Spring has Sprung!

Spring has finally arrived!  Pat has been busy digging and planting corn.  We haven't seen much of him in the last few days.

Spring also means baby chicks!  This year we decided to add a few ducks to the flock.  It's been a few years since we've had ducks.  We don't raise a lot of birds.  We tried to sell some last year but what we have to sell them for to break even is a bit higher than most people are willing to pay.  So we'll stick to raising them for ourselves.

 We moved them out of their tub into a plastic calf hutch.  We can't let them roam, or they will become really expensive dog treats, so we have an area penned off where they can roam and 2 hutches for shelter.  It works well.

 Shelby loves the chicks.  As soon as we set foot outside she asks "chicks?"  She tries to pick them up and then squeals at them.

Tate is our chicken whisperer.  He'll just quietly stick out his hand with some feed and they'll come up to him and start pecking away.

The Milk Debate

Look at this!  4 days in a row!

Anywhoodle, since Shelby is not yet 2, and she's tiny, she is on whole milk.  She goes through a lot of milk so instead of buying 2 kinds, I switched us all to whole milk.  We were going through over 3 gallons every 2 weeks.  It got to the point where I finally stopped and asked myself why I am buying milk.  So I stopped buying milk.  We've gone to tank milk and I'm wondering why it took me so long to do this.  The taste!  Oh my goodness!  If you haven't had milk straight from the tank, you are missing out.  There is so much flavor!  We have a plate cooler, and our milk is constantly agitated, so the milk comes out mixed and ice cold, no shaking involved.  I fill a gallon jug about every other day.  It certainly saves on trips to the store and money.

The County Fair, Part 2

Pat hated showing cattle growing up.  Well, he didn't hate the showing part, it was all the prep work.  It takes a lot of work to get an animal show ready.  Kids spend months walking their animal and working with it.  Then there is clipping, cleaning, brushing, pampering, etc.  It's a ton of work.  We decided that if our kids want to show, great.  If they don't, that's fine too, but they do need to try it.

Since I am new at showing animals, I didn't want to bring one to the fair this year.  I didn't know what was going on and I wanted to get a feel for it before I was thrown into it.  I registered Cole for the dairy show, but wasn't sure if he'd participate.  His good friend's cousin, C, was going to let us use one of her calves, so I decided he'd try it this year.  All we had to do was show up.  The show was on Thursday.  On Wednesday, I dropped Cole off to work with C and Renae.  He was nervous.  I felt bad leaving him there, but knew he'd be in good hands.  Sure enough, when I went to pick him up, he and his buddy were scooping poop and having a great time.  While I was gone, Cole and C were interviewed for the paper while they were out walking Renae.

On Thursday we showed up for the show, minus the white pants, which apparently is a thing for showing dairy that my husband informed me of 30 minutes prior to show.  Probably a good thing, I would have spent months searching for white pants in a boys 6, had I known.  The show went fine.  There were 5 cloverbuds that participated.

Talking with the judge

They walked the animals in the arena (parents were in control), talked with the judge, lined the animals up, and walked them back out.  All of the calves were very well behaved and the judge was great.  

It was a good experience for Cole, but the best part was the prep work.  As much time as we spent at the fair, and it felt like a lot, not once did I run into a group of kids sitting together texting on their phones.  In fact, I only saw one kid on a cell phone the entire time, and he was talking on it.  Instead, they spent their time talking to each other, playing games, running around the fair, and helping each other with their animals.  These are the kids I want him to look up to.  These are the kids that know the value of hard work, are good leaders, and good role models.  These are the reasons I hope he sticks with showing cattle.

The County Fair, Part 1

We enrolled Cole in 4-H this year.  He was a Cloverbud, which is essentially learning years.  They can take whatever they want to the fair, perfect or not and get a participation ribbon.  Cole brought 3 projects.  He brought some cucumbers, which he was pretty "meh" about.  I made him put together a photo book about our trip up north and actually made him hand write captions for the photos, cuz I'm mean like that.  He did fairly well about talking to the judge with the book, once he got into it.  His favorite project was this:

Farmall 450 tractor hood

He refinished the tractor hood with very little help.  He is very proud of it.  He got a lot of comments about it the day we brought it in too.

He also showed 2 calves.  This is Renae, we borrowed her from a friend so we wouldn't have to keep an animal at the fair all week.

He also brought his calf, Rocket, for the Cloverbud pet show.  He was the only Cloverbud to participate, but he worked hard to get Rocket ready for the fair.  It was good for him to put the work in himself and see what it takes to get an animal ready.

Tate got to bring a couple of projects too and help bring Rocket into the arena.  They had a lot of fun, but it was an incredibly busy week.  If the fair wasn't enough, they also had VBS at church this last week.

My sister mentioned that she thought we weren't going to have Cole show an animal.  Stay tuned for my response!  :)

Merry Christmas to Me

I got a steam juicer for Christmas.  What I really wanted is this:



but they are really expensive.  You can buy a kit for the wood part pretty easily and cheaply, but it's the grinder and the press that are going to cost you, a lot.

So the steam juicer will work just fine :)

I bought some apples the other day to try apple juice first.  I bought red delicious, but the juice had about as much flavor as the apples, very little. Next time I'd try a better apple, or a combination.  I also tried orange juice.  One word: Gross!  It was like drinking orange peel.  Yesterday I made beef broth.  We get beef short ribs with our beef, but they are always tough and not terribly meaty.  I've tried tons of different ways of cooking them, but always with the same results.  I ended up with 3 cups of beef broth and very tender, juicy, shredded beef.  That was definitely a win.  Up next: pears!

Life and Death

So, I am rewriting the original post, sorry.  I got some misinformation yesterday, so I'm just going to write it over.

Remember this post on Dairy genetics a couple of years ago?  Of course you do!  Anywhoodle, that cute little red and white heifer calved yesterday morning.  She even had a little red and white heifer calf.  Unfortunately, the calf didn't make it.  The momma cow is ok (I had originally thought she died), so there is a chance my red and whites will continue, but now we have to wait a whole year and hope she has another heifer.  I was really excited for that little calf.  I thought all hope was lost for my red and whites and then Bean, yes, we named her Bean, came along.  It's been 2 years of waiting and we had trouble getting her bred.  I guess all we can do is wait some more and hopefully a year from now I'll have a happier post to write!

Here is Bean now.  She's lost all of her red except inside her ears, but we know there are red genes in her, so we'll keep trying!

Chores

I've seen this chore list for kids floating around facebook and pinterest lately.  Somehow, feeding calves didn't get on there. I'm stumped.  Anyway, Cole has been begging me to get the wagon out for him to feed calves.  I've been giving him a hard time about why can't he just do my chores and he told me one day "if you just get the wagon, then I can!"  So a couple of weeks ago, we did.  He is in hog heaven.  Every morning he gets up and feeds calves.  Every afternoon he goes out and feeds them again.  We have close to 30 calves right now, so I gave him a group of 8 that he is in charge of.  He does a pretty good job too.  It takes him a little longer, but he's accurate.  We'll see how the rest of the summer goes, but I'm thinking he may work me right out of a job!

Summer Catch Up: AMPI Trip, Part 2

The next part of our journey was the dairy part.  We met with a bunch of other young families from our cooperative near Chippewa Falls, WI.  We spent time at a park with the kids and toured the cheese plant there.  I didn't make the tour.  It took longer than planned and Shelby needed to eat.  Pat went.  He said it was hot, smelly, and loud.  The cheese they make is tasty, though!  

This is the only picture I took from that part of the journey.  A white Peacock.

After the park, tour, and some delicious steaks, we headed back to the hotel for some swimming. Instead of riding the bus, we elected to drive, which worked out wonderfully.  We made it back to the hotel and got about an hour of swimming in before it was inundated with everyone else.

The next morning we headed out to tour a couple of dairies.  The first dairy left us unimpressed.  They have about 3 times as many cows as we do, but their bulk tank is the same size as ours.  The biggest problem is that they don't have the lounging space for their cows.  Cow comfort is a huge deal.  If the cows aren't happy, your milk check shows it.  The second farm was better.  Nothing out of the ordinary other than they seem to have buildings stacked on top of each other.  I thought our farm was cramped!

Summer Catch Up: AMPI Trip, Part 1

Our milk cooperative pays for us to have a little mini vacation during the summer.  They have a young cooperative program and during the summer we tour one of our milk plants and some member dairy farms from the area.  This year we headed to Wisconsin.  En route, we made an overnight stop in the twin cities.  Our first stop was lunch at Timber Lodge.  Normally that wouldn't warrant a blog mention, but here's the story.  We stopped to eat.  The boys were restless and Shelby was hungry, so the boys jumped all over the booth and I fed Shelby.  Across from us was an older (60ish) man eating alone.  He kept watching us, but as the restaurant was fairly empty, we were pretty entertaining.  I didn't really think anything of it.  We were waiting for our tab, but the waiter seemed to be avoiding our table, which was strange as he had been pretty good, and the place was pretty empty.  The older man got up to leave, shook Pat's hand, said "I got your bill" and left.  We were floored.  We didn't know this man at all and he didn't drive off in an especially classy looking car.  All I could think was wow, human kindness does still exist.

After that it was time for shopping.  We hit a few stores in the area and then headed to the Mall of America. There we met up with my aunt and cousin for a brief visit.  The boys had lots of fun with cousin W.

There favorite place, and the only place we bought anything other than food, was the Lego Store.  They each used their own money to but some Legos and I spent time visiting with my aunt while the kids played there.

The also loved seeing SpongeBob (why do kids like that show so much?)

Tate was super excited to get his picture taken with the Backyardigans.  Cole was a little less enthused.

The next day we headed for the MN Children's Museum.  The boys, of course, loved the water.

Cole the Turtle

 They had a Curious George exhibit, which Tate loved.

Doorman Tate

Up next, part 2...

All In A Days Work

Today we:

• went to swimming lessons
• picked up vet supplies
• watched them start our new grain storage bin
• helped bale our 4th crop hay (more Cole, not so much me)
• started chopping corn silage (again, less me, more everyone else)
• were followed for the feature A Day in the Life for the Dairy Star

What can I say, life is never dull around here!

If You Marry A Farmer

I read this on Facebook today, courtesy of my SIL. It's originally found here and is too good to not pass on.

Be patient.

When he tells you to go to the Lone Tree Quarter and you go to the quarter of land that has the one tree on it and he tells you that he meant the quarter of land that had one tree on it when his grandfather was farming ... well, that's just how farmers think.

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Be flexible.

When he says he'll be in the house in 20 minutes for supper and then two hours later he walks in the door ... well, maybe he should be the flexible one. That way he can duck when you throw the plate at him.

Be willing to laugh.

When he's mad that the 3-year-old had “helped” Dad by putting all the parts he needed in the handle of the floor jack ...well, that's just plain funny. Even if he doesn't think so.

Be willing to change your view of norm.

Walking into church 10 minutes early, enjoying the prelude music and visiting with a few people is no longer a normal part of life. Walking into church 10 minutes late, realizing your 4-year-old is still wearing his “rubby” boots and wondering if anyone else smells cow, is.

Remember that he relates to new situations by connecting them to ones he knows.

For instance, when you're having a child and the doctor says he might need to assist in the delivery and he says something like, “But where do you hook the chains?” Well, he's just trying to relate. Or if your children are on the bigger side when born, and he calls the Select Sires rep to try to figure out what his calving ease score would be but isn't feeling too bad because he's not breeding heifers any more anyway ... well, he's just trying to relate.

Throw out the calendar.

Yes, it may be your anniversary, your birthday, Thanksgiving ... but since the weather is perfect for ______ (fill in blank) you might need to celebrate tomorrow or next week ... or maybe three shindigs in one. Happy Anni-birth-giving!

Keep your temper.

When he calls - as you're feeding four children, giving one a bath after eating, trying to get some laundry done, washing dishes and trying to find the cat that someone let in the house - and he asks you if you're “doing anything” ... well, just count to 10 ... slowly. Then backwards. Breathe.

Remember that cows and children are different.

When he comes in the house covered in manure, yet the smell of baby poop makes him gag ... well, isn't that just sweet?

Be willing to love - whatever life throws at you. With a farmer it will be a lot. You can't change the weather, the conditions, the fields, so you might as well look at it with a light heart.

Thank God for each day.

It's not always easy, but even the tough times can be good experiences.

Myth Busters: Dairy Edition

Myth #1: Only bulls have horns.

Ok, so I'm going to embarrass my sister with this one. She was under the impression that only males have horns. In fact, all Holsteins, male and female, are born with horns. However, we dehorn them at a young age. Horns can be very dangerous, to us, and to the other cows. Dehorning isn't full proof, and occasionally you'll get a cow with a bit of a horn or two, and they know how to use them. That is why we dehorn. There are breeds of cattle that do not grow horns, but most Holsteins do.

Myth #2: We have a calving season.

I get a lot of comments and questions about how our calving season is going from family, friends, etc. Those who raise beef cows typically have a calving season in early spring. However, in the dairy industry we need to supply milk year round which means we need to have cows calving year round. There are a few dairy farmers that can time their calving so that they have time off from milking, but it's tough to do. We tend to calve heavier in the spring and fall, but we have baby calves year round. Ideally, you milk a cow for 10 months after calving. We try to breed them 2 months after calving, so they should have a calf every year. That's ideal. Of course, like humans, cows don't always get pregnant as planned. It takes some longer than others and some cows we decide not to breed anymore. Once a cow is pregnant we milk them up until 2-3 months before their due date. Then they get a vacation where all they have to do is sleep and eat. We've had cows that we didn't breed back that have milked for years before they dried up. So we always have calves and we always have milking cows. That way you always have milk to drink!

Surprise! It's Triplets!

It's Monday. I only have 2 more Mondays left! The weather is finally a little nicer out. When I got home today I asked Pat how his day went. His response: "you'll see when you feed your calves." So I wandered back to feed my calves and discovered these:


Not just one...
or two...or even three...
but four new baby calves.

Two sets of twins, or so I thought. Turns out, we delivered our first set of live triplets today. Two bulls and a heifer, so not quite Dairy Star newsworthy, but still exciting.

Here they are, about 5 hours old.

Goodbye March!

Look! An update! From me!

Amazing, I know.

How is it that time can seem so slow, yet go by so fast? I only have 4 weeks of student teaching left. 4 weeks! I'm still teaching a full load, but am hoping to drop a class next week. I am so ready for life to return to "normal."

I've missed being home. There are days when I wonder if I really want to work full time and at this point, the answer is no. I enjoy teaching, but being a farm mom is a full time job and one that won't go away just because I have a "real" job. We shall see what life brings down the road.

My farm chores have gotten a little bit easier. My Kubota calf feeder is up and running. We're still working out the kinks and trying to figure out the most efficient way to feed calves, but so far, so good. Right now my biggest time consumer is washing my pails. That used to be the quick and easy part of feeding calves. Once I'm done student teaching, I'm hoping to adjust the routine a little bit more.

The boys are doing great. We had Cole's parent teacher conference last week. He's made steady improvement throughout the year, which is great. He loves going to Mrs. O's room. She's the special ed teacher and pulls out 5 kids from his class. He does well in the small group and they also see it as a special treat since they get to go during rest time.

Tate is still 2. He's full of stories, most of them not understandable. His favorite phrase is "but, Mommy..."

March Mudness

Ok, so I stole the title, but it was too good not to use, especially with what I woke up to today. Last night's storm brought in a big nasty mess. Snow on top of slush on top of mud. It would have been really handy to have my Kubota this morning, but someone buried it in the shop this morning and then someone else caused a few more issues (that weren't totally his fault) so I can't use it tonight either. My wagon doesn't work very well in this junk.

I'm hoping this is winter's way of saying farewell, but you never know around here. Today was by far the worst commute I have had all winter. That's saying something compared to some of the junk I've driven in. Today was so bad I actually came back home. I drove through roads flooded with slush (not smart, but there was no way to turn around), a highway that felt like a field, a county road down to one lane of tracks. The best part of the trip was the gravel roads back home, and they were no picnic either.

This is what our farmyard looks like. There really isn't a way to clean it. The snow/slush is so heavy it's hard to move. Underneath that is soft gravel/mud.

Come on spring! We need a little heat and a whole lot of sun!

My New Toy

Sorry for the bloggy break. What can I say? I've been busy.

School is going well. Only 6 weeks of student teaching left. I've been teaching all of the classes for the last 2 weeks and will probably give up a class in the next week or so and work my way back down to nothing. It's been exhausting, but I'm having fun.

Life on the farm is much the same. I get up, feed calves, go to school, come home, feed calves, feed kids, sleep, and repeat. My calf barn is still a no go, but today we did go shopping for a new farm toy, for me! I never get any farm toys. So since they gave me a big NO on my calf barn, we've been coming up with other ways to make my job easier. Not that my job is tough, but there has to be a more efficient way to do it.

Currently, we mix all of our milk replacer in individual pails and haul it in a wagon to our calves. My wagon holds 13 pails, so it usually takes a couple of trips. The wagon was a new feature just a couple of years ago. Before that we carried everything, 4 pails at a time. That worked until I ended up making 5 trips and my fingers were calloused and sore, hence the wagon. The wagon works, but the plan is to move all my calves to the back side of the barn. Currently we have 8 pens in the front. That means up to 34 calf pails, or 3 trips with my wagon. I don't mind the exercise, but when there are a million other things that need to be done, time becomes an issue. Which brings my to my new toy: the Kubota RTV. The plan is to build a tank so I will mix up all of my milk replacer in the tank and then fill pails at each individual calf pen.

We had discussed this plan earlier and my father-in-law currently has a Polaris Ranger to drive back and forth. We thought we could just use that, until my FIL realized that it would mean losing his Ranger. Suddenly getting a new vehicle was a brilliant idea! Amazing how that works. So today Pat and I went shopping. We tested out the Kubota first, and then headed to check out the new Rangers. For our purpose, the Kubota was the better option. We aren't planning on doing a lot of off-roading with it, although in the spring, it sometimes feels like it.

The down side to our new toy is that we are getting rid of some of our other toys. Pat sold our 6-wheeler, which isn't a huge deal. It was only ever used for spot spraying and rock-picking. He's also trying to sell our snowmobile. We're both having a tough time with that. On one hand, we hardly use it, but on the other hand, the boys really love it. I imagine another one will be purchased in a few years.

At least this week I have something to look forward to on Monday: a new toy!

Spring?

The first sign of spring on our farm is almost always kittens. Unfortunately, I think our cat, Peanut, jumped the gun a bit this year.

These 3 greeted me with lots of crying early Sunday morning. It was not what I was expecting as I rushed to feed calves and go to bed after chaperoning our church lock-in. Digging them out of the calf hut and moving them inside, to a safer location, slowed me down a bit, but they are still living! It took Peanut a bit to settle down in her new home, our vet supply room, but she's adjusted now. We certainly don't need to add to our cat herd, but I feel bad just letting them die. Their chances may not be great, being born so early in the year, but at least now they have a chance.

What the HSUS Is Good At

A friend of mine recently forwarded this interview to me. If you don't have time to watch it, the article is most of what goes on. The interview itself is fine. The president of HSUS is very good at his job, which is to be a smooth talker. He really doesn't say anything of substance other than he wants to sit down with the agriculture community and talk. You see, that's worked really well for them in Ohio.

When I think Ohio and the agriculture community, my mind immediately goes to the Ohio dairy abuse video that perused the web last year. Now, the HSUS wasn't behind that video, but like-minded individuals were. I'm not about to sit down and have a calm conversation with anyone who treats their animals like that, or stands by and watches it. After negative media what choice do you have but to sit down with the most notorious group and try to redeem yourself? To me, it feels like blackmail.

There's been a big push for the agriculture community, particularly the dairy industry to fight back, promote ourselves, and assure consumers that our animals are well cared for, and our products are safe and healthy. That's easier said than done. We aren't just selling a product, we are selling ourselves. Our product is our life. It's what we do from sunup until sundown and beyond. We don't leave the office at 5 or take Sundays off. Most of us prefer to mind our own business and keep doing what we've been doing, but suddenly we are pushed into the lime light and have to answer to people who have no idea what a farm looks like, let alone the work it takes to run one. The industry hasn't had to defend itself before and isn't quite sure how to react. I'm not saying people don't have a right to question where their food comes from. Everyone has that right, and should question it, but you should also think for yourself.

I don't think we should have to sit down and have a conversation with the HSUS. If legislation on animal and food safety is going to be made, it should be made by the people who know what it takes on a daily basis. That process is happening. The CEO of our milk cooperative is currently sitting on a board in Washington, D.C., that is trying to figure out what is best for the dairy industry and our consumers.

So to the HSUS, we don't need to sit down with you because we don't answer to you. You are not the one who should decide what is best for our animals and our products. That is our job and I think we do it pretty well.

A Little Taste of Spring

This weekend has been gorgeous! The temps topped off in the 40s. Long johns were shed, and coats were replaced with jackets. Of course, I've spent plenty of it catching up on my sleep. Today, about a dozen of our yearling heifers decided we had been inside long enough, so they decided to unhinge a gate and go wandering. I got a nice little jog around the yard out of the deal.

The boys took advantage of the temps to sport caps and jackets instead of their stocking hats and coats.

Even the mikhouse cow made an appearance. She has only been seen one other time this winter.
Granted, I wasn't the only one to take a nap today. King Tate also zonked out with his BK crown from yesterday.

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!