Dirty Jobs (2005) s01e31 Episode Script
Hoof Cleaner
My name's Mike rowe, and this is my job.
I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty hardworking men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.
Hey, hey, Mike come on back up here and get to work.
Quit playing around down there.
Now, get ready to get dirty.
Coming up on "dirty jobs" Rowe: This is insane.
Has it occurred to anyone to put pads down? Not really.
I get a piece of the rock and turn it into lots of little rocks at a Washington state rock quarry.
Where do you put the quarters? Look at that.
The job is digging stuff out of the ground, and it's so dirty, it'll blow your mind.
Fire in the hole! [ Explosion .]
Then This is really the first time I've ever gone after hippo poo like this.
I visit two hippopotami in New Jersey and learn that when things don't meet your expectations, it's not always bad.
I've seen worse.
For big giant animals, you got off kind of lucky.
Open.
And I hone my skills as a hippo whisperer.
Now spit.
And later, some people tip cows for fun.
Hoof trimmers? These guys do it for a living.
And if you think what's under your fingernails is nasty Get off some of the caked poo.
Could be her own.
Captions by vitac captions paid for by discovery communications Today I've come to the five mile rock quarry in Monroe, Washington, to meet the men who turn big rocks into little rocks.
Actually, if you've ever landed on a runway or driven down a freeway, you owe a debt of gratitude to these men, because I can't think of one single construction project that doesn't start with a firm foundation, and a firm foundation gets its start right here.
That's why we've come here today.
Also, they've promised to let me use lots of dynamite to blow up that hill behind me, which should be immensely gratifying.
In 1996, Max Boyd was harvesting timber from this hillside when underneath, he discovered a mother lode of basalt.
6 years, $1 million, and a whole lot of permits later, he turned this side of the hill into the quarry we see today.
With dangerous dynamite and heavy machinery involved, the key part of doing this job safely is keeping the equipment well-maintained.
So, before we start moving rock, there's a little janitorial work to do.
So, you got yourself a dirty machine there, huh, Max? Yeah.
A screen deck, Mike.
The screen deck.
Now, I understand that this basically sort of cleans the rocks as they come out? Well, what it does, it separates them, and it pulls the dirt out of our rocks that are going down to the cone crusher so we don't contaminate our finished product with dirt.
This doesn't look so dirty.
How do you clean it? What we do here Let me move this over Inside this flap Oh, inside.
Oh, sure.
The dirt builds up and blinds them, basically, is what we call it.
That looks like hardened that almost looks like concrete.
It's kind of like concrete and cement.
It's hard dirt.
So my job is to crawl in here on my belly with a highly sophisticated tool With a shovel and a sledgehammer.
Your job is to keep the mud flap up.
Yeah, and keep an eye on you.
Great.
This is the perfect job for anybody who happens to be, mmm, six inches tall.
Hey, Max? How's your arm doing? My arm's doing great.
You're not cramped up too bad? No.
You're okay? [ Grunts .]
This is insane, actually.
Has it occurred to anyone to put pads down? Not really.
There are many bad jobs in a rock quarry.
Cleaning a rock screener is in the top 1.
Like a cheese grater.
With the screen deck clean Well, cleaner It's time to get acquainted with some rock-moving equipment.
That is a giant What is that, a cat? That's a caterpillar 375 excavator.
So, what's the operator doing down here right now? Right now, he's getting crusher feed ready to go.
It'll go into our haul truck and then up to the crusher, dumped in the crusher to make crushed rock.
So, the area, that face we're looking at now, essentially, all of that is gonna get blown backwards this way? All that's gonna get lifted and blown this direction, yes.
How would you feel about letting me try and run a $750,000 machine? As long as you don't break it, let's do it.
You're Jimmy? Yes, sir.
Man, this is a handsome machine you got.
Thank you.
How long you been driving this thing? I've been on this one for about 2 1/2 years, but I've run these machines for about 30.
What's your basic job? What's the purpose of this machine? After the shot goes off, we pick the big stuff out.
You're constantly cleaning up after those guys.
There you go.
You're the cleaner.
I guess.
Well, how long will it take you to get me up to speed? I can show you what it does to run it in minutes.
And then just a little seat time, and you'll have it.
Right on.
All right.
So, the job is going to be to fill that truck over there with this rock.
Correct.
Can I practice? That's a good idea before you try to load a truck, is get the feel of what it takes to maneuver.
Whole thing is run by hydraulics.
Yeah, right.
It runs on hydraulics.
Let me focus on the joystick.
On the gaming element.
Yes, it's like a video game.
Where do you put the quarters? How much weight you reckon is in there right now? About 500 pounds.
Just a bucket of crumbs.
Bucket of crumbs.
Just boom down till you set it on the ground.
Then you want to pull towards you gently and scoop at the same time.
Hey, you've done this before.
Ah, well, you know.
Now just boom up.
Then just dump it from this height? That'd be fine.
Right hand toward the window.
Okay.
It's just a big toy in a big sandbox.
Got away from me.
[ Laughs .]
Wait a minute.
Huh.
There she rolls.
See, I meant to do that.
Having mastered the use of the shovel, and I use the term loosely Oh.
Oh, look at that.
I didn't really think the whole "gravity" thing through.
Time to put my newfound skills to work loading up the truck.
The truck looks a little nervous.
Who's driving the truck? Who's driving the truck? That's Brad.
That Brad's a brave man.
Yeah, I would say so.
Let her go? Slowly.
You're off and running.
Think about doing this as a kid? Oh, I used to love it.
I hope my dad's watching.
Hi, Brad.
Brad hauls the rock I loaded off to the crusher, where these boulders will be smashed into a marketable gravel.
Meanwhile, the preparations are drawing to a close on the hillside for the next dynamite blast, and it's time for me to get up there and lend a helping hand.
I don't see what could possibly go wrong.
So, basically, John, in a little while, all this is gonna be gone.
Yep.
It's gonna look like that down there.
Who's this? This is Brandon babcage, blaster in charge.
Brandon The blaster in charge.
What are you doing, exactly? What we're doing is loading the hole.
I just dropped the booster down.
The booster actually sets the blasting agent out, which is emulsion.
Blasting agent? If I clap my hands now, will I blow up? It's very stable.
Really? Well, how does it work? What makes it explode? The cap sets the booster off.
The booster sets the blasting agent.
It burns at a super-fast rate.
So, if a match were to hit this? Nope.
It's got to be the booster.
What's the booster look like? Just like this.
But there's a bigger one in the bottom.
The top cap is a safety booster.
In case there's a cutoff in the column of emulsion, 25 milliseconds later, this will set off the rest of the column.
That way there's no leftover product.
How many columns, or holes, has John drilled up here? Roughly 55, 60 holes on the shot.
How long did it take you to drill 55 holes in one shot? Day and a half.
How long will it take you to fill all the holes he drilled? Roughly four hours.
How long will it take for all of this to fall down once somebody presses a button? Milliseconds.
Gonna put the hose down the hole.
Run it to the bottom of the hole.
Man, how deep is this hole, John? 42 feet.
Okay, you're at the bottom now.
Pull up about a foot.
And then you're gonna yell at Mike to go.
All right, Mike, let her have it! At the flip of a switch, liquid dynamite starts pumping through the hose and into the ground.
So if I'm not mistaken, I have something very explosive between my legs.
Yes, you do.
There are over 50 holes drilled into the hillside for this blast, and each one is about 40 feet deep.
Into them, we pump 15,000 yards of dynamite.
Costs about $1.
40 per yard.
That's over $20,000 worth of dynamite for one blast to bring this hillside down.
Man: 160 pounds.
We are ready to shoot.
I'm gonna turn it on.
This is an r.
C.
B.
M.
Remote-controlled blasting machine.
What's this thing? "Brandon's house.
" It is for protection for that so rocks don't crush our expensive little unit there.
How much is this thing? $4,000 or $5,000.
There's no sense in wrecking that.
Do I close it? Yep.
Okay.
Little antenna sticks out.
And this gets plugged back in.
That happens here.
We're gonna send a radio frequency from down the hill.
It's gonna go in that antenna, the antenna's gonna trigger the spark, spark goes down the wire Chain reaction starts.
Hillside falls down, great big rocks come flying everywhere.
But the remote-controlled blasting unit is protected by Brandon's house of fun.
Now we need to secure the area and get down the hill.
This area looks secure.
No, we got to run everything out and make sure there's not a soul in here, and we'll be the last ones to come out.
Isn't it kind of like every man for himself at this point? No.
Doesn't work that way.
This is not like the movies where you get one of those little boxes and you push it down and watch everything explode while you crouch behind a rock.
We've got to go way down the road and get to a safe place.
So, we've secured our cameras here right now.
The area's completely safe.
Only an idiot Doug, for god's sakes, are you done? Only an idiot would linger.
[ Alarm blows .]
You're blocking the highway down there? Yeah.
[ Alarm continues .]
So, everybody in the area is being warned that there's gonna be an explosion.
The highway behind us has been shut down, and we're, what, 1/2 a mile, 3/4 of a mile from the action? Yeah, roughly.
And it's time to go soon as we're told on the c.
B.
That the road has been ran and it's clear.
When he gets word, we've got this transmitter, basically.
And you're gonna shoot her.
Alls you have to do, hit "arm," flip the switch, and then hit the button.
Okay.
All yours.
Are we good? Got to yell "fire in the hole," so everyone knows, though.
Okay.
So, here, stay with me, Brandon.
First I'm gonna hit "arm.
" You're gonna arm it.
[ Beeping .]
So, right now, the boxes are communicating.
I'm gonna flip this up.
All right, folks.
Four-second delay after you hit the button.
Four-second delay.
I'll find something to do with four seconds.
Fire in the hole! 1 2 3 Good to be down here.
Yeah.
Look at that.
Thing came flying through the air.
Looks like it hit right there.
So, did it more or less do what you wanted it to do? I haven't looked at the face yet, but, yeah, that's pretty average shot here.
Well, the back of it doesn't look so hot.
This is a little game we like to call "find the camera.
" Doug, our director of photography, lovingly placed a very expensive camera right at the bottom of the explosive shelf with a deck that now has a tape inside full of really remarkable footage you'll never see.
He's taking it kind of hard.
And so ends my day at the quarry One-ton boulders turned into giant rocks eventually reduced into 2-inch crush, otherwise known as the stuff that holds our world together.
Max, you found our camera.
Found your camera, Mike.
Oh.
Yeah.
Thanks.
You're welcome.
[ Laughs .]
Say hi to button, hippopotamus amphibius, all the way from west Africa.
Button eats about 60 pounds of hay every single day.
She weighs about 3,000 pounds.
And she poos Everywhere.
The hippopotamus' natural habitat is in the rivers of Africa, but these two hippos, button and genny, call Camden, New Jersey, home.
Here at the adventure aquarium, anyone with a ticket can spend an afternoon watching these magnificent creatures frolic in a re-creation of their indigenous African environment.
But, though everything through the glass appears to be natural, in reality, what you see at the aquarium is a grand theatrical production starring one of nature's most temperamental prima Donnas.
Behind the scenes, it takes a team of trained biologists working day and night to keep the stars of this show healthy, happy, and clean.
Typically, it all begins with a little poo-mopping, as Ann Marie is about to demonstrate.
Rowe: What's the name? Ann Marie: Bolus.
A bolus.
Again, that means what, precisely? Poo.
Call it what you will, here at the bottom of the hippo pool, a lot of it has coagulated.
Yes.
Tools of the trade in this case? Is that a squeegee? Squeegee with the bristles on it.
And a pitchfork.
All right, so, we start at one end and just push everything to the drain.
And you have to clear the drain as it gets full of poo.
Gotcha.
I really was expecting hippo poo to just be somehow more horrifying.
But really, you know, after the water hits it, these bolus break down, and it's just urine and some straw.
Little bit of poo.
I've seen worse.
Yeah, me too.
For big giant animals, let's face it.
You got off kind of lucky.
My lucky day.
So, this is basically one hippo over what period of time? This is two hippos overnight Since 5:00 last night.
Is it the one over there and the one over here? They use both sides.
So their poo is comingled.
Oh, yes.
We clean it every day.
We clean everything every day and disinfect it, and then this gets filled with fresh water, and then they come in at 5:00.
They really have it pretty good here, don't they? You're doing a fine job.
Thanks.
The squeegee was quite an invention when you think about it.
All right, it might be just about time to start slinging it.
Start slinging the poo? Yep.
Excellent.
It's easy to forget when you're visiting a zoo or an aquarium just how much physical labor is expended to keep things running smoothly.
You have pretty good aim.
And inevitably, a good bit of that labor involves rearranging the poop into more manageable piles.
Did I do that? Cleaning out the hippos' indoor holding pens turns out to be the easy part of the job.
Out in the exhibition area, the beasts have a penchant for pooping at the bottom of their swimming pool.
And with 60,000 gallons of water inside, this is one toilet you can't flush on a daily basis.
So, poop-scooping after the hippopotami turns into a diving expedition.
One of the other trained biologists here at the aquarium is Mark.
Mark here has specifically been trained in the retrieval of hippopotamus poo.
That's correct.
What are we gonna find in there, specifically? Most of it is a lot of hay, which is part of their diet.
So when they poop, it comes in these big clumps that they call boluses, and when those float in the water You might find some down in the bottom But some of it just kind of separates, and it's a lot of hay, and it gets stuck in one area, so we're gonna go down, and we'll take our nets and scoop that out.
Okay.
Some guys dive for treasure.
I don't see what could possibly go wrong.
Did you spit in your mask? No, I didn't.
I thought they just did that in the movies.
No.
Anybody ever drown picking up poop? Uh, you might be the first.
I'm sure I will.
What kind of fish are these? These are African sicklid fish.
Sicklids? Sicklids, yes.
These fish will actually also feed on hippo poop.
Really? With their enormous size and a rather touchy sense of territoriality, the hippos make extremely dangerous diving partners.
So, while we're in the water, they're locked away inside the holding area.
Though designed to resemble an African river or lake, this tank is in fact a technological marvel whose key feature is a filtration system that sucks the hippo poo down into a trench-like drain.
Later, a human is assigned the menial task of opening up the filters and scooping the poop out with big butterfly nets.
Today, that would be me.
So now we get the nets? Yep.
Okay, boys.
Rowe: Thanks, Ann Marie.
Oh, you're welcome.
Thanks for my poo net.
I'm gonna follow you.
Okay.
'Cause this is really the first time I've ever gone after hippo poo like this.
Let's go dive for some buried poop.
He makes it sound good.
When you take scuba lessons, you fantasize about diving with tropical fish in The Bahamas, exploring the hulls of wrecked ships, maybe even searching for gold.
A little further down on the list Ferrying hippopotamus poo to the surface of their aquarium tank.
Rowe: I got some poop.
I got to say, though, it looks mainly like straw.
Is the poo just kind of dissolved up in there? Yeah, pretty much the water gets through most of the poop, so it's a lot of just hay.
But it don't smell like hay.
It's kind of awkward down there, but weirdly beautiful, the way the hay and the poo kick up around you.
All right.
Shall we get some more? Mark: Ready to make another trip? I'm ready.
You know, I've seen a lot of poop.
Trust me, this could be worse.
If you think about it, hippo poo looks more like what's left in the bottom of a bowl of shredded wheat than your run-of-the-mill feces.
There's got to be a lot of hippo pee in here, too.
You didn't get any in your mouth, did you? I got a lot in my mouth.
I got some in my stomach.
I'm pretty sure.
In the wild, hippos emerge at night onto dry land to eat over 100 pounds of grass in a single serving.
Then, before dawn, they slip back down the riverbank into the water, where they start making this stuff.
In the wild, the currents of the river carry the poo away.
Here in the aquarium, that's a dirty job for divers who aren't too squeamish to play the part of a human toilet brush.
Gotcha.
There.
Ann Marie: You got a little extra present in there, too.
They don't really chew their food, do they? Well, that one didn't go all the way through.
Are you sure? Yeah.
So, really, the hippos I mean, they're kind of kept in little quadrants and controlled slowly.
Yes, right now they are.
They did have access to the pool, but now when we're getting ready to feed them, we separate them so they each get the right amount of food.
So we'll put one on one side and one on the other.
This is a dinosaur.
Yeah.
Now, which one This is genny.
Look at the mouth on this thing.
Good grief.
Open their mouth almost four feet wide, almost 180 degrees they can open their mouth.
Why are we wearing the same clothes, by the way? This is a way just that they're They're used to seeing these same clothes every day, me and Ann Marie, when we come in here and we work with them.
It keeps them calm, just so you don't stand out.
Just don't want you to be too much of a stranger.
You mentioned before more people are killed by hippopotamus in the wild.
That's correct.
Hippos are responsible for the most human deaths in Africa.
Is it because they're underestimated or just cranky? A lot of the problems I think that they have is people would be going down the river in their boats, hippos come up to the surface to get a breath, and people get knocked out of their boats And drown.
Now, these guys, can they swim? Or are they so heavy they just sink to the bottom of the river? These guys are actually too dense to float, so they will constantly be sinking down to the bottom.
So when they move along the bottom, they kind of gallop.
That's why they're called the river horse in Greek.
Comes from the word "hippopotamus.
" According to Mark, hippos are intelligent creatures.
They can be trained in much the same way a dog can.
Just don't try to play frisbee with one in your backyard.
Open.
Open.
Good girl.
Whoa.
[ Laughs .]
See, we don't feed her when she does stuff like that.
She's pretty much begging.
She still has the food in her mouth.
That's just bad manners.
She hasn't even chewed and swallowed yet.
Right.
Genny, down.
Good girl.
Open.
Open.
If you want to give her a drink, you can give her a drink.
Really? Go ahead.
Hose out her mouth there.
Does she like the spray, or does she like the jet? You can give her the jet.
Obviously, just don't hit her in the face.
Keep it on her mouth.
Open, genny.
Come on, you're gonna like it.
Good? Like the dentist.
Now spit.
[ Laughs .]
Oh, look at that.
This is weird.
Well, button is in a state of repose right now, but she's about to be released back into the exhibit, and that's accomplished through this This what, a hydraulic? Yes, these are.
All our doors here are operated under hydraulics.
The fuel, or whatever you want to call it, that runs through here, is vegetable oil.
So if we were to have a huge break in here, a big line would break, and the hippos were to It's not regular standard oil.
They could eat it.
Okay.
Well, first of all, we'll let genny back with button.
We'll open that door number 6, and then she'll come over, and then she'll come through the chute.
She's usually the first one to go through.
Then we'll open up door number 5 here.
Then we'll open up door number 11, and they'll go out.
Okay.
This is a scale? Yeah, this is a scale.
It is underneath the platform here, so when they come on here, it'll look at their weight there.
So the first one you want to do, door number 6.
Door number 6.
Push it up.
Just let it come all the way open there.
And we'll see her come in.
She sees the food there, so she's gonna stop a little bit and eat.
So, we'll take a look at her weight.
Wow, she put on a few.
Yeah, right around 3,085 3,090.
We'll open up when she's ready to go out.
When she starts to make her way out this way, we'll have you open up door number 11.
Hippos move when they're ready to move.
Yeah.
If you want to go ahead there, you can open up door number 11.
And 11 will take her all the way out.
Door number 11, here we go.
And there goes genny.
And there goes button.
A little fast.
In a hurry.
Then you can close 11.
Close 11.
It's a lot of work taking care of a couple of hippopotami, but there's a reward.
The hippos are happy to be back in their favorite pool, the crowd is happy to see them, and I'm happily looking forward to scrubbing the hippo poo from behind my ears as soon as I get back to my fancy hotel.
Next time you're in Camden, New Jersey, be sure to drop in, say hey to the hippos.
When you do, be especially kind to their keepers because they're the ones who are literally in deep doo-doo every time button and genny go to the bathroom.
Today I've come to yippee! Farms in mount joy, Pennsylvania, to learn about bovine podiatry, which means I'm gonna be giving some cows a manicure.
Or is it a pedicure? Either way, yippee.
I've been told you won't find mad cows anywhere at yippee! Farms.
Over 700 bovine beauties spend their time here eating, sleeping, and chewing their cud up to eight hours a day.
The amenities package at yippee! Farms includes everything from fresh wood chips spread over padded rubber mattresses to footbaths that are cleaned after every milking.
Ami sinay and his hoof-trimming team are on their way to care for 75 pregnant cows.
Trimming hooves since his childhood in Israel, ami now owns and sells custom hydraulic cow-tipping tables Designed to make hoof-trimming a pleasurable experience.
Properly trimmed hooves make happy cows.
Yeah, I'm gonna cut my hand off.
Who would have thought tipping cows makes them happy? Well, we got ourselves another family business here.
Haven't seen one like this before.
This is avi, and this is ami.
And these guys are professional hoof trimmers.
Why do cows need to have their hooves trimmed? 'Cause we want to keep the cows in good shape.
She need to be comfortable.
She's walking on concrete.
So, the cows are standing all day.
Their feet hurt.
Interesting.
Do they enjoy having their hooves trimmed? Some of them complain.
Because the cow on the back of the jacket you gave me looks very, very happy.
They're definitely happy after they're done.
So, we're gonna make some happy cows.
Well, that sounds great.
You've got a truck here that is not like any truck I've ever seen.
The cow goes inside this thing? The cow go inside.
We got the belly bent.
It's hydraulic.
Gonna hold the cow from the bottom.
Then we gonna lay the cow on the side, tie the feet, and we're gonna work on the feet.
We're gonna lift the cow up in the air? Yeah.
Hello, cows.
So, we get them one at a time, ami? Yeah.
The one that's laying down Maybe she got a problem.
Well, you got two at a time there.
Avi, avi, let's go.
Just smashed him right into the fence there.
Doesn't look good.
You almost got stampeded there, ami.
Good god, you got a cow in the air! You turn your back for one minute, and you got a flying cow.
That's a holstein cow.
How much does this cow weigh? Ami: 900, 800 pounds.
Hey, how you doing? Everything cool? 533 looks okay.
Why are these blue? This cow is ready to fresh pretty soon, to have a baby.
So, that's a treatment to treat the udder.
They're not gonna have infection.
Because you almost never see blue udders.
See how the hooves start to get twisted? She's a little bit overgrown.
So, the goal, then Is to clean the inside, to trim the inside, and to leave her to walk on the outside wall.
We start with a drawknife.
Draw? So, we clean the outside walls.
Make sure nothing's stuck between the claws.
They're literally cut all the way in half like that.
Cloven from start to finish.
And we start to work from the inside.
She doesn't feel it unless you go too deep.
You've got to be careful.
If they're never trimmed, these things would just grow like toenails? The cow not gonna be comfortable, she not gonna be able to eat, she not gonna produce, and most likely you're gonna lose the cow.
You're talking, they could grow out to here? Yeah.
So, you want to round the toes first.
Ami and his crew work from sunup to sundown trimming hooves.
It takes two trimmers for each cow.
[ Grunts .]
Didn't drink milk this morning, huh? No worries.
Happens at home sometimes, but never quite to that degree.
All the weight should be here.
Yeah, the outside walls and on the heels.
That doesn't smell too bad.
I've done this with horses before.
Theirs really stink.
A hoof knife is used to remove any food, stones, or bruises from these heifers' hooves.
Well, this is nice.
It's like a little French manicure there.
Do we put a little Polish on them? So, what we're seeing here is Israeli ingenuity at its finest.
This is great.
Still got the belly.
Now I'm losing it when she's on the ground.
Now she's totally on her own feet again with her fancy new hooves.
That's a nice little parting "hey, how are you?" I'm on my way to go get the most beautiful cow I can find.
Okay, beautiful cows.
Beautiful cow.
Come on, let's get a pedicure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll take any one of you at this point.
Look at that.
One goes, they all go.
It's like vomiting.
You can infect the whole room.
I got a big stick.
Got a big stick.
Yes, yes! Don't make me put my arm in your bottom.
I'll do it.
Through the miracle of modern technology.
Over 80,000 hooves are manicured on this fancy tipping-table every year.
Why am I out of breath? One cow.
A ceramic rod is used to sharpen the drawknife after each cow.
You start with the dull edge.
You dress the hoof.
Get off some of the caked poo.
Give me that.
This is better.
[ Laughs .]
Rowe: Like any craftsman or artist, ami makes it look so easy.
The tool is simply an extension of his hand The hoof, an extension of the cow The pee, all part of the price of admission.
What's that area there? That looks different.
It's a lack of calcium.
Just seems ironic that a cow would have a deficiency brought on by a lack of milk.
It's like white powder.
Very stinky.
Smell it.
Ugh! That's terrible.
It's always nice when a kid stops by to show you up.
Yeah, I see.
Never did this when I was growing up.
Just so we're clear, yavi here is Yav.
Yav.
Just yav? Yeah.
There's no "i" on the end? Oh.
Well, yav is the son of ami.
How old are you? You're gonna be a professional hoof clipper? Trimmer.
When you get older, or are you already kind of good at it now? No offense, but I think i'm a little better than you.
No offense.
No, no.
So, what are you doing now? Cleaning off the hooves.
You're pulling the poo out of the middle of a cloven hoof.
Pretty much.
How many other kids in your class are hoof trimmers? Mmm, none.
You've pretty much got a corner on the market.
Yeah.
Cool.
Don't understand what you just said, but I'm guessing it means you're the only one.
That's right.
You got a corner on the market.
He's in with the nippers.
He approaches the toe.
Uses two hands.
Can't say as I blame him.
The hoof is hard.
This is gonna be awkward if your classmates are watching.
Man! See, I was going through the same thing mere moments ago.
Kind of embarrassing, isn't it? Just clip that? See, I hate it when he does that.
He makes it look easy, doesn't he? Well, he's, you know, walking around with those cartoon hands of his.
Could probably snap it off with his thumb and forefinger if he wanted to.
The hand of a hoof trimmer.
I wonder which one's funner Giving a cow a pedicure or a girl a pedicure.
One day you'll know, my boy.
And you'll miss the cows.
No, I won't.
Smart aleck 11-year-old hoof trimmer.
I thought I'd seen it all.
Unless you say my name, they don't know who you mean by "smart aleck.
" I think they do.
Why do you ask so many questions? It's all part of the job.
You ever watch "dirty jobs?" Yes.
What do you think? I think it's kind of funny to see you get your shoe stuck in bat crap.
Did he just say bat [bleep.]
Ami: He did.
After a long day on their feet, these cows enjoy a soothing soak in a therapeutic footbath that rejuvenates their tired hooves.
The first bath is a natural mineral water, and the second offers a fine blend of copper sulfate, a chemical that binds the cows' hooves and prevents bacteria growth.
Rubber on my feet, rubber on my hands.
Once again.
This is Deborah.
Hi, Deborah.
Hey, Mike, how's it going? Everything is just ducky, thanks.
These are your cows, more or less, right? These are the girls.
The girls.
Okay.
You ready? I don't know.
For what? Well, we're gonna empty the footbath.
The footbath does look dirty, I will give you that.
It's the kind of jacuzzi you get a refund for.
Exactly.
Now lift it up.
And, oh, there she goes.
Let's put it up against this wall.
Uh-huh.
That's fantastic.
This is the job everybody volunteers for on the farm.
The footbath.
Yeah.
Now we take this.
Can you handle that? Are you kidding me? I live for this stuff.
And throw, 2, 3, 4.
And dip, 2, 3, 4.
Hey, that's a very ambitious Cadence you've got going there.
[ Laughs .]
Same thing with the next one.
Sure.
There you go.
You got it.
Hi, girls.
Yippee! Look at the girls are watching you.
I might have been showing off a little bit.
Girls love it when you take care of their feet.
Let's hope there's none in heat.
Okay.
Deborah's gone off to get the copper sulfate.
Take care of the cows' feet.
Rowe: Excellent.
It's very pretty.
Very festive.
Very good color.
We're done.
Rowe: Where does all the poo go here? It all gets recirculated.
It goes into that giant manure tank over there.
Then we take that, and we spread it out on all the fields.
After the cow manure is scraped from the barn floor into an underground pit, Deborah introduces me to her husband, arlin, who explains the manure-recycling process.
The poo that was falling through that crack is just everywhere under us? There's a pit under this whole platform here.
So don't bounce too hard.
What's this do? This is a pump that when it is rotated by the tractor, the p.
T.
O.
Will pump the manure up through this pipe and onto the spreader.
All right.
So, this is deep.
This is 12, 14 feet deep? 12 feet deep.
That's right.
What I need you to do is climb up the steps and stay up there and then you wave to me, and shout, scream, whatever, and let me know when it's full.
I can't tell you exactly how much poo arlin and Debbie's cows are capable of making, but I can tell you it's a lot.
The truck will give the crops a poo shower.
The crops will grow.
The cows will eat the crops, and the cycle is complete.
Yippee.
That is one rig you do not want to see jackknifed on the interstate.
Hey, dirty jobs are all over the place.
You just have to be willing to dig a little bit to find them.
So if you know something I should know, do me a favor.
Go to discovery.
Com/dirtyjobs and tell us all about it.
If it sounds like fun, I'll come out.
You and I will get dirty together.
Ow! That's it.
Thank you.
If my dad grounded me or something, and he said I could only watch one TV show, I'd probably pick this show.
What show? "Dirty jobs.
" And why is that? Because you embarrass yourself a lot and you eat things like maggots, and it's just funny to see your boot get stuck in bat crap.
It's just probably the best show I've ever seen.
Thanks? My name's Mike rowe, and I've put a pig on a pedestal.
Why? Because even though he works in the dirt, this noble creature is the embodiment of hard work, self-sacrifice, and a good-natured willingness to get the job done, no matter how dirty.
Day after day, he goes about his business without complaint.
And night after night, he brings home the bacon.
[ Pig snorts .]
I am sorry I said that.
What's on your pedestal?
I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty hardworking men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us.
Hey, hey, Mike come on back up here and get to work.
Quit playing around down there.
Now, get ready to get dirty.
Coming up on "dirty jobs" Rowe: This is insane.
Has it occurred to anyone to put pads down? Not really.
I get a piece of the rock and turn it into lots of little rocks at a Washington state rock quarry.
Where do you put the quarters? Look at that.
The job is digging stuff out of the ground, and it's so dirty, it'll blow your mind.
Fire in the hole! [ Explosion .]
Then This is really the first time I've ever gone after hippo poo like this.
I visit two hippopotami in New Jersey and learn that when things don't meet your expectations, it's not always bad.
I've seen worse.
For big giant animals, you got off kind of lucky.
Open.
And I hone my skills as a hippo whisperer.
Now spit.
And later, some people tip cows for fun.
Hoof trimmers? These guys do it for a living.
And if you think what's under your fingernails is nasty Get off some of the caked poo.
Could be her own.
Captions by vitac captions paid for by discovery communications Today I've come to the five mile rock quarry in Monroe, Washington, to meet the men who turn big rocks into little rocks.
Actually, if you've ever landed on a runway or driven down a freeway, you owe a debt of gratitude to these men, because I can't think of one single construction project that doesn't start with a firm foundation, and a firm foundation gets its start right here.
That's why we've come here today.
Also, they've promised to let me use lots of dynamite to blow up that hill behind me, which should be immensely gratifying.
In 1996, Max Boyd was harvesting timber from this hillside when underneath, he discovered a mother lode of basalt.
6 years, $1 million, and a whole lot of permits later, he turned this side of the hill into the quarry we see today.
With dangerous dynamite and heavy machinery involved, the key part of doing this job safely is keeping the equipment well-maintained.
So, before we start moving rock, there's a little janitorial work to do.
So, you got yourself a dirty machine there, huh, Max? Yeah.
A screen deck, Mike.
The screen deck.
Now, I understand that this basically sort of cleans the rocks as they come out? Well, what it does, it separates them, and it pulls the dirt out of our rocks that are going down to the cone crusher so we don't contaminate our finished product with dirt.
This doesn't look so dirty.
How do you clean it? What we do here Let me move this over Inside this flap Oh, inside.
Oh, sure.
The dirt builds up and blinds them, basically, is what we call it.
That looks like hardened that almost looks like concrete.
It's kind of like concrete and cement.
It's hard dirt.
So my job is to crawl in here on my belly with a highly sophisticated tool With a shovel and a sledgehammer.
Your job is to keep the mud flap up.
Yeah, and keep an eye on you.
Great.
This is the perfect job for anybody who happens to be, mmm, six inches tall.
Hey, Max? How's your arm doing? My arm's doing great.
You're not cramped up too bad? No.
You're okay? [ Grunts .]
This is insane, actually.
Has it occurred to anyone to put pads down? Not really.
There are many bad jobs in a rock quarry.
Cleaning a rock screener is in the top 1.
Like a cheese grater.
With the screen deck clean Well, cleaner It's time to get acquainted with some rock-moving equipment.
That is a giant What is that, a cat? That's a caterpillar 375 excavator.
So, what's the operator doing down here right now? Right now, he's getting crusher feed ready to go.
It'll go into our haul truck and then up to the crusher, dumped in the crusher to make crushed rock.
So, the area, that face we're looking at now, essentially, all of that is gonna get blown backwards this way? All that's gonna get lifted and blown this direction, yes.
How would you feel about letting me try and run a $750,000 machine? As long as you don't break it, let's do it.
You're Jimmy? Yes, sir.
Man, this is a handsome machine you got.
Thank you.
How long you been driving this thing? I've been on this one for about 2 1/2 years, but I've run these machines for about 30.
What's your basic job? What's the purpose of this machine? After the shot goes off, we pick the big stuff out.
You're constantly cleaning up after those guys.
There you go.
You're the cleaner.
I guess.
Well, how long will it take you to get me up to speed? I can show you what it does to run it in minutes.
And then just a little seat time, and you'll have it.
Right on.
All right.
So, the job is going to be to fill that truck over there with this rock.
Correct.
Can I practice? That's a good idea before you try to load a truck, is get the feel of what it takes to maneuver.
Whole thing is run by hydraulics.
Yeah, right.
It runs on hydraulics.
Let me focus on the joystick.
On the gaming element.
Yes, it's like a video game.
Where do you put the quarters? How much weight you reckon is in there right now? About 500 pounds.
Just a bucket of crumbs.
Bucket of crumbs.
Just boom down till you set it on the ground.
Then you want to pull towards you gently and scoop at the same time.
Hey, you've done this before.
Ah, well, you know.
Now just boom up.
Then just dump it from this height? That'd be fine.
Right hand toward the window.
Okay.
It's just a big toy in a big sandbox.
Got away from me.
[ Laughs .]
Wait a minute.
Huh.
There she rolls.
See, I meant to do that.
Having mastered the use of the shovel, and I use the term loosely Oh.
Oh, look at that.
I didn't really think the whole "gravity" thing through.
Time to put my newfound skills to work loading up the truck.
The truck looks a little nervous.
Who's driving the truck? Who's driving the truck? That's Brad.
That Brad's a brave man.
Yeah, I would say so.
Let her go? Slowly.
You're off and running.
Think about doing this as a kid? Oh, I used to love it.
I hope my dad's watching.
Hi, Brad.
Brad hauls the rock I loaded off to the crusher, where these boulders will be smashed into a marketable gravel.
Meanwhile, the preparations are drawing to a close on the hillside for the next dynamite blast, and it's time for me to get up there and lend a helping hand.
I don't see what could possibly go wrong.
So, basically, John, in a little while, all this is gonna be gone.
Yep.
It's gonna look like that down there.
Who's this? This is Brandon babcage, blaster in charge.
Brandon The blaster in charge.
What are you doing, exactly? What we're doing is loading the hole.
I just dropped the booster down.
The booster actually sets the blasting agent out, which is emulsion.
Blasting agent? If I clap my hands now, will I blow up? It's very stable.
Really? Well, how does it work? What makes it explode? The cap sets the booster off.
The booster sets the blasting agent.
It burns at a super-fast rate.
So, if a match were to hit this? Nope.
It's got to be the booster.
What's the booster look like? Just like this.
But there's a bigger one in the bottom.
The top cap is a safety booster.
In case there's a cutoff in the column of emulsion, 25 milliseconds later, this will set off the rest of the column.
That way there's no leftover product.
How many columns, or holes, has John drilled up here? Roughly 55, 60 holes on the shot.
How long did it take you to drill 55 holes in one shot? Day and a half.
How long will it take you to fill all the holes he drilled? Roughly four hours.
How long will it take for all of this to fall down once somebody presses a button? Milliseconds.
Gonna put the hose down the hole.
Run it to the bottom of the hole.
Man, how deep is this hole, John? 42 feet.
Okay, you're at the bottom now.
Pull up about a foot.
And then you're gonna yell at Mike to go.
All right, Mike, let her have it! At the flip of a switch, liquid dynamite starts pumping through the hose and into the ground.
So if I'm not mistaken, I have something very explosive between my legs.
Yes, you do.
There are over 50 holes drilled into the hillside for this blast, and each one is about 40 feet deep.
Into them, we pump 15,000 yards of dynamite.
Costs about $1.
40 per yard.
That's over $20,000 worth of dynamite for one blast to bring this hillside down.
Man: 160 pounds.
We are ready to shoot.
I'm gonna turn it on.
This is an r.
C.
B.
M.
Remote-controlled blasting machine.
What's this thing? "Brandon's house.
" It is for protection for that so rocks don't crush our expensive little unit there.
How much is this thing? $4,000 or $5,000.
There's no sense in wrecking that.
Do I close it? Yep.
Okay.
Little antenna sticks out.
And this gets plugged back in.
That happens here.
We're gonna send a radio frequency from down the hill.
It's gonna go in that antenna, the antenna's gonna trigger the spark, spark goes down the wire Chain reaction starts.
Hillside falls down, great big rocks come flying everywhere.
But the remote-controlled blasting unit is protected by Brandon's house of fun.
Now we need to secure the area and get down the hill.
This area looks secure.
No, we got to run everything out and make sure there's not a soul in here, and we'll be the last ones to come out.
Isn't it kind of like every man for himself at this point? No.
Doesn't work that way.
This is not like the movies where you get one of those little boxes and you push it down and watch everything explode while you crouch behind a rock.
We've got to go way down the road and get to a safe place.
So, we've secured our cameras here right now.
The area's completely safe.
Only an idiot Doug, for god's sakes, are you done? Only an idiot would linger.
[ Alarm blows .]
You're blocking the highway down there? Yeah.
[ Alarm continues .]
So, everybody in the area is being warned that there's gonna be an explosion.
The highway behind us has been shut down, and we're, what, 1/2 a mile, 3/4 of a mile from the action? Yeah, roughly.
And it's time to go soon as we're told on the c.
B.
That the road has been ran and it's clear.
When he gets word, we've got this transmitter, basically.
And you're gonna shoot her.
Alls you have to do, hit "arm," flip the switch, and then hit the button.
Okay.
All yours.
Are we good? Got to yell "fire in the hole," so everyone knows, though.
Okay.
So, here, stay with me, Brandon.
First I'm gonna hit "arm.
" You're gonna arm it.
[ Beeping .]
So, right now, the boxes are communicating.
I'm gonna flip this up.
All right, folks.
Four-second delay after you hit the button.
Four-second delay.
I'll find something to do with four seconds.
Fire in the hole! 1 2 3 Good to be down here.
Yeah.
Look at that.
Thing came flying through the air.
Looks like it hit right there.
So, did it more or less do what you wanted it to do? I haven't looked at the face yet, but, yeah, that's pretty average shot here.
Well, the back of it doesn't look so hot.
This is a little game we like to call "find the camera.
" Doug, our director of photography, lovingly placed a very expensive camera right at the bottom of the explosive shelf with a deck that now has a tape inside full of really remarkable footage you'll never see.
He's taking it kind of hard.
And so ends my day at the quarry One-ton boulders turned into giant rocks eventually reduced into 2-inch crush, otherwise known as the stuff that holds our world together.
Max, you found our camera.
Found your camera, Mike.
Oh.
Yeah.
Thanks.
You're welcome.
[ Laughs .]
Say hi to button, hippopotamus amphibius, all the way from west Africa.
Button eats about 60 pounds of hay every single day.
She weighs about 3,000 pounds.
And she poos Everywhere.
The hippopotamus' natural habitat is in the rivers of Africa, but these two hippos, button and genny, call Camden, New Jersey, home.
Here at the adventure aquarium, anyone with a ticket can spend an afternoon watching these magnificent creatures frolic in a re-creation of their indigenous African environment.
But, though everything through the glass appears to be natural, in reality, what you see at the aquarium is a grand theatrical production starring one of nature's most temperamental prima Donnas.
Behind the scenes, it takes a team of trained biologists working day and night to keep the stars of this show healthy, happy, and clean.
Typically, it all begins with a little poo-mopping, as Ann Marie is about to demonstrate.
Rowe: What's the name? Ann Marie: Bolus.
A bolus.
Again, that means what, precisely? Poo.
Call it what you will, here at the bottom of the hippo pool, a lot of it has coagulated.
Yes.
Tools of the trade in this case? Is that a squeegee? Squeegee with the bristles on it.
And a pitchfork.
All right, so, we start at one end and just push everything to the drain.
And you have to clear the drain as it gets full of poo.
Gotcha.
I really was expecting hippo poo to just be somehow more horrifying.
But really, you know, after the water hits it, these bolus break down, and it's just urine and some straw.
Little bit of poo.
I've seen worse.
Yeah, me too.
For big giant animals, let's face it.
You got off kind of lucky.
My lucky day.
So, this is basically one hippo over what period of time? This is two hippos overnight Since 5:00 last night.
Is it the one over there and the one over here? They use both sides.
So their poo is comingled.
Oh, yes.
We clean it every day.
We clean everything every day and disinfect it, and then this gets filled with fresh water, and then they come in at 5:00.
They really have it pretty good here, don't they? You're doing a fine job.
Thanks.
The squeegee was quite an invention when you think about it.
All right, it might be just about time to start slinging it.
Start slinging the poo? Yep.
Excellent.
It's easy to forget when you're visiting a zoo or an aquarium just how much physical labor is expended to keep things running smoothly.
You have pretty good aim.
And inevitably, a good bit of that labor involves rearranging the poop into more manageable piles.
Did I do that? Cleaning out the hippos' indoor holding pens turns out to be the easy part of the job.
Out in the exhibition area, the beasts have a penchant for pooping at the bottom of their swimming pool.
And with 60,000 gallons of water inside, this is one toilet you can't flush on a daily basis.
So, poop-scooping after the hippopotami turns into a diving expedition.
One of the other trained biologists here at the aquarium is Mark.
Mark here has specifically been trained in the retrieval of hippopotamus poo.
That's correct.
What are we gonna find in there, specifically? Most of it is a lot of hay, which is part of their diet.
So when they poop, it comes in these big clumps that they call boluses, and when those float in the water You might find some down in the bottom But some of it just kind of separates, and it's a lot of hay, and it gets stuck in one area, so we're gonna go down, and we'll take our nets and scoop that out.
Okay.
Some guys dive for treasure.
I don't see what could possibly go wrong.
Did you spit in your mask? No, I didn't.
I thought they just did that in the movies.
No.
Anybody ever drown picking up poop? Uh, you might be the first.
I'm sure I will.
What kind of fish are these? These are African sicklid fish.
Sicklids? Sicklids, yes.
These fish will actually also feed on hippo poop.
Really? With their enormous size and a rather touchy sense of territoriality, the hippos make extremely dangerous diving partners.
So, while we're in the water, they're locked away inside the holding area.
Though designed to resemble an African river or lake, this tank is in fact a technological marvel whose key feature is a filtration system that sucks the hippo poo down into a trench-like drain.
Later, a human is assigned the menial task of opening up the filters and scooping the poop out with big butterfly nets.
Today, that would be me.
So now we get the nets? Yep.
Okay, boys.
Rowe: Thanks, Ann Marie.
Oh, you're welcome.
Thanks for my poo net.
I'm gonna follow you.
Okay.
'Cause this is really the first time I've ever gone after hippo poo like this.
Let's go dive for some buried poop.
He makes it sound good.
When you take scuba lessons, you fantasize about diving with tropical fish in The Bahamas, exploring the hulls of wrecked ships, maybe even searching for gold.
A little further down on the list Ferrying hippopotamus poo to the surface of their aquarium tank.
Rowe: I got some poop.
I got to say, though, it looks mainly like straw.
Is the poo just kind of dissolved up in there? Yeah, pretty much the water gets through most of the poop, so it's a lot of just hay.
But it don't smell like hay.
It's kind of awkward down there, but weirdly beautiful, the way the hay and the poo kick up around you.
All right.
Shall we get some more? Mark: Ready to make another trip? I'm ready.
You know, I've seen a lot of poop.
Trust me, this could be worse.
If you think about it, hippo poo looks more like what's left in the bottom of a bowl of shredded wheat than your run-of-the-mill feces.
There's got to be a lot of hippo pee in here, too.
You didn't get any in your mouth, did you? I got a lot in my mouth.
I got some in my stomach.
I'm pretty sure.
In the wild, hippos emerge at night onto dry land to eat over 100 pounds of grass in a single serving.
Then, before dawn, they slip back down the riverbank into the water, where they start making this stuff.
In the wild, the currents of the river carry the poo away.
Here in the aquarium, that's a dirty job for divers who aren't too squeamish to play the part of a human toilet brush.
Gotcha.
There.
Ann Marie: You got a little extra present in there, too.
They don't really chew their food, do they? Well, that one didn't go all the way through.
Are you sure? Yeah.
So, really, the hippos I mean, they're kind of kept in little quadrants and controlled slowly.
Yes, right now they are.
They did have access to the pool, but now when we're getting ready to feed them, we separate them so they each get the right amount of food.
So we'll put one on one side and one on the other.
This is a dinosaur.
Yeah.
Now, which one This is genny.
Look at the mouth on this thing.
Good grief.
Open their mouth almost four feet wide, almost 180 degrees they can open their mouth.
Why are we wearing the same clothes, by the way? This is a way just that they're They're used to seeing these same clothes every day, me and Ann Marie, when we come in here and we work with them.
It keeps them calm, just so you don't stand out.
Just don't want you to be too much of a stranger.
You mentioned before more people are killed by hippopotamus in the wild.
That's correct.
Hippos are responsible for the most human deaths in Africa.
Is it because they're underestimated or just cranky? A lot of the problems I think that they have is people would be going down the river in their boats, hippos come up to the surface to get a breath, and people get knocked out of their boats And drown.
Now, these guys, can they swim? Or are they so heavy they just sink to the bottom of the river? These guys are actually too dense to float, so they will constantly be sinking down to the bottom.
So when they move along the bottom, they kind of gallop.
That's why they're called the river horse in Greek.
Comes from the word "hippopotamus.
" According to Mark, hippos are intelligent creatures.
They can be trained in much the same way a dog can.
Just don't try to play frisbee with one in your backyard.
Open.
Open.
Good girl.
Whoa.
[ Laughs .]
See, we don't feed her when she does stuff like that.
She's pretty much begging.
She still has the food in her mouth.
That's just bad manners.
She hasn't even chewed and swallowed yet.
Right.
Genny, down.
Good girl.
Open.
Open.
If you want to give her a drink, you can give her a drink.
Really? Go ahead.
Hose out her mouth there.
Does she like the spray, or does she like the jet? You can give her the jet.
Obviously, just don't hit her in the face.
Keep it on her mouth.
Open, genny.
Come on, you're gonna like it.
Good? Like the dentist.
Now spit.
[ Laughs .]
Oh, look at that.
This is weird.
Well, button is in a state of repose right now, but she's about to be released back into the exhibit, and that's accomplished through this This what, a hydraulic? Yes, these are.
All our doors here are operated under hydraulics.
The fuel, or whatever you want to call it, that runs through here, is vegetable oil.
So if we were to have a huge break in here, a big line would break, and the hippos were to It's not regular standard oil.
They could eat it.
Okay.
Well, first of all, we'll let genny back with button.
We'll open that door number 6, and then she'll come over, and then she'll come through the chute.
She's usually the first one to go through.
Then we'll open up door number 5 here.
Then we'll open up door number 11, and they'll go out.
Okay.
This is a scale? Yeah, this is a scale.
It is underneath the platform here, so when they come on here, it'll look at their weight there.
So the first one you want to do, door number 6.
Door number 6.
Push it up.
Just let it come all the way open there.
And we'll see her come in.
She sees the food there, so she's gonna stop a little bit and eat.
So, we'll take a look at her weight.
Wow, she put on a few.
Yeah, right around 3,085 3,090.
We'll open up when she's ready to go out.
When she starts to make her way out this way, we'll have you open up door number 11.
Hippos move when they're ready to move.
Yeah.
If you want to go ahead there, you can open up door number 11.
And 11 will take her all the way out.
Door number 11, here we go.
And there goes genny.
And there goes button.
A little fast.
In a hurry.
Then you can close 11.
Close 11.
It's a lot of work taking care of a couple of hippopotami, but there's a reward.
The hippos are happy to be back in their favorite pool, the crowd is happy to see them, and I'm happily looking forward to scrubbing the hippo poo from behind my ears as soon as I get back to my fancy hotel.
Next time you're in Camden, New Jersey, be sure to drop in, say hey to the hippos.
When you do, be especially kind to their keepers because they're the ones who are literally in deep doo-doo every time button and genny go to the bathroom.
Today I've come to yippee! Farms in mount joy, Pennsylvania, to learn about bovine podiatry, which means I'm gonna be giving some cows a manicure.
Or is it a pedicure? Either way, yippee.
I've been told you won't find mad cows anywhere at yippee! Farms.
Over 700 bovine beauties spend their time here eating, sleeping, and chewing their cud up to eight hours a day.
The amenities package at yippee! Farms includes everything from fresh wood chips spread over padded rubber mattresses to footbaths that are cleaned after every milking.
Ami sinay and his hoof-trimming team are on their way to care for 75 pregnant cows.
Trimming hooves since his childhood in Israel, ami now owns and sells custom hydraulic cow-tipping tables Designed to make hoof-trimming a pleasurable experience.
Properly trimmed hooves make happy cows.
Yeah, I'm gonna cut my hand off.
Who would have thought tipping cows makes them happy? Well, we got ourselves another family business here.
Haven't seen one like this before.
This is avi, and this is ami.
And these guys are professional hoof trimmers.
Why do cows need to have their hooves trimmed? 'Cause we want to keep the cows in good shape.
She need to be comfortable.
She's walking on concrete.
So, the cows are standing all day.
Their feet hurt.
Interesting.
Do they enjoy having their hooves trimmed? Some of them complain.
Because the cow on the back of the jacket you gave me looks very, very happy.
They're definitely happy after they're done.
So, we're gonna make some happy cows.
Well, that sounds great.
You've got a truck here that is not like any truck I've ever seen.
The cow goes inside this thing? The cow go inside.
We got the belly bent.
It's hydraulic.
Gonna hold the cow from the bottom.
Then we gonna lay the cow on the side, tie the feet, and we're gonna work on the feet.
We're gonna lift the cow up in the air? Yeah.
Hello, cows.
So, we get them one at a time, ami? Yeah.
The one that's laying down Maybe she got a problem.
Well, you got two at a time there.
Avi, avi, let's go.
Just smashed him right into the fence there.
Doesn't look good.
You almost got stampeded there, ami.
Good god, you got a cow in the air! You turn your back for one minute, and you got a flying cow.
That's a holstein cow.
How much does this cow weigh? Ami: 900, 800 pounds.
Hey, how you doing? Everything cool? 533 looks okay.
Why are these blue? This cow is ready to fresh pretty soon, to have a baby.
So, that's a treatment to treat the udder.
They're not gonna have infection.
Because you almost never see blue udders.
See how the hooves start to get twisted? She's a little bit overgrown.
So, the goal, then Is to clean the inside, to trim the inside, and to leave her to walk on the outside wall.
We start with a drawknife.
Draw? So, we clean the outside walls.
Make sure nothing's stuck between the claws.
They're literally cut all the way in half like that.
Cloven from start to finish.
And we start to work from the inside.
She doesn't feel it unless you go too deep.
You've got to be careful.
If they're never trimmed, these things would just grow like toenails? The cow not gonna be comfortable, she not gonna be able to eat, she not gonna produce, and most likely you're gonna lose the cow.
You're talking, they could grow out to here? Yeah.
So, you want to round the toes first.
Ami and his crew work from sunup to sundown trimming hooves.
It takes two trimmers for each cow.
[ Grunts .]
Didn't drink milk this morning, huh? No worries.
Happens at home sometimes, but never quite to that degree.
All the weight should be here.
Yeah, the outside walls and on the heels.
That doesn't smell too bad.
I've done this with horses before.
Theirs really stink.
A hoof knife is used to remove any food, stones, or bruises from these heifers' hooves.
Well, this is nice.
It's like a little French manicure there.
Do we put a little Polish on them? So, what we're seeing here is Israeli ingenuity at its finest.
This is great.
Still got the belly.
Now I'm losing it when she's on the ground.
Now she's totally on her own feet again with her fancy new hooves.
That's a nice little parting "hey, how are you?" I'm on my way to go get the most beautiful cow I can find.
Okay, beautiful cows.
Beautiful cow.
Come on, let's get a pedicure.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll take any one of you at this point.
Look at that.
One goes, they all go.
It's like vomiting.
You can infect the whole room.
I got a big stick.
Got a big stick.
Yes, yes! Don't make me put my arm in your bottom.
I'll do it.
Through the miracle of modern technology.
Over 80,000 hooves are manicured on this fancy tipping-table every year.
Why am I out of breath? One cow.
A ceramic rod is used to sharpen the drawknife after each cow.
You start with the dull edge.
You dress the hoof.
Get off some of the caked poo.
Give me that.
This is better.
[ Laughs .]
Rowe: Like any craftsman or artist, ami makes it look so easy.
The tool is simply an extension of his hand The hoof, an extension of the cow The pee, all part of the price of admission.
What's that area there? That looks different.
It's a lack of calcium.
Just seems ironic that a cow would have a deficiency brought on by a lack of milk.
It's like white powder.
Very stinky.
Smell it.
Ugh! That's terrible.
It's always nice when a kid stops by to show you up.
Yeah, I see.
Never did this when I was growing up.
Just so we're clear, yavi here is Yav.
Yav.
Just yav? Yeah.
There's no "i" on the end? Oh.
Well, yav is the son of ami.
How old are you? You're gonna be a professional hoof clipper? Trimmer.
When you get older, or are you already kind of good at it now? No offense, but I think i'm a little better than you.
No offense.
No, no.
So, what are you doing now? Cleaning off the hooves.
You're pulling the poo out of the middle of a cloven hoof.
Pretty much.
How many other kids in your class are hoof trimmers? Mmm, none.
You've pretty much got a corner on the market.
Yeah.
Cool.
Don't understand what you just said, but I'm guessing it means you're the only one.
That's right.
You got a corner on the market.
He's in with the nippers.
He approaches the toe.
Uses two hands.
Can't say as I blame him.
The hoof is hard.
This is gonna be awkward if your classmates are watching.
Man! See, I was going through the same thing mere moments ago.
Kind of embarrassing, isn't it? Just clip that? See, I hate it when he does that.
He makes it look easy, doesn't he? Well, he's, you know, walking around with those cartoon hands of his.
Could probably snap it off with his thumb and forefinger if he wanted to.
The hand of a hoof trimmer.
I wonder which one's funner Giving a cow a pedicure or a girl a pedicure.
One day you'll know, my boy.
And you'll miss the cows.
No, I won't.
Smart aleck 11-year-old hoof trimmer.
I thought I'd seen it all.
Unless you say my name, they don't know who you mean by "smart aleck.
" I think they do.
Why do you ask so many questions? It's all part of the job.
You ever watch "dirty jobs?" Yes.
What do you think? I think it's kind of funny to see you get your shoe stuck in bat crap.
Did he just say bat [bleep.]
Ami: He did.
After a long day on their feet, these cows enjoy a soothing soak in a therapeutic footbath that rejuvenates their tired hooves.
The first bath is a natural mineral water, and the second offers a fine blend of copper sulfate, a chemical that binds the cows' hooves and prevents bacteria growth.
Rubber on my feet, rubber on my hands.
Once again.
This is Deborah.
Hi, Deborah.
Hey, Mike, how's it going? Everything is just ducky, thanks.
These are your cows, more or less, right? These are the girls.
The girls.
Okay.
You ready? I don't know.
For what? Well, we're gonna empty the footbath.
The footbath does look dirty, I will give you that.
It's the kind of jacuzzi you get a refund for.
Exactly.
Now lift it up.
And, oh, there she goes.
Let's put it up against this wall.
Uh-huh.
That's fantastic.
This is the job everybody volunteers for on the farm.
The footbath.
Yeah.
Now we take this.
Can you handle that? Are you kidding me? I live for this stuff.
And throw, 2, 3, 4.
And dip, 2, 3, 4.
Hey, that's a very ambitious Cadence you've got going there.
[ Laughs .]
Same thing with the next one.
Sure.
There you go.
You got it.
Hi, girls.
Yippee! Look at the girls are watching you.
I might have been showing off a little bit.
Girls love it when you take care of their feet.
Let's hope there's none in heat.
Okay.
Deborah's gone off to get the copper sulfate.
Take care of the cows' feet.
Rowe: Excellent.
It's very pretty.
Very festive.
Very good color.
We're done.
Rowe: Where does all the poo go here? It all gets recirculated.
It goes into that giant manure tank over there.
Then we take that, and we spread it out on all the fields.
After the cow manure is scraped from the barn floor into an underground pit, Deborah introduces me to her husband, arlin, who explains the manure-recycling process.
The poo that was falling through that crack is just everywhere under us? There's a pit under this whole platform here.
So don't bounce too hard.
What's this do? This is a pump that when it is rotated by the tractor, the p.
T.
O.
Will pump the manure up through this pipe and onto the spreader.
All right.
So, this is deep.
This is 12, 14 feet deep? 12 feet deep.
That's right.
What I need you to do is climb up the steps and stay up there and then you wave to me, and shout, scream, whatever, and let me know when it's full.
I can't tell you exactly how much poo arlin and Debbie's cows are capable of making, but I can tell you it's a lot.
The truck will give the crops a poo shower.
The crops will grow.
The cows will eat the crops, and the cycle is complete.
Yippee.
That is one rig you do not want to see jackknifed on the interstate.
Hey, dirty jobs are all over the place.
You just have to be willing to dig a little bit to find them.
So if you know something I should know, do me a favor.
Go to discovery.
Com/dirtyjobs and tell us all about it.
If it sounds like fun, I'll come out.
You and I will get dirty together.
Ow! That's it.
Thank you.
If my dad grounded me or something, and he said I could only watch one TV show, I'd probably pick this show.
What show? "Dirty jobs.
" And why is that? Because you embarrass yourself a lot and you eat things like maggots, and it's just funny to see your boot get stuck in bat crap.
It's just probably the best show I've ever seen.
Thanks? My name's Mike rowe, and I've put a pig on a pedestal.
Why? Because even though he works in the dirt, this noble creature is the embodiment of hard work, self-sacrifice, and a good-natured willingness to get the job done, no matter how dirty.
Day after day, he goes about his business without complaint.
And night after night, he brings home the bacon.
[ Pig snorts .]
I am sorry I said that.
What's on your pedestal?