?Buying a dairy cow? There’s more to look for than ‘udder’ there

After graduating from veterinary school, I practised in my village for some time to give back to the society. Back then Mumias Sugar Company had started showing signs of financial problems and sugarcane farmers were slowly embracing dairy farming.

To start off, they were buying lots of dairy animals from Kapsabet and Eldoret and ferrying them on trucks.

In this mix of confusion, one farmer somehow learnt that there was a budding expert in the village who had just graduated with a Bachelors degree in Veterinary Medicine and was sleeping on his new found knowledge.

He got my village address and reached out to me.

The first stock

The man had just bought three dairy animals from a farm in Kapsabet after a referral. Okwiri’s request was simple; he just wanted an assurance from an expert that the animals were OK.

When I visited the farm, I noticed Okwiri had bought two supposedly in-calf heifers and one a pregnant cow. The first cow had a triangular shape long teats and a firmly attached udder — good characteristics of a promising dairy animal.

Major problem

But the cow had one major problem — the back was curved inwards. Although it was obvious even to a not so keen observer, in his excitement Okwiri overlooked it and just like other people, assumed that the udder and back had no connection and by extension cannot affect milk production. How wrong!

I also noticed one heifer was pregnant perhaps in the third and final trimester. Because of this, the udder was filling up and the stomach clearly distended.

Just like a woman in her final trimester is always advised not to travel unnessarily, Okwiri ought not to have transported the animal in that state. This is because of its delicate nature and the fact that labour can start any moment.

When labour starts

But oh well now that the animal was here, it was first things first.

On the pregnant heifer, Okwiri had clinched a good a deal.

But on the second heifer; Okwiri was ‘conned’ in broad daylight. The seller had lied that it was also pregnant because of the fat and blocky body shape – bad traits for a dairy animal.

To convince Okwiri that the cow was not pregnant, I had to do a rectal palpation. It turned negative but Okwiri insisted it was pregnant. I left it at that and asked for records of the animals.

Apparently he had not been given.

I explained the importance of records in dairy production and requested that he note down everything I was telling him in an exercise book. He did it reluctantly.

After that episode, I left and touched base with him three months later.

My “prophesy came to pass”. The blocky heifer was still fat minus any sign of pregnancy. The cow with inward curved back too wasn’t producing as much milk as Okwiri had expected. He needed my help, but the damage had already been done.

Like Okwiri, most farmers make the mistake of only looking at the udder when selecting a dairy animal. Looking at the udder only is like focusing so much on the end result rather than the process – milk production.

What goes into the udder is determined so much by the quantity, quality and efficiency of digestion.

The triangular shape of dairy animals is due to a large stomach. Lots of feeds is needed for more milk production.

The backbone is the support for ‘milk factory’ and so if it is weak it cannot give you milk. It will eat little and that will translate into just a small fraction of its potential.

How do you spot a good back structure?

A normal back is straight when viewed from all angles. There are three disorders of the back — the inward curving – lordosis, the upward curving – Kyphosis and sideways bending – scoliosis.

Abnormal spine

Many farmers are duped by sellers that these are just ‘normal abnormalities’ that don’t affect production. That is a lie.

Abnormal spine curvatures can be symptoms to other underlying diseases. Although some of these conditions can be caused by physical injuries most are genetic and have no cure. So next time before you pay for that dairy cow, call a vet to test it.

(The writer was the winner of Veterinary doctor of the Year Award in 2016 and works with the Kenya Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Council –KENTTEC, [email protected])