Baby Pictures!

Our lives revolve around our calves right now, so I thought I would share a couple pictures of my adorable girls! Please feel free to check out our Facebook Page for more pictures of calves and activities this fall! Enjoy!



Autumn, she was the lucky girl that broke our streak of bull calves.  She's very special to us, and she's very spoiled.  We pet her head, scratch her ears, and rub her back every day!

Not 4 Me, named after a song written by my husband's band.  Her mother is named after the band.  Not 4 Me is very spoiled as well.  Her favorite activity is getting her ears scratched.

Not 4 Me also enjoys her lunch! She and her fellow calves drink about 1 gallon of milk at each feeding, with 2 feedings everyday.  She's already growing so quickly!

Calving Season in Full Swing!

Well, I haven't posted in a little while thanks to the beginning of our calving season.  It's so exciting to greet all of my new calves.  We calve cows year round, but thanks to the seasonality of the herds that we purchased 5 years ago when we started farming, we calve heavily during the fall and winter months.  The farmers that owned the cows before we bought them enjoyed not calving in the hot summer months and during planting.  Therefore, we have LOTS of babies to be born in the next few months.  Last week we were expecting 10 calves.  With a 120 cow herd, that's almost 10% of our herd calving in one week!!  We only had 7 calves born, currently I have 3 cows that are 3 days over due.  We broke our bull calf streak last week, as we had 4 heifers born in a row! (followed by 3 bull calves in a row, but we are still pumped about the heifers!)  The calf barn is once again busy, as is the fresh cow pen.  Each morning Jon now has to check a handful of fresh cows to make sure they are doing great.  It's awesome to be busy caring for our cows, this is my favorite time of the year.  It's very rewarding to help a cow deliver a healthy calf, raise and nurture the calf and watch the new cow excel.  I am hoping to post some of the awesome calf pictures in the coming days, so stay tuned!  Off to bed, I might have some new calves waiting for me in the morning!!!

Looking Ahead

Yikes! It's been a little while since I have posted something again.  That's not really intentional, but be have still been in a whirlwind of busy-ness at the farm.  Now that the silage is off of the fields we have the opportunity to haul manure to add fertilizer and organic matter to the soil for next year's crops.  Today we got rained out of the fields, and we expect we won't be able to get into the fields for the next 3-5 days, since we are in a Flood Watch until Friday.  Oh well, rain delay!!!

We have also been working diligently to plan a much needed "vacation" to World Dairy Expo.  We can't just pack up and leave, as cows need care 24 hours each day, so we have been working to find people that are available to milk cows, feed calves, and feed cows while we are gone.  Not just anyone can do these tasks, we always look for qualified individuals that know how to handle animals with respect and care.  We want to know that our cows are in good hands while we are gone.  As of right now, we have enough people to milk and feed calves, just looking for a feeder for 3 days.  I am so excited to breathe the sigh of relief that we have found people to replace us.  I am also excited to have 3 days off to enjoy a little bit of Wisconsin (my favorite place in the whole US, beside MN) and see friends and family!!!!  Now we have to work to train the new milkers, organize protocols (so they know what to do in case something should happen while we are gone) and re-stock all supplies, so they don't have any issues.  So, this next few days we will be working diligently to get stuff ready!

We are also looking forward to "Calving Season".  At our farm, we have a few months during the year that tend to have the most cows and heifers calving.  Those months are usually September through March.  We look to have about 14-19 cows and/or heifers calving each month!!  That's a lot of little baby calves and mothers to care for, but we look forward to it each year!  I love the calves and my husband enjoys caring for the cows.  We will be required to put more time in at the farm to care for all of these animals, but that's ok.  So stay tuned for lots of stories about baby calves and the joy that brings us!

Christmas Snow Storm is coming....

The Weather Channel is telling me that there is a Christmas Snow Storm coming this week. The timing is terrible, but what can we do-arguing with Mother Nature never works in our favor. Christmas is hard with cows, mainly because we have to work twice as hard to get everything done so we can travel to our various parties. We have been blessed to live so close to most of our family, so we won't be traveling too far from home, but with a snow storm comes some extra chores and snow removal. I know it will look so lovely Christmas morning, but all I can think about right now it how much more work we will have. I am also thinking about all of the cookies and candies I have left to make and presents to wrap....tonight I finished some more sweet creations.....check out the recipe below, which uses REAL butter, from REAL cows! Yummy!

Shannon's Butter Toffee

1 cup Butter

1 cup Sugar

1/4 cup Water

1/2 cup Miniature Chocolate Chips

1/2 cup Almonds (slivered)

Mix butter, sugar and water together in a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil and reduce to medium heat for 13 minutes, stirring constantly. Liquid should read 300 degrees on a candy thermometer or make a brittle string when dropped in cool water. Pour quickly onto a cookie sheet and spread out. Sprinkle with chocolate and almonds. Cool for 2 hours and break into pieces. These makes great gifts, and are super easy!

Just an update on our calving season, since Thanksgiving we have welcomed 13 bulls calves and 12 heifer calves, including 2 set of twins....we are waiting for 5 others to have calves this week, and then we will have a couple days of reprieve until New Year's Day when we have 4 due on one day. So far so good! Merry Christmas!

Calving Season has Begun!

Calving Season has begun at Orange Patch Dairy. I am so excited to be calving, it's my favorite season. When we purchased our herds of cows almost 5 years ago, we knew that each of the farmers that we bought from focused on calving heavily in the early winter months to allow for more time in the crop seasons. As a result, as the herd has grown, more and more animals are available for calving during the winter months. Last year we had about 30 head to calve between Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day...this year we await the birth of 40 calves!

So far we have 3 bulls calves and one heifer calf. Obviously I am hoping for more heifer calves so I can keep them, but the bulls are great too-a live calf is the best kind, regardless of the gender! I did some counting this morning, and I have about 27 head to have calves in the coming 30 days!!!! That's insane, and about 7 cows due in the next 6 days. This afternoon I induced a cow that is 5 days over due. Being over due increases the chances of a large calf and a difficult birth, so instead of waiting for nature to take it's course, we give it a little "medical" push. I am certain that this cow will be fine and I look forward to seeing her in labor tomorrow afternoon (it usually takes about 24 hours to get the birthing process started).

Today I also delivered a bull calf by myself. This is no easy task. I noticed that the cow was in labor at noon and I moved her inside, where she could enjoy a pen to herself. In about 20 minutes she broke her water (placenta) and was pushing. 5 minutes later I checked on her only to find rear legs sticking out. Calves normally are delivered front legs first, that way their heads come out first and they have the chance to breathe before they umbilical cord breaks. So I rushed to the office to grab some gloves and a chain. Yes, we use chains to pulls calves. It's not painful to the cow or the calf, but instead allows us to have more leverage when trying to help a 1800 pound cow deliver a 120 pound calf. Calves that size can't be delivered by hand, no body I know is that strong. So, nevertheless, I put the chains on the rear feet, tied up a rope, and used my body weight to put some pressure on the chain. Every time that the cow pushed, I pulled....with a lot of teamwork and positive encouragement, we delivered in about 10 minutes a healthy baby bull, and momma cow was in great shape!! Had I not helped her out, she would have strained and struggled for a long time, wearing herself out-causing stress on the calf and more than likely the calf would have been born dead, if she would have been able to get him out-all in all a success! Our cow, Xebe is a great cow-so tame and easy to work with-I am so happy we had success! I am looking forward to the next 27 calves, and hoping that I don't have to "pull" everyone of them ;)