Page 37 - ACV Journal DECEMBER 2015
P. 37
Reports
MURDOCH BOVINE INTEREST GROUP (BIG)
RURAL PRACTICE WEEKEND
Alicia Kemp & Anika Kalka (On behalf of the Murdoch Bovine Interest Group)
The Murdoch Bovine Interest Group (or BIG) had another practice the utrecht suturing technique and it was also very helpful
successful Rural Practice Weekend on the 7th – 8th August. This for students to visualise and feel pregnant tracts before they did the
is an annual 2 day event hosting 40 Veterinary and Animal Science pregnancy testing workshop with Sarah. Our final workshop was
students for cattle focussed talks and practical workshops at the run by the Equine Interest Group (EIG). Kim Broad, an ASF qualified
Murdoch University, South Street Campus. Friday (7th August) we farrier taught us how to apply and remove shoes on horse legs from
had veterinarian and PhD student Dr Sarah Stewart speak on how a local abattoir and demonstrated how to make a shoe from scratch.
to find the right job and her experiences working in dairy practice
followed by Jack Nixon, a Stock Inspector from the Department of The Murdoch Veterinary Student’s Association (MVSA) hosted a
Agriculture and Food who spoke on NLIS and traceability. Dr Enoch Barn Dance Saturday night including a bucking bull, a bush band
Bergman closed the night with a very informative discussion on the and lots of good company, a great way to end the event. Everyone
ins and outs of BVDV. learnt a lot over the 2 days and we hope to have encouraged more
students to enter the cattle industry upon graduation as both
Saturday (8th August) was time for our practical workshops. Veterinarians and Animal Scientists. A huge thankyou to the ACV
Students were divided into 4 groups of 10 and rotated through for their ongoing sponsorship of our group. Without your support
4 workshops throughout the day. Enoch was back again to build we couldn’t hold fantastic events such as Rural Practice Weekend
on last night’s talk and teach us the practical aspects of BVDV each year.
management in both beef and dairy production systems. Sarah ran a
manual pregnancy testing workshop using the university farm cows Claire McNaughton
and we had an empty uterine tract so she could demonstrate how School of Veterinary and Life Sciences
to palpate and manipulate the horns. Dr Clare Hodgson, a recent Murdoch University, WA, 6150
Murdoch graduate, ran a caesarean wet lab with uterine tracts
from Harvey Beef. We had a range of pregnant and empty tracts to murdoch.big@gmail.com
ABN: 61 616 369 313
www.ava.com.au/cattle The Australian Cattle Veterinarian | volume 77 | December 2015 37
