Calf Dehorning Crates

[Jac]

Thank you for the update. It's nice to know they are taking it seriously.

[Saffy]

They are taking it seriously - yes, at first they tried to say that it wasn't meant for calves as small as Dexters. BUT there is nothing telling the buyer that! No instruction says so.

I explained that they were lucky not to have a claim from one of us, that you Jac run a box scheme, so get a good return for your animals, Mark has a good deal of show success so one of his would obviously be valuable and I have been exporting recently for a good price. So if any of ours had actually died they might have been looking at quite a big claim.

If I hear anything more I will keep you posted.

[Mark Bowles]

Its a few years ago but i lost a calf in mine, it suffocated, the vet was castrating it so we were at the other end, very distressing.

[Saffy]

OHHHH! Mark that is terrible, if you had replied earlier I would have told them yesterday when they rang but I will pass the information on when I speak to them next! What age was the calf? I'm assuming it was a few months old if a vet was castrating, so it wasn't a small calf?

[Louisa Gidney]

All this makes me rather glad that I don't dehorn and that halters and Heath Robinson hurdle contraptions work for the farmer who castrates for me. I'm also finding that taking the time to get baby calves used to me handling their ears regularly before tagging makes the process relatively painless for all concerned.