Frozen

FROZEN: that pretty much describes our day today. Everything is FROZEN. Last night we had temperatures at -31. Today's high temperature was -11. Yep, we didn't even get close to going above zero! The milking cow barn was pretty frozen this morning. The cold air almost instantly froze the humid breath coming from our cows. Frost covered the entire inside of our barn and even dusted the cows. The parlor floor, which is heated, couldn't keep up with the cold air and started to form ice in the back of the parlor. Warm piles of cow manure even froze to the ground.

We had to work extra hard to remove frozen cow pies from the barn. The silage that we feed the cows with is even frozen now! The silage was 70 degrees going into the silage bag but now it's frozen. Each "ball" of frozen silage needs to be broken with the skid loader before being mixed with in the TMR and fed to the cows. We also dried off the teat dip (iodine and skin conditioners) from the cows this morning before the cows could leave the milking parlor. This makes sure that the dip doesn't freeze and cause the skin on the teats to crack. We use a dip with a higher level of skin conditioners to make sure the skin stays soft and smooth. We also moved a couple heifers that are close to calving (any minute now) into the old dairy barn-keeping them warm and dry so they also are free of frost bite. In temperatures like this it is critical that we make sure that we prevent any frost bite: good homes, dry bedding, heating where needed, dry teats and ears.....yet another day on a Minnesota Dairy Farm!

The calves are doing well though! Those calf huts do a great job of keeping the calves cozy and warm. Even though it's cold outside, the wind isn't blowing-thank goodness! As a result, the heifers came out this afternoon for an exciting romp in the snow. It was so fun to watch-I wish I would have had my camera close by to record their silliness.

Above zero is looking like a heat wave right now!

Another Minnesota Winter

Oh Geeze, looks like another Minnesota winter has arrived at the farm. We tried to hold it off as long as we could, but it turns out we ran out of time. Needless to say this wet fall has made for a major delay in our "to do list". We are still trying to finish up fall work and some fall work will have to go undone. But winter prep also was left behind.

These last 2 days we have been dealing with frozen hoses and water pipes. If we had enough time, we would have "winterized" these items, but we were busy doing "fall" things. As a result we spent at least 30 minutes these last 2 days thawing out the hoses and pipes to make sure that the cows and heifers have adequate water. The cold weather makes for difficult starts for all of the tractors. Some tractors, critical to our daily operations couldn't be started today. The cold weather makes everything twice as difficult, and that's not fun when we are calving many cows.

Today we welcomed 3 new calves! 2 heifers and a bull calf. All of them healthy and happy. Because of the cold weather we had to work fast to get the calves dry and warm. Once they are warm, filling their stomachs with warm milk from their mother's (colostrum) is very important. All of our calves drink at least 1 gallon of colostrum in the first hours of life. The cooler temps and weather also make life more stressful after birth, so we make sure that each calf is vaccinated for any possible disease and feed additional milk during the day to ensure that they have adequate calories to stay warm. For some calves that are struggling, we will cover them in a calf blanket and/or use a heat lamp to warm them. Making sure that their mothers are inside and protected from the elements is also important. Cold air and wind chills can cause skin on cow's teats to freeze and crack. The cold weather also stresses the mother, so we make sure the 2 months before the birth that they consume enough calories and protein to grow a healthy calf as well as care for her needs. Nevertheless, cold weather makes for extra work, but we love what we do. Just, grateful for insulated coveralls, heavy sweatshirts, and stocking caps!!!