March 17th-Fun on the Farm

Hm, this is my first post to this group here at DG. Spouse and I have a dairy herd and feed out feeder pigs he purchases from a neighbor. I do all the milking and Spouse mixes feed for the cows and does the pig "stuff". We sold 5 cows this week.....3 on Monday and 2 yesterday. The Monday cows were ones we didn't breed back because of various problems.....1 was a 3 teater, then decided a week ago to start stepping on one of her remaining good ones. Perish the thought it would have been the one that wasn't good anymore! One other had become a chronic PITA, and the 3rd one had feet that left alot to be desired (plus, she was gettting up there in years too). For these reasons, none of them had been bred back. Yesterday's sellers were one that had decided that she wasn't going to be able to get up in a tie stall and coupled with her bad legs, all she did was slip and fall whenever she went outside, or bringing them back in. I was hoping we could have strung her along till pasture time, but alas, it was not to be. The other one we sold yesterday was one that on a mad foray around the barnyard about 6 weeks ago decide she could NOT see the door that the other 60 cows had gone in and cut the front of her lower leg on something, who knows what?? Laid it open pretty bad. After 6 weeks of doctoring, soaking it in Epsom salts solution and potassium permanganate solution, I told Spouse I was fighting a losing battle and I thought we'd better get out from under her while we still could. Over the course of about half that time I'd given her enough penicillin to sink a battleship. The drugs were all out of her system, so we got rid of her. You sometimes wonder why they have to be so stupid and maim themselves up like that. Sheesh........And here we are, trying to care for them the best we can, and feeding them according to our feed sample tests so they have adequate nutrition. Some days you feel like you are beating your head against the wall. So, if any of you are thinking now I don't have any more cows to milk after selling those five, do not dispair.....I still have 70 left!!!!