I took some time tonight to do what I wanted to do last night, but instead had to respond to yet another attack on America's good dairy farmers. Tonight, I finally got to put together my video clips from hay making last week, into a nice "collage" of videos. Please check out how we at Orange Patch Dairy work to make high quality forage to feed our cows during the year. The best part is that we get to do this 3-4 more times this growing season....I like this video and I hope you do too!!!
Showing posts with label haylage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label haylage. Show all posts
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sunday, July 12, 2009
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 :)
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 :)
Friday, May 29, 2009
Uuufda!
Uuufda! A phrase used in Minnesota-kinda like a sigh.
This is the best way to describe the last 2 weeks at the farm. Uuufda! We have been so busy making hay. We thought we were done last week and then the neighbor came over on Monday night to offer his alfalfa to us. We took it, so yesterday we were busy in the fields again, chopping another 30 acres of alfalfa. We have been dealing with the 3rd driest May in history in Minnesota, and a windy one at that. Last week were making hay with 50 mph winds and 97 degrees...this week it was 80 degrees and NO WIND. As a result we cut alfalfa yesterday morning at 8 am, and we were not able to start chopping it until 10 pm. We finished at 2 am this morning. We are finding that 4 hours of sleep is not enough to function well...so nap time was taken today ;) Uuufda! Makes for a long night and an even earlier morning.
We are looking forward to working on some summer time project tomorrow...getting our sprinkler system up and running for the lactating cows and hauling out the last of the calf manure in the calf barn.
Also an update on Joey...she's growing so well! I hope to have pictures up soon....she's eating about 1.5 pounds of calf starter (calf feed which contains corn, oats, and a protein pellet, all coated with mollasses for a special treat) a day.
This is the best way to describe the last 2 weeks at the farm. Uuufda! We have been so busy making hay. We thought we were done last week and then the neighbor came over on Monday night to offer his alfalfa to us. We took it, so yesterday we were busy in the fields again, chopping another 30 acres of alfalfa. We have been dealing with the 3rd driest May in history in Minnesota, and a windy one at that. Last week were making hay with 50 mph winds and 97 degrees...this week it was 80 degrees and NO WIND. As a result we cut alfalfa yesterday morning at 8 am, and we were not able to start chopping it until 10 pm. We finished at 2 am this morning. We are finding that 4 hours of sleep is not enough to function well...so nap time was taken today ;) Uuufda! Makes for a long night and an even earlier morning.
We are looking forward to working on some summer time project tomorrow...getting our sprinkler system up and running for the lactating cows and hauling out the last of the calf manure in the calf barn.
Also an update on Joey...she's growing so well! I hope to have pictures up soon....she's eating about 1.5 pounds of calf starter (calf feed which contains corn, oats, and a protein pellet, all coated with mollasses for a special treat) a day.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
1st cutting Alfalfa Video! FINALLY!!!!
Seifert Farms making 1st cutting hay (alfalfa) on May 20th, 2009 in Southern MN. We cut 100 acres of hay and chopped it as alfalfa haylage in less than 36 hours, at about 355 tons in a 250 ft. silage bag. Definitely a little windy though, up to 50 mph winds, amazingly the moisture, which is critical, never got any lower than 55%, most averaging 60%. Alfalfa was about 175 RFV (Relative Feed Value) a measure of the quality of a forage.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Our tank overfloweth....
As were milking cows tonight we discovered something exciting...we filled our bulk tank (the stainless steel tank we store our milk in) was filled to the TOP!!! In fact we spilled a little milk out the sides of the tank and on to the floor. We have a tank that holds about 1650 gallons of milk. Each of our 84 milking cows make over 10 gallons on milk each day!!!! We are VERY excited about this good news....as you can tell! Our milk flows into this tank and is cooled to about 38-40 degrees. We hold the milk for 2 days and then it is picked up by a tanker truck from our local creamery. Now, as a result we will need to have the tanker truck pick up our milk every day to ensure that we will not have to lose anymore milk to the floor. Needless to say it was a good night tonight. This increase in milk production can be attributed to a variety of things. The first thing is a change in haylage (chopped fermented alfalfa stored in a silage bag) and an increase in the number of fresh cows.
The change in feed has been awesome! The cows LOVE the new bag of haylage! We opened the bag that contains alfalfa cut last May 2008. It is our best feed and we were saving it for the best cows to calve this winter/spring. Our goal is to produce the BEST quality feed possible. Better feed means that we can feed a higher percentage of our total diet as forage. Right now we average about 62% of the cows' diet as forage. The remainder of the diet is concentrates (corn, soybean meal, vitamins, minerals, and other "goodies"). With a higher forage diet we also keep our costs down. We have to purchase less concentrates if we can feed better quality forages. The other advantage to feeding more forage is that we can also increase rumen and cow health. More forage helps to make rumen microbes happy! Forage helps stimulate cud chewing, which helps the cows make buffer in their saliva-helping their overall health.
The addition of more fresh (recently calved) cows has also increased our total milk pounds. We have calved in about 25 cows in the last 2.5 months. These cows are all producing the most milk that they will produce in their 305-365 day lactations. A cow typically peaks at about 60 days into their lactations....our cows average about 67 days in milk. That peak is the highest amount of milk that they will produce, then they will decline until they are dried off (vacation time) and calve in with their next calf. Many of our cows are between 1-60 days in milk. These cows perform well and make lots of milk if they are taken care of post-calving. We do our darnest to make sure that they are off to a great start after calving. Every day for 10-14 days post calving we take our cows temperatures. We watch them eat, making sure they eat. We also monitor their personalities...making sure they are "bright eyed and busy tailed" every day. Cows should be eager to eat when they get fresh feed, so we always check them at feeding time. Overall cow health has been awesome this spring!
Our milk production is the result of all of the cows' hard work. We do not "push" our cows or force them to milk. We respect dairymen who use rBST, but we do not. We have always felt that we can manage cows to milk better, but we do see a place for rBST in the industry. Our cows milk naturally...we provide them the BEST feed possible, the BEST care possible, and the BEST love possible and in return the cows pay us in the bulk tank!
The change in feed has been awesome! The cows LOVE the new bag of haylage! We opened the bag that contains alfalfa cut last May 2008. It is our best feed and we were saving it for the best cows to calve this winter/spring. Our goal is to produce the BEST quality feed possible. Better feed means that we can feed a higher percentage of our total diet as forage. Right now we average about 62% of the cows' diet as forage. The remainder of the diet is concentrates (corn, soybean meal, vitamins, minerals, and other "goodies"). With a higher forage diet we also keep our costs down. We have to purchase less concentrates if we can feed better quality forages. The other advantage to feeding more forage is that we can also increase rumen and cow health. More forage helps to make rumen microbes happy! Forage helps stimulate cud chewing, which helps the cows make buffer in their saliva-helping their overall health.
The addition of more fresh (recently calved) cows has also increased our total milk pounds. We have calved in about 25 cows in the last 2.5 months. These cows are all producing the most milk that they will produce in their 305-365 day lactations. A cow typically peaks at about 60 days into their lactations....our cows average about 67 days in milk. That peak is the highest amount of milk that they will produce, then they will decline until they are dried off (vacation time) and calve in with their next calf. Many of our cows are between 1-60 days in milk. These cows perform well and make lots of milk if they are taken care of post-calving. We do our darnest to make sure that they are off to a great start after calving. Every day for 10-14 days post calving we take our cows temperatures. We watch them eat, making sure they eat. We also monitor their personalities...making sure they are "bright eyed and busy tailed" every day. Cows should be eager to eat when they get fresh feed, so we always check them at feeding time. Overall cow health has been awesome this spring!
Our milk production is the result of all of the cows' hard work. We do not "push" our cows or force them to milk. We respect dairymen who use rBST, but we do not. We have always felt that we can manage cows to milk better, but we do see a place for rBST in the industry. Our cows milk naturally...we provide them the BEST feed possible, the BEST care possible, and the BEST love possible and in return the cows pay us in the bulk tank!
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