Farm Talk Tuesday: Hoof Trimming

Check out what cow spa days are like in this quick video of our cow Blaze getting her hooves trimmed!

Although we do a lot of our animal care ourselves, we bring in a professional hoof trimmer a couple of times a year to keep our girls looking and feeling their best.

Our hoof trimmer has a specialized chute that is much safer (for the human) than our standard livestock chute. He is also much more skilled in trimming than I am. Hooves are one of the things that you really don’t want to mess up, so we trust a professional to help us out.

I sped up this video a bit but one cow usually takes about ten to fifteen minutes. We did twelve cows this day!

We usually only trim the cows who need it. Some need trimmed more frequently than others but on average our cows get trimmed once a year. Our girls have access to pasture or cover crops most of the year and this helps keep their hooves in good shape. Taking good care of a cow’s feet keeps them productive and can even extend their life!

Music: Good time 01; Musician: Xuxiao