Mi Pura Vida: New Places and New Faces

Hey guys!

It's a beautiful saturday here in Guacimo! Today was really eventful and I learned a lot!

I woke up a little later (if you call 5:40 later) than usual which was really nice since I came home late last night(and by late I mean 9:20). I skipped the cafeteria again for a nutrigrain bar and some water right before I rode off to the farm. I'm finally starting to get used to riding up those big hills. I've never had a good history with bikes, my family can attest to that, but I have yet to fall off. It's a little bumpy because half of the trip is on rocky strips but my severely inept sense of balance has adapted.

There were other students today so that was really nice! I left the pig farm and moved on to the cattle area of the farm. This new area was really interesting for me. I've seen cattle farms and I've walked around them, but it's so different when you're in the circle pen and you're walking past these huge creatures. I never had this experience before so I was a little nervous at first, I mean, these cows weight at least 800 lbs each and could easily crush me if they really wanted to. They were extremely gentle and were more afraid of me than I am of them. They were all different! There were Jersey Brahman mixes, Holstein Brahman mixes, Simmental Brahman mixes, Brahman, and even water buffalo! (The reason why there's so many Brahman mixes is due to the breed's ability to thrive in a hot climate.)

Profe Moro showed me around. We went into the circle pen first to watch students vaccinate cattle and apply any needed medicines. Now, the circle pen looks the way it sounds. It's a big circle of pens made of metal tubes that can be separated when needed and within that big circle is a smaller circle of dirt where cattle and other animals are trained. In order to vaccinate students had to climb up one side of the individual pens, balance on the top, stick the syringe in, and inject the medicine. It sounds simple in theory, but trust me, it requires a lot of teamwork. Today a student was too nervous to approach the cow from above (which is understandable) so she got into the pen with the cow. Profe Moro and a farm hand had to tie up the cow's neck so that it was securely fastened to the tubes in the pen wall. Even then they had to hold the cows head when the student tried to inject it. After a 5 minute struggle the student successfully vaccinated the cow.

After watching vaccinations Profe Moro showed me something really interesting. Since it's summer, Vampire bats have been flying around and biting the cows at night. We saw puncture marks on their necks where blood was dripping out of. Profe Moro had students apply a special medicine for bat bites as he explained to me that they don't vaccinate cattle for rabies in Costa Rica. When you think of rabies you'd most likely think of carnivores or omnivores like dogs, bats, and raccoons. Cows can get rabies through bat bites. Many people don't know this, I didn't know this either until I had to get vaccinated for rabies. They have different symptoms such as choking but they are also hydrophobic like other rabid animals. Profe Moro says there hasn't been a rabies outbreak in cattle yet, but it is a real possibility.

In addition to seeing bat bites I saw bot flies in cows. It's a little gross. When cows have open wounds, like puncture wounds from a bat bite, flies can lay their eggs in the wound. The larvae hatch and remain in the skin, only breathing through the small entry hole. Profe Moro showed me that they get rid of bot fly larvae by painting over the area with a black oil solution. This suffocates the bot fly larvae and forces them to come out. Like I said, it's a little gross, but it's a part of the cattle business.

Once we were done with that, Profe Moro brought me into the milking parlor so I could judge the body condition score of the cattle. This scale goes from 1 to 5, 1 being severely emaciated and 5 being obese. you can use decimals as well such as 3.25,3.5, and 3.75. I used these charts to figure out where a cow belonged.

It's very subjective so you can be a little off and call a cow a 3.25 as long as it doesn't have a lot of traits that are from other numbers. I stood there as the people working in the milking parlor made cows go through the pens in a line. I got to look that them up close and personal so I could judge them better. I did that for a few hours until all the cows were gone. It was very interesting to me. Profe Moro and I talked a little throughout the process to make sure I completely understood what I was doing. We usually had the same rating in mind and when we didn't agree I was only slightly off.

At the end of our time at the farm all the other students gathered around the break area. It was the 2nd years' last day on the farm and 4th year students had to stand up and explain their projects on the farm.

A forth year student explains his project on crops such as maize, sugar cane, and other cash crops.

It was cool to see all the hard work they put into their projects. They're going to stay on the farm for the rest of the year so that they can continue their projects. One guy's project is a grazing system, which I'll be helping with. One girl's project involved reducing mastitis in dairy cattle. I'm going to work with her wednesday in the milking parlor and then go with her to a lab to test dairy samples. It's really exciting!

I left around 11:05, took a shower, and relaxed. While I was working on this blog post I finally met my roommate Marcela for the first time! She's from Costa Rica and she's a third year student. She was in La Flor, EARTH's smaller sister campus on the pacific side, for a few weeks with all the other third year students. She's very nice!

For dinner there was chicken with peppers and onions and these yucca chips on the side. They use a lot of yucca down here! They use it as a healthier replacement for potatoes. They're really good and are much better than potato chips, I'm definitely going to make a batch when I get home! They probably won't be as good as the chips here though.

Since tomorrow's Sunday things are really going to calm down. I won't be on the farm, but I will be helping with another english class again and go swim with Lina after. It's weird to think that I'm already done with my first week at EARTH. It really flew by! 1 down 7 more to go!

Here are some other pictures I took this week.