Discovering Ithaca (Michigan Not New York)

            We drove to Ithaca today to TB test a 150-head feedlot.  These animals were part of trace investigation which means that some of the animals had come into contact with a TB-infected animal (contact meaning been at the same location) at some point in their life and then had come to this particular property.  As a result every animal on the farm must be tested before this farm can be released from quarantine. 

We started with the older animals- setting up gates so that all the animals were inside the barns and the only way they could get to the yard was by coming through the chute and being tested.  Danielle worked the headgate and I managed the PDA.  The headgate is a difficult concept to reconcile with when you have a horse background.  Basically, animals run through the chute and as their head passes out the front, the sides of the headgate slam down on their neck.  They can’t move forward because of their shoulders and they can’t move back because of their heads.  The cattle often end up bolting through the chute so that when the gate catches them they literally slam against it so hard that the chute slides forward.  A horse would kill itself in this contraption or at the very least break a leg so that someone else would have to kill.  Cattle, while noisy, leave the chute without so much a scratch. 

Calf caught in the chute with a wary momma watching

After testing all 120 of the older animals, we moved to a smaller pen of about 30 weanlings.  The craziest animals out of both groups tended to be the heifers (females).  Anytime we had one that wouldn’t settle down, it always turned out to be a female.  I guess with all the hype bulls get, you can’t forget that any large animal--male or female--can be dangerous.  All-in-all we finished the job in around 3 hours. 

Cows watching us set up the chute.