Stories of the Heartland - April 2026 | Seite 6

Page 6 Stories of the Heartland • Sunday, April 19, 2026 hometownsource. com / heartland /

The cow whisperer:

How Nate’ s Hoof Care keeps cattle on their feet

BY JOSEPH STANICHAR STORIES OF THE HEARTLAND

RICE – It’ s a cold January morning at a farm between Royalton and Rice, but there’ s important work to be done.

Nate Ackerman, owner of Nate’ s Hoof Care, gently coaxes a cow into a metal device called a chute, which calms the cow by covering its eyes while inside it. When the cow is secured, Ackerman pulls a switch that picks it up and places it on its side, with its hooves now suspended in the air. After putting on hearing protection earmuffs and safety glasses, Ackerman pulls out an electric angle grinder and gets to work trimming each hoof, filling the farm with the sounds of buzzing and sawing as chunks of cow hooves fly through the air.

Depending on his assessment of the cow’ s hooves, he may add some hoof wraps, differently colored bandages – or hoof blocks – a horseshoe-like piece of sturdy plastic that helps the cow walk – before flipping the chute’ s switch back, standing the cow on its now-improved hooves again. Ackerman releases the cow and it ambles forward, often much more easily than it lumbered into the chute.

This entire process typically takes just a few minutes and is repeated up to a hundred times in a given day, with Ackerman having around a hundred clients he works with every year. Depending on the number of cattle on a given farm and that farm’ s specific needs, Ackerman trims hooves for some

Nate’ s Hoof Care owner Nate Ackerman applies wraps to cow’ s hooves to help them heal from injuries.

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