Today we visited two feedlots. At the first feedlot, we performed three postmortem examinations on cows – all had frothy bloat again. It was at the same feedlot that has been having the frothy bloat issue. We walked around the feedlot and inspected their feed troughs and feed storage shed. The feed troughs all appeared to have some feed left in them, as did the feed storage sheds, although they could both certainly do with more.
The feed appeared to be of a fairly good consistency, but perhaps had too much concentrate in it which could be causing the frothy bloat.
In any case, once we had finished our walk around at the first feedlot, we made our way to the second feedlot. We performed another postmortem examination on a cow at this feedlot, and deduced that this cow had died from acidosis. We then took a walk around this feedlot. We were shocked to realize that most of the feed troughs here were completely empty.
The feedlot owner explained that the mixer had broken, and they were trying to get it fixed, but there is just no excuse for not feeding these cows. Mark explained that they won’t achieve adequate growth rates if they are not fed properly. I personally got a little upset at seeing all of these hungry cows waiting by the feed troughs, and started taking some handfuls of the feed that had fallen outside of the feed troughs and throwing it into the feed troughs for the cows to eat. It wasn’t much, but it was the little I could do for the hungry cows.
I always remember this short story about a bunch of starfish stranded on the beach. There was a little girl throwing them one at a time back into the water. A man came up to her and said that she couldn’t save all of these starfish or begin to make a difference, as there were so many starfish stranded. The girl then threw another starfish into the ocean and said, “Well, I made a difference to that one!” This is how I felt today, throwing in handfuls of feed into the empty feed troughs.
Unfortunately, we also discovered that in some of the pens, the cows were fighting one another to get to an empty water trough. This should never be happening in a feedlot setting – it is inhumane for cows to be deprived of water; Mark will have to report them for this offense. We turned on the water hoses for the cows so they could drink. We just hope this hadn’t been going on for too long. It is really upsetting to see food and water deprivation to this many cows. Today was definitely a sad day in that sense.
In any case, once we had finished walking through the second feedlot and telling the owner that not having any food or water for the cows is completely unacceptable, we were on our way back to the practice. Mark made a phone call to the proper authorities to report this feedlot. It is too bad that this feedlot needs to be reported, but they aren’t treating their cattle humanely.
After visiting the two feedlots, we drove back to the practice, and I was able to write up a summary of my trip and experiences, which I will share on here as a closing blog entry for tomorrow. Janine and I then went home and got ready, as this evening we all went out to the Crumbledown Restaurant (AKA the “Cumberland” Restaurant, but Mark calls it the Crumbledown, haha). There was yet another beautiful sunset. I will miss these!
We drove to the Crumbledown, and Janine and I had a couple of Springbokkies (shots made with Amarula and peppermint liqueur) this evening along with dinner. The food there is actually pretty great! We all chatted, joked, laughed, and had a wonderful evening; it was a great way to spend my last night in Botswana. Eventually, it was time to head home, so we said our goodbyes, and Janine and I drove back to her place.
I’m now heading to bed, but I’ll be sure to write my final blog entry tomorrow! Goodnight and more tomorrow!
Veterinary Medicine in Botswana 2013 