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.

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.

Excuse for absence

Just thought I would let you know where I have been.....working at the farm on getting ready for hay season!!!! As of tonight we have 2 fields down and 2 more to go, hoping to finish about 80 acres of hay by tomorrow night. Look for video and pics coming soon....also, we have about 25 high school ag students coming out the farm tomorrow, so it will be a BUSY day.

Pictures from the Preschool Tour!

I finally got some time to sit down and post some pictures. The preschool tour threw off our schedule at the farm just a little, and now we are working on planning the tour for the High School Ag class coming next Wednesday. I love pictures of kids seeing a dairy farm for the first time...and a picture is worth a million words. Also a HUGE thanks to the Dairy Princesses that came out to spend time with the kids on Monday! I know they had a blast seeing a real life princess in person!

Explaining to the kids that in the summer heat we run sprinklers, which are ALOT like water parks....so fun for cows too!

Kids enjoying snack time, cheese and crackers.

Dairy Princess Angie handing out stickers to the preschoolers-which say "I met a dairy farmer".-Those were awesome stickers!!!

Meeting Baby Joey. Those kids wanted to hug Joey so badly!

Talking about what we feed the cows to the little boys, so curious about the smells that they smelled.

Petting a cow for the first time. They weren't scared at all!

Snack time with cheese and crackers, and their new stickers.

Mmmmm...juice boxes :)

The best group picture we got at the farm!

Mainly, as you can see, 21 preschoolers and a baby calf are all hard to manage and get to stand still, oh well.

Bottle feeding calves with Dairy Princess Val. Kids LOVED this activity!

Bottle feeding with Dairy Princess Angie. Odessa enjoyed all of the extra attention.

HAY RIDE! The boys were huge fans of the hay ride, but we learned that only boys should drive not girls, like me ;)

Loading the hay ride to the calf barn.

They came, they went, they learned!

Whew! What a day! 42 preschoolers later, I am exhausted! It was busy morning getting ready for the preschoolers before they arrived at the farm. Add to that the energy needed to keep up with 42 4 and 5 year olds, and needless to say it took a lot out of us today. The weather was beautiful and the kids were great! So many awesome questions asked. A BIG thanks to our 2 dairy princesses who came with us today for the visit! Some of the funny questions and comments are listed below....and pictures will be coming soon....

• "Is that a boy cow, it only has one earring? Girl cows should have 2 earrings"-pointing at a cow's ear tag.
• "My favorite part was milking the baby calves"-trying to tell us about feeding the calves milk in a bottle.
• "How come they poop on the ground?"-because cows can't be potty trained yet ;)
• "Is she bleeding?"-pointing at the teat dip on the cow's teat, which is dark brown colored.
• "Whoa, she made a mess! Who's going to clean it up?"-when a cow pooped in the parlor.
• "Can we walk in the poop too?"-wanted to walk in the scrape alley with the cows.
• "That feed stinks-how do they eat that?"-pointing at the TMR, smelling like silage.