THE TRAITS OF AN IDEAL

DAIRY MAN
BY DR. IMELDA U. HEBRON
USTP-CLAVERIA
1. A DAIRYMAN IS KIND TO ANIMALS

You love animals to the extent of showing willingness to

sacrifice your TIME and EFFORTS to cater to their
immediate needs. Can you compromise your sound sleep
at dawn and wake up early for the cows in? or delay your
breakfast and take care of an urgent calving assistance?
or cancel a fiesta gathering with friends and do the twice a
day milking?If you are kind, you don’t let cows suffer !
2. YOU MUST BE A KEEN OBSERVER You could see even slight
changes in the animals’
behavior and health
condition. This can help in
detecting health problems
and reproductive
conditions. Cows in estrus
must be timely detected,
behaviors are observable
3. YOU MUST BE PUNCTUAL
AND REGULAR (CONSISTENT)

Animals often get sick whenever they are

subjected to sudden changes as in changes in
feeding times, manner of milking, driving in
herd, etc. Hence, if you are not on time with
these routine activities, animals will often be
subjected to stress and will not produce well.
4. YOU MUST BE RESOURCEFUL
AND INTELLIGENT

A dairy man must be knowledgeable of the needs of

the animals, HOW they are taken cared of, and if
the ideal things to be provided are not available,
Look for SUBSTITUTES so that these animals will
not suffer.
5. IS DILIGENT AND COURAGEOUS

Insist to DO against all odds, everything for

the animals’ well being.
Doing routine activities need patience and
diligence. Waking up at dawn.. the cold
weather… moving through the distance for the
cows in… when everyone else are still in deep
slumber…needs diligence!
6. DISCERNS BEAUTY FROM UNSIGHTLINESS

Animal farming is a dirty job,

but a good animal
husbandman can appreciate
them as an art.
7. FORESEES THE FUTURE

A good dairyman anticipates the needs of his

animals long before the animals need them.
He also anticipates hazards… and considers
health and safety at all times.
How many of these traits do you naturally
possess? If you miss one or two…
YOU HAVE TO DEVELOP THEM!
Because these will make your future job...
dealing and handling of animals… MORE
ENJOYABLE, WHOLESOME and SAFE..

Ms Anabelle F. Jugador, Batch 4, now a successful

dairy entrepreneur established at Manolo Fortich,
Bukidnon. Her farm is one of the best multiplier
farms supported by NDA and one of the focus farms
of PNZDP.
 VISION AND OTHER SPECIAL SENSES
• With eyes positioned on the side of the head, cattle have panoramic
vision of 330° and binocular vision of 25°–50°, which allows for good
predator awareness (Phillips, 1993).
• Cows have a blind spot directly behind.
• Cattle have slit-shaped pupils (Smith, 1998) and weak eye muscles,
which inhibits their ability to focus quickly on objects (Coulter et al.,
1993).

• Cattle can distinguish long wavelength colours (yellow, orange and red)
much better than the shorter wavelengths (blue, grey and green), which
may have aided their response and survival when a herd member was
attacked and blood was spilt (Phillips, 1993). Cattle can distinguish all
colours from a grey background except blue (Dabrowska et al., 1981),
and have a poor depth perception. Because of this poor depth
perception and lack of definition, cattle will often baulk and refuse to
cross a shadow or drain grate and are best moved through diffuse light.