Getting a Feel for Beef Cattle

Coveralls? Check. Rectal sleeves? Check. Paraffin lubricant? Check.

With these necessary tools, Allie and I set out on another trip with Erik. This time, to perform pregnancy diagnoses on 1,500 beef cattle in Ghanzi, a town in the western part of Botswana, very close to the Namibian border.

The drive from Gaborone to Ghanzi (that should have taken about 8 hours) ended up taking closer to 11. We watched the sun disappear below the horizon (probably the most beautiful sunset I have seen so far). Driving proceed much more slowly after that, as we had to constantly slow down for cows, goats, donkeys, or wildlife by the side of the road. Driving in the dark, we watched the Kalahari come alive, as many of its inhabitants are nocturnal. We spotted two different types of antelope (duiker and steenbok), porcupines, spring hares, and an occasional kudu. Late in the evening, we reached the farm manager's house, our home for the next few days. After introducing ourselves to the farm manager, his wife, and three adorable children, we called it a night and prepared ourselves for the first day of work.

We woke up much earlier than 6:30am alarm to the sound of roosters crowing right outside our window. Following this slightly rude awakening, we quickly changed into our coveralls and headed to the kitchen to eat breakfast. We filled our stomachs with coffee and rusks (like a hard cookie similar to biscotti) before finding out that there was also pap (a traditional south african maize-based dish similar to oatmeal or grits) and meatballs for us. 

Pap

Rusks

Then we headed out to the cattle posts to begin the pregnancy checks. On day 1, Allie and I followed behind Erik and tried to identify the things that he described: an enlarged uterine horn (2 months pregnant), caruncles and a mouse-sized fetus (3 months pregnant), a cat-sized fetus descending in the pelvis and fremitus in the middle uterine artery (4 months pregnant), a small dog-sized fetus at the bottom of the pelvis (5 months pregnant), etc. At later stages of gestation, you can even reach your hand into the pelvis and put your fingers into the mouth of the calf or palpate a well-defined hoof beginning to extend into the birth canal. In the case of a non-pregnant cow, we identified the cervix, two similarly sized uterine horns and both the left and right ovaries.

Our PD "prof" Erik

He made it look and sound so easy, averaging 1 rectal exam per minute (500+ pregnancy diagnoses each day). So by day 2 we decided to test ourselves by guessing the stage of pregnancy and then double checking with Erik's diagnosis. Unfortunately, doing so was not nearly as Erik made it seem. Many times it was hard to differentiate a caruncle from an ovary, fremitus from a normal pulse, or to distinguish between a fetus that was descending into the pelvis from one that was ascending. Feeling frustrated and extremely sore in my left arm, I decided to take a short break. Only then did I notice that I was beginning to get sunburnt...on my ears and un-gloved right arm. Realizing that we had left the sunscreen back at the house, I did what any Bushman would do and turned to nature, slathering cow dung all over my right arm. I rubbed this "Botswana sunscreen" on the reddened areas. Though I nearly gagged from the smell at first, it quickly solidified in the heat and worked like a charm, despite all the strange looks I got for it :) 

Botswana sunscreen 

By day 3, we finally started to get the hang of PDs. Our accuracy had improved drastically from the day before, and we were able to determine the stage of gestation (give or take a month) most of the time. Though we still have a long way to go before we match Erik's skill level, it is incredible how much exposure we gained within 3 days. We finished the 1,500 cows earlier than expected, so Erik took us on a short field trip to Namibia. I had mentioned how much my dad wants me to go there, so we drove about 20 km from the farm and arrived at the Botswana/Namibia border. Although I still can't say I've been to Namibia, at least I've seen it. On the way back to the farm, we saw zebra, a red wildebeest, kudu and eland. 

Namibia

At the end of each day of palpating cattle, we had a hot bath and home-cooked meal to look forward to. We were treated to more traditional South African food (poike, steak and even warthog sausage) and enjoyed good food and company around a blazing fire and underneath a full sky of stars. Overall, we had a great time in Ghanzi, not only because we were able to see so much, but also because the trip allowed us to see a completely different part of the country (and a little bit of Namibia) as well as some incredible wildlife.