Losing Ground

I've been subtly pushing for a calf barn for the last few months. I almost had them convinced. We were to the point where we were picking out a spot for it to go and researching what type of barn we wanted.

So what happened?

Well, in the process of finding a spot for my barn (our farm yard is full of buildings, so anything new pretty much either goes in the yard of the house or in the field) the guys found a spot to build a sick pen and a bathroom. They decided they could move some of my existing calf pens and add on to the holding pen for the parlor. Their building needs take precedence over mine.

If that wasn't enough, they looked at my death loss and it's something like 1% and most of those were things I couldn't help. A couple of them were illnesses that I didn't catch in time, but the others tended to be things like clostridia, which has no treatment. So I'm losing out on my building because I do too good of a job. Go figure.

I'm still fighting. Our calf hutches are wearing out and some are in desperate need of repair, but at this point I'm fighting a losing battle. It's not a total loss though. They did decide to buy a milk mixer that I can haul on a golf cart instead of making numerous trips with pails in my wagon. I don't mind the wagon some times. We could all use the exercise, but for about 9 months out of the year, I'm hauling the wagon through mud or snow and that is tiring.

My hope was that a calf barn would make my life easier and be better for our calves. Our calves stay clean and dry in our hutches, but it's hard to see if they are in need of bedding, or if they are sick when it's dark out. In the winter, animals also drink more water, but it's hard for me to get them water. It means hauling water in pails through the snow and mud and then dealing with pails full of ice. That was my biggest hope for a calf barn, that I'd be able to give them water every day since I could fill the pails with a hose and it wouldn't be such a long haul to thaw out the pails later. For now I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. There's always next year!