Hoof Trimers Form National Association

Hoof Trimers Form National Association DAIRY EQUIPMENT & IDEAS Dairy Equipment & Ideas 19-1-20 If you're a dairy farmer, you know how invaluable the services of your veterinarian or DHIA are to the success of your operation. But did you know there's another group of specialists that believes their services are going to be equally as important to you in the future? "The way government regulations are moving dairy farmers toward total confinement, we believe it'll be essential for every dairyman to have the services of a good professional hoof trimmer," says Bill Riley, head of the newly formed national Hoof Trimmers Association. The group began meeting informally three years ago. This summer, they held their first formal meeting at Strum, Wis., with 55 members present. By the organization's next formal meeting in January 1996, projections are that membership will be at least 100. "It's educational, a pool of knowledge more than anything," says Riley of the group whose average age is 28. The group focuses primarily on dairy cows. For example, a new hoof disease of greatest concern to Riley and the organization is strawberry hoof rot, or hairy wart, a highly infectious virus whose symptoms are a large hairy wart resembling a straw-berry on the hoof. Certain strains of the virus have recently become resistant to treatment with tetracycline, which was previously effective against it. "It's a virus that originated in Europe and has become real prevalent in the U.S. in the last four years," he says. "If it's treated properly by cutting out the wart and packing the hoof in Venice turpentine and iodine crystals it can be eliminated. But I'm sure that some dairy farmers are unaware of it and that it's costing the industry mil-lions of dollars a day in lost productiont." While U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations and natural hoof diseases are two things the new organization is concerned about, there are others as well. One is the new hormone, bovine somatotropin (BST). Injected in cows to increase milk production, BST is being marketed under the trade name Posilac by Monsanto Co. Other big chemical companies are near to marketing their own BST products as well. "BST just blows the heels right off those cows," claims Riley. "From a hoof trimmer's point of view, dairy farmers are a lot better off without it." The association may even take an official position against BST at its next meeting, Riley speculates. (Riley runs a hoof trimming school in Sulphur Springs, Texas, where students receive intensive one-on-one instruction in hoof trimming techniques. Tuition is $1,500, and the average student can learn the tricks of the hoof trimming trade in six days.) Meantime, the Hoof Trimmers Association is busy planning regional organizational meetings as well as a quarterly news-letter. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, W.S. Riley, 1005 Georgia, Sulphur Springs, Texas 75482 (ph 903 885-7769).

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