You wouldn't think that with all of the daily education that farmer's receive on the job, that we'd need to take classes to brush up on our skills. Who needs more learning when you are constantly hit with "the school of hard knocks" every day! But, in order to stay on top of things, either I or Farmer Rick take in presentations put on by our feed providers, local co-ops, and veterinarians. Hey, especially when they offer lunch, who can turn it down?!
This time of year is great, too, for learning. The holidays are over, cabin fever is r-e-a-l-l-y starting to set in,and you're just itching to get out and start getting things done in preparation for spring fieldwork. We had already started prepping machinery and cleaning up around the farm before we got hit with this early spring snowstorm this week. So, if there's something you can do while you're still stuck inside for awhile, why not? Our veterinarian offered a "lunch and learn" type of presentation on antibiotic useage. It was quite informational and gave tips on injection sites, types of antibiotics to use, when to stop using and re-evaluating the procedure, and more. Most farmers are quite conscious on how they use antibiotics and are very careful in the administration and testing required for clearing the medicines out of the animals' systems before either shipping the milk or the animal to market for meat. We were brought up to date on the latest tests and methods being introduced both for on the farm and for inspection purposes. So much to keep up with! But if we want to continue to offer a quality product to the consumer, it's worth it. Just by taking a look at what's imported as food into our country from other areas of the world that do not have our quality standards, makes me awfully glad that we produce most of our own food here on the farm! If ever there was a time to buy locally, from farmers you know, now is the time. I actually like it when purchasers of our sweet corn stop to ask about our growing methods. We often talk about our dairy farm also and the procedures we use to feed and care for our cows. We're proud of what we do and love to share our story!
So, with a good lunch and a pile of notes, I headed home. My head swimming with new ideas and record-keeping methods that we will begin to implement in our system to better keep track of each of our methods when treating our cows. We keep records on each individual cow, but now we will have a running list of treatments kept separately for evaluation so that if asked, we can have a comprehensive list at our fingertips for review, rather than have to go into each record and dig out each treatment individually. More paperwork, but we don't use antibiotics very much. When you take good care of your animals, the need for these medications drops substantially. Getting to the root of the problem often avoids headaches by making the underlying corrections before a real problem gets out of hand. And, since we don't use antibiotics regularly, when we do need them, the animals respond quite readily because they don't have an immunity built up in their systems from over-use.
Farming - always producing, always learning!
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