We heard back from Rachel this week about the cows. She was able to confirm that after well over a week of growing a culture based on their skin scrapings, our cows do indeed have ringworm. We now have medication that we need to spray onto all the affected patches, repeating every three days, three or four times!!! For our steer (Sage Junior) we need to sponge his patch around his eye rather than spray it, for obvious reasons. It is quite a big patch now and although we never see him rubbing it, or any signs it has been rubbed, it still must be irritating for him!! Aside from the ringworm, all is going well in the Cow Pad – we have a dry bed of straw (albeit with a wet layer underneath in places) and the hayracks outside have really minimized the spread of hay across the woodchip. The mats underneath the racks are also brill as they give the cows a really good firm surface to stand on whilst they eat!!
There have been various studies done that prove how good standing surfaces can improve the milk yields in dairy cows so we have to assume that good standing places impact on the general health and wellbeing of all cows!! All very satisfying!!!