Phew! Made it through the weekend!

It was another crazy weekend at Orange Patch Dairy...we went to Comfrey Days Street Dance on Friday night. We stayed up WAY too late, but we saw so many friends we couldn't bring ourselves to leave early. As a result we got a much needed and overdue nap this afternoon. it was only for a couple hours but was still good!

This week is going to be another event packed week. We will be starting out the week on Monday drying off dry cows. We have 2 cows out of our herd of 90 that are ready for their 60 day vacation in the dry lot. They will not be milked for the next 60 days, but instead be able to relax comfortably outside and grow their baby calves. When we dry off cows, we use an antibiotic not to treat infections but prevent any infections they could pick up during their vacation. Based on our somatic cell count our fresh cows almost always freshen without infection-a key to safe wholesome milk and healthy cows. We also treat our cows with an wax teat sealant which helps to keep out bacteria until the cow forms her own teat end plug of natural proteins.

On Tuesday we will be doing our monthly herd health appointment. Hopefully I will be able to take some pictures from the day.

The rest of the week we will be working on getting ready for our 3rd cutting of alfalfa hay. It will be another hectic week of greasing machinery, doing maintenance of the silage wagons, sharpening the chopper knives, and getting the bagger ready to rock. All of this prep is critical to making sure that get start and finish chopping in the least amount of time possible. It makes great feed and happy farmers :)