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Summary: Idaho hoof trimmer Hugh Love owns his own business, Rocky Mountain Hoof Care. He says he couldn’t do without an Appleton Steel Hydraulic Elevator Chute, Matabo grinders and chipper wheels, a pressure washer, a membership to the Hoof Trimmers Association and treatments for hooves that includes shaving soap, terramycin powder as well as chewing tobacco dipped in iodine.

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Hugh Love is an independent hoof trimmer and hoof care instructor from Preston, Idaho. His business is Rocky Mountain Hoof Care. He’s been trimming cows for more than 15 years and clips about 12,000 cows per year at dairies in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming. Love is a retired military drill sergeant who first learned how to trim from his neighbor.

“Hoof trimmers, by and large, are like gypsies,” Love says. “We’re at a job for a day or two and then pick up and go someplace else.” He shares his essential tools for efficient and effective hoof trimming:

2. Matabo grinders and chipper wheels
Anything but a Matabo grinder will wear out in two to six months, Love claims. He’s had his current Matabo for two years. Love prefers any chipper wheel manufactured by Roto-Clip, Spin Trim or Trim-Tec.

3. Pressure washer
After every trimming, Love hoses down his chute and equipment. He’s not particular about a specific brand of pressure washer. When on the road, Love says he will use a car wash to clean up. The trick there, he says, is to spend an extra quarter to get it clean. Regardless of how it’s done, a clean chute and truck are a requirement from Love’s spouse of 27 years, Karlene Love.

4. Hoof Trimmers Association
Love is an active member and past president of the Hoof Trimmers Association. He says he’s looking forward to the association’s next convention in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Feb. 18-20, 2010. The group has 200 hoof trimmer members and convenes every 18 months.

5. Soapy terramycin and chewing tobacco dipped in iodine
To treat hoof warts and lesions, Love has developed two unique ways to apply medicinal treatments. He mixes shaving soap with terramycin powder and dispenses it from a re-closable water bottle. Love believes his soapy mixture to be more effective in treating warts because when wrapping a hoof after applying the mixture, it seeps around and into hoof warts, covering them more completely than powder.

Love uses tobacco dipped in iodine to treat lesions and ulcers. Sugar in the tobacco, he says, has a curative property. He picked up the tip from his father-in-law, a former dairyman.

“You can learn a lot by listening to older dairymen who didn’t have a lot of the pharmaceuticals currently available,” Love says.  PD