Several years ago, Leon's herd became infected with TB. At the height of the infection, he had to ship off over 80 cows in one load to be slaughtered. His herd was cut in half as a result of the disease.
By the time I came to the farm in 2012, the TB was getting under control. He had all of his calves caged separately over the entire garden to prevent the disease from spreading. He was doing regular TB testing at six month intervals. And, he was slaughtering any cow that showed signs of the disease. Since the end of 2012, each veterinarian visit would produce better test results than the previous visit.
In November 2012, he bought a second dairy farm which is just a few kilometers away. While such a purchase was an added bonus, there were many problems as the previous (missionary/NGO) owners had let things deteriorate. One of the problems is the lack of water which makes it difficult to run a farm.
Once our herd had been declared TB free, one of Leon's goals was to move all of the dairy cows to one farm. Well, we just received our TB free certificate from the vet a few months ago. The main farm has had the irrigation upgraded to provide more grazing for the cows. Now, we are just waiting for the rains to come (any day now!).
My Mom captured these photos one morning while she was here. It is beautiful to see our farm through another person's eyes.
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