Beware! Cows also have dental issues

If the cow has dental problems it affects its growth and development.

In old age, athletes are likely to experience joint and muscle problems due to extreme usage of their joints and muscles in their heyday. Ruminants too in old age are likely to have “teething problems”.

I am drawing this parallel based on a case I encountered sometimes back of a toothless beautiful cow.

Dairy farming comes with a manual that few choose to read, those who don’t read this manual end up paying dearly for their sins of omission. One such person who didn’t read the dairy manual is my friend Mr Rapando.

He was swindled off his cash in day light. Rapando stays in Shianda along Mumias-Kakamega road. All his life, he has been a sugarcane farmer, very much at home with a few zebu animals on the side for a little milk and other traditional ceremonies.

Since Mumias Sugar started experiencing problems, it was time for him to change his way of economic life. Dairy farming crossed his mind and after toying with the idea and sharing it with some of his friends he braved himself for the venture. Rapando did not visit the nearest Ministry of Agriculture office for advice neither did he inform me; his reason was that professionals are expensive.

Rapando’s chief adviser was another dairy farmer in a neighbouring village who had also started off with a Friesian cross that he bought from a farm in Eldoret. This farmer linked him up with the farmer in Eldoret, who linked up Rapando with another farmer who had a friend selling a “good” Friesian cow and the next day Rapando got a canter lorry and brought the cow home.

I actually came to learn of Rapando’s entry into dairy farming when he sent me the photo of the animal and bragged how he had got a good deal. He talked highly of the fact that he knew a thing or two when it came to selection of good animals. I inquired whether the cow had any records, which Rapando brushed aside.

Deceptive beauty

I asked how old the cow was and Rapando said the seller said it had only given birth twice; that it was being milked and was producing some good quantity enticed Rapando. The animal had a deceptive beauty hidden behind a good body score, at least from the picture Rapando shared with me.

Rapando talked about the good dairy unit he had built, the nappier that he had planted and how he was already selling milk and I said amen. It didn’t take long before Rapando called back, this time his tone was not as energetic. I knew he was in some trouble.

According to the telephone conversation, the animal was losing weight and body condition at an alarming rate. It did not show any signs of sickness only that it did not eat as fast as his neighbour’s Friesian crosses did.

It chewed the food slowly and with some difficulties. I listed dental problem as a tentative cause and waited to confirm this once in Shianda.

On arrival to the farm; true to Rapando’s assertion the dairy unit was perfect, the nappier was enough but the cow I saw was a pale shadow of what he had sent me sometimes back. We talked a bit before I examined the animal. Such moments are apt for bitter truths, I advised Rapando on the importance of a professional hand when buying a dairy animal.

 It may come at a cost but this is a long-term business and you must invest some capital on professional information.

On examining the mouth of the cow, I confirmed my fears and when I called Rapando to see, he was shocked. The cow’s two incisors were missing and the remaining six were completely worn off so were the molars. As such, the animal could not eat as fast and that is how it had lost weight in Rapando’s hands.

Many dairy farmers develop a strong attachment to their animals, hence they overstay on their farms. When they want to dispose them off they normally fatten them with a lot of concentrates to fetch more from the market – mostly butchers.

When ignorant farmers get such animals, they can be cheated to think that it is a good dairy animal when it was being fattened for its day of slaughter.

That is how Rapando was swindled so he too had to fatten it and dispose it rightfully – to the butcherman – that was my advice.