We try to wash the tails of our cows at least once a week if at all possible. When the cows lay down in their beds their tails are free to whip around and sometimes they rest their tail in urine or manure, which makes the hair clumpy and uncomfortable for them. This also allows them to hit their neighbor with their gross tail and that’s just not very nice. The manure that gets stuck on the tail hair can be transferred to anything, and if we touch it we can transfer any of the organisms to anything else we touch. This makes it hard to be biosecure and keep the animals and people healthy and safe. This is WHY we wash their tails, and now I will briefly tell you how we wash them.
Hello! My name is Sonja Williams and I am a part of the UMADCOWS for the spring semester. The UMADCOWS share responsibilities around the farm. One of the responsibilities that we share is called being the “Production Herdsperson”. This means that each week a different person has a few extra small jobs around the farm, such as cleaning up a little bit more than normal, being the first person on call (in case someone can’t make it to their milking shift or the noon check shift), and washing the tails of the dairy cows. This past week I was the production herdsperson so I had these extra jobs. I want to focus on the tail washing part of the duties because it is often overlooked, and although it might not seem too important, it actually is. We try to wash the tails of our cows at least once a week if at all possible. When the cows lay down in their beds their tails are free to whip around and sometimes they rest their tail in urine or manure, which makes the hair clumpy and uncomfortable for them. This also allows them to hit their neighbor with their gross tail and that’s just not very nice. The manure that gets stuck on the tail hair can be transferred to anything, and if we touch it we can transfer any of the organisms to anything else we touch. This makes it hard to be biosecure and keep the animals and people healthy and safe. This is WHY we wash their tails, and now I will briefly tell you how we wash them. First, we fill a bucket with warm, soapy water (we use a special soap made for cows). Next, we try to pick off any loose clumps that we can see and brush off some of the dry manure, to make things easier once it is wet. Now we gently soak the end of the tail in the warm water to let the clumps that are left soften and then set the bucket aside. This is when we use a comb to pick out all of the manure stuck in the hair until the tail is clean and untangled. Then we dip the tail in the water again to rinse it. This makes sure that all of the manure is out of the tail and makes sure the tail is all clean. Finally, we let the tail air dry while the cow whips it around and flings water everywhere (this is the cows’ favorite part!).
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