Passed the milk inspection!!!

Well, the milk inspector stopped out today for our surprise inspection and we are certified to sell milk for another 6 months!!!!  We were not worried that we would fail this inspection, as we are always working to have clean equipment and safe, wholesome milk, but every dairy farmer knows that the moment that the milk inspector sets foot on the farm....you just get nervous.  It's a guessing game as to whether or not we will get a violation, and we definitely do not want to have a violation so severe that it would warrent a re-inspection, which we would have to pay a fine for.  Today's good news was that we passed...but Alan did leave us a short list of changes that he thinks we should make before he comes to visit us again in the fall.  Simples stuff like painting a storage box, scrubbing off some hard water spots off of the pipeline in the corner of the parlor, and making sure the milk house door is shut~as Alan showed up when we were cleaning up after treating a cow and we had the door propped open.  It's not that an open door or a storage container with chipping paint are bad for the quality of our milk, but its that if we make these improvements we will continue to have a clean and safe environment to make safe and wholesome milk.  Sometimes it just nice to have another set of eyes to check out the job that you are doing.  In case you're wondering what a milk inspection looks like, check out this video from the Minnesota Department of Ag....and check out this video from http://www.dairyfarmingtoday.org/ about milk quality!

Just a note, I might not be around much in the coming days.  We have a tour group of preschoolers coming to the farm next Monday, and I have a lot of activities to organize beforehand.  Since the sun is shining Jon tells me that we will also be hauling out the dry cow yard's manure and hopefully hitting the fields to plant our first field of corn for silage!  I promise to take lots of pictures in the meantime!  Happy Spring!

Busy Farm Update!

Oh life on the farm never slows down! Good news from the milk inspector...we passed! All of the hard work paid off, but we didn't expect not to pass, so that was good. I had a nice chat with the inspector while he was cleaning his boots before leaving. He complemented us on our upcoming preschool tours, noting that more than a handful of local dairies also host grade school kids in the spring for tours. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR HOSTING! Those kids will have memories that will last a lifetime!

Another bit of exciting news comes from the local FFA Chapter. The Sleepy Eye FFA Chapter participated in the 80th Minnesota FFA Convention this past weekend. My brother in law and youngest sister were members of the Dairy Judging Team, and we are PROUD to announce that after much hard work, they won 1st place! And a trip to the National FFA Convention this fall! Congratulations to Chris, Angela, Laura and Shawn for a job WELL DONE! FFA does an excellent job of teaching agriculture to students rural and urban, and we proudly support their work!

Jonathan (my husband) and Steve (my father in law) are leaving tomorrow for another road trip, machinery shopping. This means that I will be solely in charge of the chores and cows tomorrow! I am excited, because driving 10+ hours to Southeast Minnesota and Wisconsin to look at choppers didn't sound like a lot of fun to me. I willingly volunteered to stay home. I will be in charge of morning and evening milking and calf chores as well as feeding the cows and heifers. I am also hoping to get a head start on my dairy princess' schedule for the coming summer promotion season, that is if nothing goes wrong-God willing! I wish the guys the best tomorrow as they pursue a good deal and a new addition to our forage processing fleet. Hopefully I will have pictures of a new harvester soon!

Spring Cleaning!

Tis the season for spring cleaning! I am so excited that this weekend I completed the parlor portion of spring cleaning. As mentioned in a previous post, the milk inspector (state employee who inspects dairies 2 times a year to assure milk quality and issue liciences to sell milk) will be visiting us in the coming days. While we maintain a clean parlor every single day of the year, a little tidying up is always needed. We try to make sure that if a visitor should happen to stop in and see us, the parlor and barn would not deter them from drinking milk, but instead impress them regarding our concern for milk quality and food safety. Anything in our barn and parlor is fair game for inspection, therefore EVERYTHING needed to be cleaned. An added incentive is the upcoming arrival of preschoolers in May for our annual school tours! We like to have the farm sparkling when visitors arrive! I sorted through a closet which was home to 4 years worth of construction "leftovers" as well as scrubbing the parlor and milk house spotless for hours! While it takes time to do, the end product is very rewarding....a parlor any consumer would be willing to drink milk from!

Another part of spring cleaning came from mother nature. We have been behind in yearly rainfall, but today mother nature "washed" everything for us. We received just shy of an inch of rain, first starting as a thunderstorm and then gently raining all day. This much needed spring rain "washed" away what was left of winter and helped to escort spring in. By the afternoon we saw SPRING finally come! The grass and alfalfa fields are all green now. Flowers are taller, green and tulips are blooming. Birds are chirping, and worms are coming out of the soil to play. Spring is finally here!!!

Got a cold :( Prepping for the milk inspector

It's a beautiful 50 degree day in MN, and I can't enjoy it because I got a cold. YUCK! I am usually very healthy, but thanks to a VERY busy weekend taking care of the farm and getting my husband Jon to his band performance (yep, Jon plays in a rock band which played at a local bar this weekend) I was running myself too thin. It caught up to me. 5-6 hours of sleep is not enough sleep to fight off a cold, and so now I suffer with a sore throat and runny nose right before Easter. So it goes, cold or no cold, there's really no sick days on a dairy farm.

So sniffles and all I headed out to the farm with a full schedule on our plate. We worked to bed in all of the heifers and calves today. It is important that they stay clean and dry every day, making sure that they stay healthy. I also worked to continue my efforts in the milking parlor. We are expecting the milk inspector any day now, so we are cleaning like mad. The milk inspector comes every 6 months to check out how well we are taking care of our cows and facilities, assuring that we are shipping a safe, wholesome product-milk. The milk inspector goes through EVERYTHING on a dairy farm! They have the rights to look at everything, and they do. SO....we need to clean everything. I am a bit of a perfectionist, so I am always striving for a perfect score on our inspection. A perfect score is nearly impossible to achieve, but its a goal. Today I crossed off pressure washing the parlor and cleaning the office....it was a good day, sniffles or not!