Cow Magnets (and Ruby!)
Learn something new every day. Ever heard of a cow magnet?
Cow magnets are popular with dairy farmers and veterinarians to help prevent Hardware Disease in cattle. While grazing, cows eat everything from grass and dirt to nails, staples and bits of bailing wire (referred to as tramp iron). Tramp iron tends to lodge in the honeycombed walls of the reticulum, threatening the surrounding vital organs and causing irritation and inflammation, known as Hardware Disease. The cow loses her appetite and decreases milk output (dairy cows), or her ability to gain weight (feeder stock). Cow magnets help prevent this disease by attracting stray metal from the folds and crevices of the rumen and reticulum. One magnet works for the life of the cow!
Feed a cow magnet to a young calf, and the magnet stays in the cow’s stomach for a lifetime, safely collecting any loose hardware it inadvertantly ingests.
Update: Of course, there is a Ruby connection here. Jim Weirich reports that Brian Marick (whose wife is a vetrinarian) handed out cow magnets at the first RubyConf in Tampa Florida. Writes Jim:
My wife grew up on a dairy farm, but never heard of cow magnets until I brought mine home from rubyconf.
Ah, the confluence of Ruby and Agriculture.