There's a light at the end of the tunnel...

I am so tired of blogging about the "s-word" and the "w-word" that I decided that I would post a more delightful blog from Minnesota!  Let's think spring!  This picture is from my garden last spring, and it gives me hope that after almost 4 solid months with the "s-word" we will once again see green grass, beautiful flowers and sunshine. 

These past few weeks at the farm have been long and tiresome.  Jon and I are working towards a number of goals for this year, but as a result we are required to put in lots of extra hours in at the farm.  Some days we get so wrapped up in the work that we start to forget what it is that we are working for,....much like our battle with the "w-word".  We get so busy working with the "s-word" that we forget that we are working towards spring!  Nothing like looking through some pictures from last spring to remind us of that.  So as we continue to work towards our goals for our cows and ourselves...as well as battling the eliments...we are reminded: there's a light at the end of the tunnel!

Winter vs. Cows

A frosty look at the farm...pretty to look at, hard to work in.

Well, winter is here.  It was inevitable.  Forecasts call for even colder temperature for the weekend (Sunday might not even make it above 0!).  Cold is usually harder on the people working with our cows than the actual cows.  We work hard to prevent any problems the cows might have with the cold. 

First we provide them shelter from the snow, cold, wind, and moisture.  Our barns are made to be cool inside.  Right now the manure is freezing to the alleys, so you ask...why don't you heat the barn.  There's a major problem with that....cows have winter hair!  Cows grow a thick coat of hair each winter, by putting them in a heated barn they would sweat heavily and catch a "cow cold".  Instead of warming the cows, we allow their hair to insulate them.  We work hard to keep them dry and comfortable with fresh bedding often.  With that thick hair they hardly notice the cool temps. 

The cold dry air is drying out my skin.  My hands are cracked....and it is also drying out our cows' skin.  We use a special teat dip for our cows with lots of moisturizers in it (just like a lotion).  We also make sure that cows leaving the parlor have dry teats, because wet teats can get skin damage and in extreme cold even frost bite!

The calves are the most susceptible to the cold weather.  New calves are quickly moved from the calving pen.  New wet calves can very easily get frost bite (especially their ears!), so we swiftly dry them off, put them in a calf coat, bed them in with lots of straw, and feed them lots of warm colostrum.  As they grow we make sure to increase the calories that we feed them.  Cold weather means they are using more of their own energy to stay warm, so we compensate for that by feeding extra milk each day.  Calves also have unlimited access to calf starter. 

Older heifers also eat extra calories and enjoy extra bedding.  All of the extra effort is worth it, knowing our cows are doing well...it just takes a lot of extra time and work on our part.  So...chores are taking a lot longer than they would in fall, spring or summer....bear with us, it's going to be another long Minnesota Winter.

Got it DONE!!! Making Hay when the Sun Doesn't Shine!!

We have successfully finished out 2nd cutting of alfalfa!  It was a challenge and if I ever meet a weatherman in person I might have to ask him the following: "How can you still have a job after being wrong so many times?"  Our weather forecast for Thursday was for rain, which we missed, thank goodness as those storms were filled with wind, hail, and tornadoes.  We pray for those who were hurt by these storms.  On Friday it was supposed to be about 80 degrees and light breezes, but we had mid-80's and a strong dry wind....which accelerated the drying of our alfalfa, much faster than we anticipated.  As a result our hay was dry sooner than expected, and we had to move faster.  At midnight on Friday, Jon, I and my brother in law Marcus decided that we were going to keep on chopping alfalfa until we saw dew, which would make the alfalfa too wet to chop.  But as long as there was no dew we were able to keep on chopping.....and we kept on chopping alfalfa until 9 am Saturday morning. Yes, you just read correctly, we chopped through the night and finished right before morning chores.  That means that Jon and I worked about 35 hours straight without any sleep.  We finished chopping and jumped right over to milking, feeding and our morning chores.  At 2pm we made it home, and took a well deserved nap for 5 hours!  We were very happy that we finished our 130 acres of alfalfa even if we had to work that hard to get it done.  Unfortunately since we worked so hard and in the dark, I don't have any pictures of 2nd cutting alfalfa, but if you saw the 1st cutting, it's pretty much the same thing all over again.

It's great to be able to work with my brother in law as well.  He's an excellent worker and never stops until he finishes a job~which is great for chopping alfalfa!  We worked that hard to chop our alfalfa because we know from years of experience that high quality feeds make healthy cows which in turn make healthy nutritious milk.  Focusing on quality has helped us gain so much in milk production, but more so in cow health.  As cows are ruminants, forages and forage quality make a huge impact on health. 

We also had a successful morning on Friday taking our 6 day old calf Fuji to New Ulm for the KNUJ Dairy Day at the Glock.  Fuji visited with many adults and kids, celebrating June Dairy Month for a good cause: area Food Shelves.  Now that she's home, Fuji is spoiled and looking for a head scratch almost every hour!  She's so darn cute though, neither Jon nor I can say no to her...so we give in and she's getting even more spoiled.  I have some pictures of her that I hope to post soon!

Inspired by Youth

It was another busy weekend at the farm. Besides the usual milking and feeding chores we have been trying to haul out some manure to the fields when the soil is frozen and solid or where we have dry hills. The top soil is drying nicely and it looks that we may be planting corn on time this year, with little risk of snow. The flood waters are disappearing as quickly as they appeared...but in places, especially near the Minnesota River, the flooding is still very present. I saw some awful sights of flooding while driving north this Saturday.

I had the honor of judging a local dairy princess contest on Saturday afternoon. I didn't know what to expect, as this was the 1st time that I actually judged a contest. Don't get me wrong, I think I was qualified to judge, I was a "butter head" in 2002, I have been a county princess coordinator for 3 years, and I have been actively involved in the dairy industry since birth ;) I have just never been on the other side of the table. It was a HARD job to judge those candidates. Each of them had such great skills and talents, each different and valuable. Some were great speakers, others were so genuine, and others were extremely knowledgeable. But ALL of them had passion and dedication for the dairy industry. Their positive attitudes were so contagious! Even though judging them was hard work, I left filled with pride in the princess program and the great connections it makes on behalf of dairy farmers.

These 4 talented women also gave me reinforcement that this blog has value, that giving tours to school aged kids has value and that each positive connection that I make as a dairy producer will hopefully help a consumer make the right choice at supper or dinner time.....I hope they choose dairy. Dairy foods supply so many valuable nutrients that the average consumer doesn't get enough of during the day....so have you had your 3 servings today???? If not...make sure you start Monday out with a glass of cold milk and a cup of yogurt! Thanks!