Wednesday morning we went to a farm where we castrated two adult male pigs. If male pigs are not used as sires then they are castrated because the testosterone taints the taste of the meat. I got to remove one of the testicles of one of the pigs, my second castration of the trip! We also spayed one of the owner’s dogs while we were there. It was a very improvised spay done outside.. not something you’d typically see in the US.
The owners of the farm also own a tourist attraction that is a cave and swimming hole outside of it. They let us swim and cliff jump at it once we were done with the farm work.
On Thursday we injected 50 beef cattle with vaccines for black leg and a dewormer/vitamins shot. Beef cattle are much more difficult to work with than dairy cattle because dairy cows are worked with every day. Beef cattle are not used to people, especially here where they are completely pasture fed. Consequently they are very afraid of humans. The farmer had gotten them all into a corral before we were there but we had to work to get them into the shoot in small groups to inject them. It was not an easy task. When injecting we had to climb up onto the boards a few rungs high so we were above their kicking range. Luckily we made it through all of them without anyone getting hurt! Below is the ginormous bull of the group who towered over all the other cows. Fortunately, I didn’t have to inject him.
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