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Sometimes pictures tell more than words

Training farmers about heat detection. I was told here that every 9 cows out of 10 are not giving any signs of heat and are on silent heat.. We all know that´s not possible. So we went through the signs again and reminded the farmers that heat detection is one of the most important works in their farms. No calves, no milk. 

Introducing a very simple and easy to use "heat calender" for the same group of farmers that were getting the training about heat detection. That´s my pilot group working with this calender. I am looking forward for the feedback on it´s usage and later will introduce it to more farmers if it seems to work out well. The only problem is that not all farmers are able to read, especially the elderly farmers so this comes out handy only for those who are able to read. 

Teaching our community animal health worker to crab a cow for deworming. 

With these Malawian cows you need to really strong!! No matter how small jerseys they are. Must say that many works that I could be able to do at home are totally impossible for me to do here. The cows here are not use to people handling them the way they are use to back at home. 

Sometimes we have some runaway cows.. This cow had ran away in the morning so by the time we got there about 11am she was on her way home. The main cause for cows to run to the fields is the lack of food so they are just in the search of greener grass..

These two men farmers we spotted at the local bar on our way to see their cows. This is very common, men stay out drinking while women and children do the work. 

Definitely one of the nicest jerseys I have met. Milking 20kg a day. 

My heart was crying for this poor heifer who was tight on her leg with a rope. This farmer was complaining that the heifer was showing no heat and he was failing to get it in calf. Looking at the condition I am not surprised at all. We asked him to release the heifer at once and will follow up on the condition later. These kind of things we see too often, it leaves me more sad than mad and we have to be quite rough to farmers who treat their animals like this. 

Community animal health worker training the farmer on right milking technique in order to prevent diseases like mastitis.


And when the going gets rough and it´s time to get mind of from work for a while, luckily we live only one hour drive from the beach. 

Comments

Candice said…
I love it! You are doing such good work. Can I steal your photos?
Steve Morris said…
Thanks for this Milla, I didn't know tyou were keeping a blog, maybe you told me and I lost it among the hundreds of mails. I will share this link widely within VSO. Great work. keep it up.
Anonymous said…
Good gal :) Im so proud of you. keep up the good work. xoxo Päivi
Gill said…
Love the blog Milla, awesome moo coos!