Well Spring has finally arrived in Southern Minnesota! That's the good news, the bad news is that we're quickly finding out what lingering damages exist from the Drought of 2012. As spring starts, usually our alfalfa fields start to green up just like perennials in a flower garden, but this year the plants have been really slow to green up.
We work very closely with a agronomist who has been scouting our fields for weeks already. He's not finding very good news for us. We know at this moment that we will need to re-seed at least 40 acres of alfalfa that never made it through the winter. We planted this field last fall, and thanks to the drought only half of the seeds germinated, the other half sat in the field for the winter. Those seeds that did germinate never made it through the rough winter, as they didn't have enough moisture in the fall to get a good start. Moral of the story: 40 acres of alfalfa seed is now dead or rotten. Yuck!
Since we were building our lagoon last year we also postponed planting an additional 40 acres of alfalfa....so we need to plant 80 acres of alfalfa, hopefully this week! It's possible these fields will yield at least one cutting of haylage for us this year, but we're going to need some serious rain and sunshine to push it along. So that leaves us with the remaining fields from the past years (we plant a field of alfalfa and keep it for about 3-4 years). While the acres are small, they are very valuable....our only source for alfalfa for the summer. We still don't know that status of these fields. Hopefully with 70's in the forecast, we will have excellent news by the end of the week!
So what does this mean for the cows??? Well, we have already worked with our nutritionist and lowered the amount of alfalfa haylage in the cows' diet and replaced it with more corn silage. Our inventory of haylage from 2012 is disappearing VERY quickly! We'll be completely out in only a couple weeks. Alfalfa is a very important feed to our cows, supplying protein and fiber, so we want to continue to feed it while we can. By adding more corn silage we will be using more of our inventory than we expected as well...which means in August we may be rationing out our corn silage and replacing it with haylage....it's a balancing act. Ultimately we will continue to do our best to make the best forages possible for our cows....sacrificing nothing for our cows...they deserve the best care & nutrition!
Showing posts with label dairy nutritionist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dairy nutritionist. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Thursday, April 7, 2011
With high feed costs, we are Planning Ahead....
Well April is here! The weather has really improved in the past few days! We are enjoying more moderate temperatures and sunshine! Needless to say, we are working overtime on projects and getting a lot accomplished, but today was for planning ahead. Often times on a dairy farm, we need to plan ahead, schedule tasks, and make sure that we are using our time and resources to their fullest potential for our cows. Our dairy consultant/nutritionist Jeremy stopped in for his monthly visit and a planning meeting.
When Jeremy visits, he first walks through the groups of cows and makes observations. He evaluates how fat or thin our cows are, he watches them eat, he watches them pass manure (and checks that too), he checks our feed, and collects data about the milk we produce. All of this information helps him to make decisions about what to feed our cows and how much. Good nutrition is so important to our cows, so we depend on Jeremy's expertise everyday. Today's report was good: cows are chewing their cuds well, they are passing excellent manure and they are all in great condition (amount of weight they carry-we don't want them too fat or thin). After talking about the good news we got down to business.
With the recent increases in the corn price, our feed costs are out of control. The milk price is slowly keeping pace, but it will be hard to make a living milking cows in the next couple months. Knowing this we needed to develop a plan for our 2011 growing season. We will be planting our crops in the coming weeks, much of which will be harvested as alfalfa haylage or corn silage for our cows (forages). After going through all of our options to keep our costs low, while making sure we keep our cows healthy and productive, we decided that we will need to chop more corn silage for 2011. It is currently more economical to feed corn silage rather than dry corn to our cows, plus cows prefer forages anyways! We will still feed dry corn (cows need some dry corn too!), but at least we can cut the amount. We will need to continue to focus on making the best possible feed for our cows this summer, and pray for good growing conditions. We have a plan, to keep costs low while producing a great product (milk) from healthy cows. So as we start planting in the coming weeks, we will stick with the plan...stay tuned!
When Jeremy visits, he first walks through the groups of cows and makes observations. He evaluates how fat or thin our cows are, he watches them eat, he watches them pass manure (and checks that too), he checks our feed, and collects data about the milk we produce. All of this information helps him to make decisions about what to feed our cows and how much. Good nutrition is so important to our cows, so we depend on Jeremy's expertise everyday. Today's report was good: cows are chewing their cuds well, they are passing excellent manure and they are all in great condition (amount of weight they carry-we don't want them too fat or thin). After talking about the good news we got down to business.
With the recent increases in the corn price, our feed costs are out of control. The milk price is slowly keeping pace, but it will be hard to make a living milking cows in the next couple months. Knowing this we needed to develop a plan for our 2011 growing season. We will be planting our crops in the coming weeks, much of which will be harvested as alfalfa haylage or corn silage for our cows (forages). After going through all of our options to keep our costs low, while making sure we keep our cows healthy and productive, we decided that we will need to chop more corn silage for 2011. It is currently more economical to feed corn silage rather than dry corn to our cows, plus cows prefer forages anyways! We will still feed dry corn (cows need some dry corn too!), but at least we can cut the amount. We will need to continue to focus on making the best possible feed for our cows this summer, and pray for good growing conditions. We have a plan, to keep costs low while producing a great product (milk) from healthy cows. So as we start planting in the coming weeks, we will stick with the plan...stay tuned!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
God's Blessings...
It's truly inspirational on a farm some days. While we didn't receive the rain that we needed yet this week, we continue to pray and hold hope that the rain will come and the crops will be saved. This hope gives us optimism for another day, another chance, and this hope gives us the power to get through anything. Hope is our greatest power.
God's blessings are all around us on a dairy farm. The birth of a new calf is a blessing. A bright sunrise is a blessing, as well as a gorgeous sunset. The smells of fresh cut alfalfa, new rainfall, freshly dug soil, and yes even cow manure are all blessings. How often in life we take for granted the simple things, the things that really matter. I have always believed that farming, especially dairy farming is one of the few occupations that helps to bring you closer to God. In dairy farming, so much is out of our control, but is instead, random and natural. We hope in God...that if he led us to it he can lead us through it.
On January 2nd, 2009 I put my hope and faith in God. I walked away from my full time job in town...a job that I loved and a job that allowed me to work with some really great people...to join my husband. I worked for 4 years as a dairy nutritionist (I balanced and formulated diets for cows in my customers' herds-making sure that all of their dietary needs were met). I loved my job. I loved working with local dairy farmers who also loved their jobs and inspired me to do better for them.
BUT....we (Jonathan and I) decided it was time for a change....a change to help me pursue my real dream job in life-dairy farmer. Some wives of dairy farmers assume the position of wife of dairy farmer but more and more wives are now assuming the role of "partner" or even "primary operator". I became "partner". We make every decision together and we manage and care for our cows together each day. Being able to work with my spouse everyday as professionals is also a great blessing. We have put our hope in God that we made the right decisions, even if we are experiencing the worst milk prices in our short farming career. We just enjoy the simple things-like having dinner and supper together each day, kisses in the milking parlor, and laughing at a great joke while wrapping up chores. Striving for the same goals as husband and wife and professional partners makes for some exciting moments in life. Today was a day to appreciate this blessing from God!
God's blessings are all around us on a dairy farm. The birth of a new calf is a blessing. A bright sunrise is a blessing, as well as a gorgeous sunset. The smells of fresh cut alfalfa, new rainfall, freshly dug soil, and yes even cow manure are all blessings. How often in life we take for granted the simple things, the things that really matter. I have always believed that farming, especially dairy farming is one of the few occupations that helps to bring you closer to God. In dairy farming, so much is out of our control, but is instead, random and natural. We hope in God...that if he led us to it he can lead us through it.
On January 2nd, 2009 I put my hope and faith in God. I walked away from my full time job in town...a job that I loved and a job that allowed me to work with some really great people...to join my husband. I worked for 4 years as a dairy nutritionist (I balanced and formulated diets for cows in my customers' herds-making sure that all of their dietary needs were met). I loved my job. I loved working with local dairy farmers who also loved their jobs and inspired me to do better for them.
BUT....we (Jonathan and I) decided it was time for a change....a change to help me pursue my real dream job in life-dairy farmer. Some wives of dairy farmers assume the position of wife of dairy farmer but more and more wives are now assuming the role of "partner" or even "primary operator". I became "partner". We make every decision together and we manage and care for our cows together each day. Being able to work with my spouse everyday as professionals is also a great blessing. We have put our hope in God that we made the right decisions, even if we are experiencing the worst milk prices in our short farming career. We just enjoy the simple things-like having dinner and supper together each day, kisses in the milking parlor, and laughing at a great joke while wrapping up chores. Striving for the same goals as husband and wife and professional partners makes for some exciting moments in life. Today was a day to appreciate this blessing from God!
Also...interesting fact for the day-DAIRY FARMING STIMULATES THE ECONOMY ON ITS OWN-FOR EACH COW MILKING CREATES 12 OFF-FARM JOBS!!!!!!!!
I think that is awesome! Our 160 cow dairy farm produces 1920 jobs off-the -farm and in town!!!
These jobs are at banks, lumber yards, hardware stores, feed mills, trucking companies, agronomy centers, supply companies, veterinary centers, contracting companies, carpenters, plumbers, milking equipment companies, implement dealers, and many more!!!!
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