Spring is in the air!

The concert was AWESOME! I can't wait to post some videos of Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan, but no time tonight. Oh Spring is in the air at the farm! I know spring is right around the corner for many different reasons....

New Ulm Farm Show: This weekend is the Farm Show. Farmers and businessmen alike were wandering around the show floor today with a "spring" in their step: planning purchases for seed for the coming crop season, planning new building projects as soon as the mud disappears, and planning "warm" weather projects. Everyone had smiles on their faces even though the fog and mist smothered out the sunshine.

Disppearing Snow Drifts: 2 weeks ago we had over 18 inches of snow at the farm, now, thanks to some major temperature changes we have only 6 inches left and a lot of mud! It's a nessesary evil when it comes to season changes in Minnesota. Snow melts...mud comes. Heifers LOVE the mud! Silly heifers always run in the mud-making themselves dirty and disgusting. If PETA drove by they would probably want to film those darn heifers, covered in mud, and put it on ABC news, but even though they are muddy-it's only temporary. Once the sun comes out and the mud dries up, those heifers go back to being clean and beautiful, almost picture perfect. Heifers and cows are independent animals and even if they were in the "wild" they would be muddy and dirty this time of year. Ironically it's their choice to be muddy. They're healthy even if they are temporarily dirty.

Thunderstorms: Yes, we had our first thunderstorm of the year on Thursday morning. It was amazing to see lightning and hear thunder again! The rain (almost 1 inch) was warm and wonderful...but also made the mud that was the result of the melting snow even more "muddy". We moved a new fresh cow during this thunderstorm, I was soaking wet, but I enjoyed feeling rain instead of snow.

Flooding: Yes, we have flooding now. Rapidly melting snow with added rain makes for a LARGE volume of water that needs to go somewhere. The frost layer (layer in the soil where the ground is frozen) prevents the water from soaking in...so there is run off. The water runs off into the streams, ponds, slouges, and into the fields. Our fields are all home to small lakes. Thanks to the work that we do with our local NRCS (National Resources Conservation Service) we have built filter strips (sections of grass that we planted to filter run off water) and drainage ditches (grass filled ditches that store and filter water, in addition to move it away from the farm and feedlots). We have taken steps to make sure that we protect our natural resources (land, water, air). We need to have these resources for our generation and the generations to come.

Frost Layer is Coming Out: That darn frost layer, which had been there all winter is now thawing. This means that we can no longer take tractors out into the field. Tractors can cause compaction, which is bad for the soil. Compaction is terrible for crops-they can't develop good root systems. Tractors also get stuck. Mud without frost underneath means those darn tractors will sink right through-making for an even bigger mess. So what do we do with our manure?...we stack it. We have a section of land where we pile manure until the fields are safe to be in again (hopefully soon). We are hoping to build a larger storage area for manure, which means we can haul manure less often during the year and not have to stack it. Hopefully milk prices increase soon so we can make this wish a reality.

Robins and Green Grass: Yep, we sure did see our first robin this week! I was so excited to see that red chested bird! The grass is also greening up under the snow, which makes me hopeful that the long range forecast is correct and warmer weather is on the way!

Wishing you a Happy Spring!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The radio is blaring Christmas tunes, and the weather is agreeing with the season-we have snow, we have cold, and we have blowing. It's been hard to deal with this winter weather though, because it is so extreme. We have been dealing with temperatures much below zero, wind chills much below zero, winds over 30 mph, and 6 inches of snow. This weather has cause a few problems and challenges. With cold weather we have do to some extra things each day to continue to take good care of our cows.

Challenges:

• Frozen pipes: Those pipes, with the right amount of wind will ALWAYS freeze! Water is a critical nutrient for cows and calves so we HAVE to thaw the pipes everyday, sometimes twice a day.
• Snow removal: snow blows everywhere and gets into everything. We must push snow, shovel snow, and blow snow in order to just get into the barn to feed and milk the cows.
• Moving: yes moving is so much harder now, with 4 plus layers of clothes on it get to be pretty cumbersome to walk around.
• Starting Tractors: yeah, tractors really don't like to start in the winter-it's too cold and their fuel systems like to "gel" up.
• Frozen manure: hot, fresh cow pies will freeze in an instant on the right day. Manure is so much harder to move when it is frozen-making clean up so much more difficult.

Extra Cold Weather Tasks:

• Feeding the cows extra feed: cows need extra calories to stay warm during the winter months, just like we do. Long winter hair helps to keep cows warm, but heating from the inside out works for cows just like hot soup in people =)
• Bedding the cows extra: Cows need extra bedding to stay dry and warm. Cows and calves like to "nest" in their bedding in the winter. Therefore we need to make sure that we supply LOTS of straw for everyone.
• Feeding the calves extra milk: Calves need extra milk as well for extra calories, so even get a calf "jacket" or "blanket" to stay warm on those cold winter nights.
• Baby Calf Watch: We have to keep an extra eye on the dry cows due soon to have their babies. Winter is not a great time to have a calf. Typically we would be enjoying temps about 25 right now, but thanks to this artic chill we have about 12 cows yet to calve before Christmas and they are all at risk for frost bite. We check on each of them at least 6 times each day, so that the moment that they start labor we can move them to a warm pen indoors to have their calf safely-we always do the best that we can for our cows and calves so a good start is critical!