The British Settler who owned our land had a huge cattle dip for his livestock. The huge vat was for cows and the smaller one was for sheep. The Cooperative Society earmarked such facilities for public use so that all farmers could have access to them. Thursday was Cattle dip day in our Settlement Scheme. Farmers from all over drove their cows to the cattle dip for this once a week ‘bathing’ ritual. From early morning to midday, roads were filled with cows going to and from the cattle dip.
This continued for years until one time in the 1980s, OlKalou cows were struck by the dreaded foot and mouth disease and another viral infection, spreading like wild fire and wiping out entire herds in a matter of months. Farmers were devastated. The Cattle dip attributed to the spread of the disease because every cow in the Settlement Scheme bathed there weekly, cross contaminating every animal. Farmers buried carcasses of their precious cows on a daily basis, sometimes multiple cows in one day.
There was a gloomy cloud hanging over OlKalou for quite some time. The vibrancy of cows going to the cattle dip on Thursdays, the daily early morning gathering at the milk collection center, the milk collection truck thundering down the rural roads every morning, all died down to an eerie quiet. The only cows that survived were the calves that were too young to go to the cattle dip, and were grazing separate from the grown animals. For the first time in OlKalou, there was a shortage of milk.
