this morning, now, as in January, it was alas not nearly bad enoughto keep us away from the joys of March herd health. Jen, Kim, and myself all bundled up like Carhartt-clothed versions of the Michelin Man and tackled the two lower barns. Though my gloves kept soaking through, we were at least smart enough to lock all of the feed groups in (6 different groups at the Main Barn, 2 at the Stud Barn) to get out of the wind as well as the still very active winter storm. While the weaners had for the most part stayed inside overnight of their own accord and weren’t too bad, the yearling boys especially seemed to have been reveling in the new fallen snow judging by their appearance. Jen, who did most of the holding/restraint while I trimmed, was thoroughly soaked through on the front of her pants long before we finished at the Main Barn.
On the plus side we don’t give Ivomec shots this time of year which meant that things went a little bit quicker compared to a toenail month in the Spring/Summer/Fall. In addition to that when we pick up again tomorrow we should be able to press a couple more members of our staff into service (they were all busy moving snow today) so that we can really blitz our way through the Arena. Ever the optimist, Kimmy pointed out that the next time we’ll be doing a full herd health day (Ivomec, vaccines, plus toe nails) will be during shearing when the animals will already be restrained in shearing stations as it is, making this the last of the truly nasty winter sessions. That and in May we’ll have cookies too. Cookies make it all better.
For now the entire farm is again encased in white and the animals seem quite happy to go out and play in the fluffy stuff. At minimum this has again covered up the pastures around the Main Barn where our show string is housed, and the outward appearances of those animals are already starting to show a marked improvement with some moisture back in play after a generally dry February. It’s also harder for them to roll in last fall’s top-dressed compost in those paddocks when it’s safely ensconced beneath a layer of snow. For the moment anyway. We take our victories where they come. Hard to believe it but there are only 28 days until we check in at the North American show…
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