Toenails!

Herd health in May is lovely. We figured out many years ago that as long as we had each member of the herd restrained for shearing we could also do the bimonthly toenail trim as well as any dewormers and vaccines that were required. This works even better as we have two shearing stations but only one shearer (all-around good guy and master of talks least/says most: Matt Best). Meaning that there are usually at least 3 to 5 minutes for each animal when they are already down on the shearing mat and restrained in the block and tackle setup while Matt is still working on an animal at the other station. Why not do herd health then rather than catch the entire herd a second time either the week before or after shearing?  Everyone is in pretty good cheer usually during that time anyway and though we shear anywhere from 200 to 300 animals depending on the year, we’ve all learned how to do it without getting the ever living crap beaten out of us over the 3 to 4 days it takes (we usually shear @ 70 each day). Granted some of that cheer may come from the virtual IV drip of high fructose corn syrup that we feed our crew during that time. Eight sodas and half a packet of cookies? That’s just the snack in between meals! Lovely as it all may be though it’s also unfortunately not until May and if toenails are due to be done in May that means they are also due to be done in March. That would be now. Bummer. At least the sun is out today, that might ease the pain a bit of the thermometer reading 2 degrees?