Not everything on the farm was fresh air and the picturesque sight of contented cows on pasture.
Fifty years ago when we went to the barn to milk after bringing the cows in from summer pasture, I remember walking into a barn full of millions of flies. These flies would be buzzing around the cows’ heads making them shake their heads and blink their eyes. There were flies on their backs and tails causing them to swing their heads around trying to lick the flies off their sides, sometimes hitting the person milking with their big heavy head by accident. Flies were on their tails making the cows constantly swing them, trying to hit the bothersome insects all over. Heel flies biting their lower legs caused them to be nervous and fidget around and kick. It was both very unpleasant and dangerous to milk the cows in these conditions.
When fly control became available it was quickly accepted by all cattle farmers. Insecticides to reduce these fly numbers were soon available as sprays, as a granular insecticide which the farmers sprinkled around on barn floors and as a systemic insecticide which was poured on the cow’s back. It seeped through the skin on the back and killed a variety of lice, larva living under the skin and other parasites.
Foggers were developed and when turned on, produced a fly killing fog in the barn. This was done after the cattle were all in the barn and before milking. The farmer left the barn during fogging and even though all these insecticides worked to kill flies and were approved and accepted by Health Canada I often wondered if it was healthy for the animals to breathe or even be in this insecticide fog? Ten minutes after fogging the barn, wheelbarrow loads of dead flies could be swept up and a person could milk quiet cows without danger of getting accidentally hit by a wet, dirty tail, a swinging head, or kicked by a cow just trying to stop a heel fly from biting her.
My grandfather always used a little handheld insecticide sprayer to put extra insecticide around the cows’ eyes and tails to keep flies away when the cattle went back to pasture.
As populations of flies, lice, warbles and other parasites increased, milk production, normal animal growth and all around animal efficiency decreased.
A wall mounted aerosol sprayer that dispersed a pyrethrin mist every 12 minutes was used in most milkhouses and restaurants for several years in the 1990s. This insecticide was also approved by Health Canada. It reduced flies, ants, mosquitoes, spiders, bees, fruit flies and several other pests.
Insecticide strips could also be found hanging in restaurants and milk houses. Insecticide impregnated ear tags were even used on animal’s ears and even on fishermen’s hats to keep flies and mosquitoes away.
Then we had several cows get cancer in an eye. These animals had surgery to remove the cancerous eye and usually recovered and lived for many more years. I later wondered if these cows were just unlucky and got cancer? Did the flies carry something to their eye? Was the cancer caused by some of that insecticide that was sprayed around or maybe right in her eye?
Many of these insecticides that were previously declared safe are no longer approved for use in restaurants, milk houses or any other area where food is produced.
Many farmers have now eliminated places where flies and other parasites breed or hide. Many milk cows today stay in a cool, ventilated barn in the summer. Cows that stay inside do not grow a long thick hair coat. Sunlight triggers hair growth even if the animal is in the sun for only a few days.
Lice like to live in a thick coat of hair. The start of a warble fly’s life is on the ground where cows pasture. Cows that don’t pasture have very few or no warbles.
Flies don’t like fast moving air because it disrupts their flight. Many barns today have tunnel ventilation with fast air movement. In a barn, flies breed in damp places. Many farmers today clean and sweep mangers daily and don’t allow dampness to accumulate under waterers or in stalls.
Many insecticides have been banned from use on lactating animals and there has not been a case of eye cancer in our barn in over 30 years.
There have been millions of dollars spent and thousands of jobs created to find and develop cures for diseases during the last few decades. I often wonder how much has been spent on finding and eliminating causes?
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon
on land that has been in his family
for generations. gladcrest@gmail.com
