Just like when we get inspected by the milk inspector, it is time for us to have our feedlot inspection. You may ask, "What is a feedlot inspection?" Well...it's a good thing! Since we operate a farm that has over 300 Animal Units, we are required by county and state laws to have an inspection every couple of years. Animal Units is a unit of measure of manure output from livestock. 1 Holstein cows = 1.4 Animal Units, therefore our 200 cows are equal to 280 animal units, but our additional heifers and calves add to that total.
Tomorrow we have our County Feedlot Office scheduled to visit us. As part of her inspection, she will be touring all accepts of our farm. We will present to her records of where our manure has been hauled, how much was applied, and what nutrients were in the manure for the past 3 years. She will inspect our heifer and dry cow lots to determine if we manage our runoff (making sure there is no runoff). She will be inspecting our manure storage for our lactating cows, to determine if we have adequate storage, as well as checking ground water (making sure it is free of contamination). Since we are over 300 Animal Units, we work hard to maintain our farm and have a nutrient plan.
Odor is another concern that our officer will be checking. We work hard to control odor through covers on our pits and hauling manure when the wind is blowing away from the neighbors, but there are a couple times during the year that the farm does smell....cow poop does happen on a dairy farm. We try to be as kind to our neighbors as possible.
Part of the purpose of this visit is also to make sure a new project that we have planned for this winter, can still be constructed. We are working to make some changes to our buildings for the betterment of our cows....so stay tuned for pictures and updates on what we have up our sleeves ;)
Showing posts with label nutrient management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nutrient management. Show all posts
Friday, November 19, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
A Tale of Two Harvests...
In Minnesota we have been enjoying some AMAZING weather! It's been a record breaking week! We had 90's for 2 days this week, and 80's for 4 days. Last year at this time we had 2 inches of snow on the ground, 20's and most of the crops were in the field. This year most of the crops have been harvested, bedding is being made, and tillage will start in a few days. We have been so blessed this growing season with ample rain and heat. Our soybeans and corn have produced quite the bounty!
We are looking forward to the next few days to make more bedding for our cows, heifers and calves. Dry bedding helps us keep our cows clean and dry, in addition to keeping them healthy. Winter months and wet weather require literally tons of dry bedding to allow us to do a good job caring for our cows. After we wrap up bedding, we will work right into manure hauling. We have a few storage units holding months worth of cow, heifer and calf manure. We can't haul all of our manure in the growing season, so we store it until the fall when we can hit the fields hard. By applying the manure to fields, according to our agronomist's recommendations, we utilize all of our farm nutrients and reduce our need for commercial fertilizer. We also apply manure on some of our neighbors' fields to help make sure that we don't over apply manure on our farm. We use manure as a trading item with our neighbors. In exchange for valuable nutrients and organic matter, we get the opportunity to make bedding from our neighbors' corn and soybean fields. So it's a win/win for everyone. So...hopefully I will get some pictures up soon.
We are looking forward to the next few days to make more bedding for our cows, heifers and calves. Dry bedding helps us keep our cows clean and dry, in addition to keeping them healthy. Winter months and wet weather require literally tons of dry bedding to allow us to do a good job caring for our cows. After we wrap up bedding, we will work right into manure hauling. We have a few storage units holding months worth of cow, heifer and calf manure. We can't haul all of our manure in the growing season, so we store it until the fall when we can hit the fields hard. By applying the manure to fields, according to our agronomist's recommendations, we utilize all of our farm nutrients and reduce our need for commercial fertilizer. We also apply manure on some of our neighbors' fields to help make sure that we don't over apply manure on our farm. We use manure as a trading item with our neighbors. In exchange for valuable nutrients and organic matter, we get the opportunity to make bedding from our neighbors' corn and soybean fields. So it's a win/win for everyone. So...hopefully I will get some pictures up soon.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Flash Flooding!
2 days ago it started raining at about 1pm, stopping all farm field activities, and it continued to rain for almost 24 hours producing almost 4 inches of rain onto of already saturated soils. As a result, we experienced a Flash Flood and we are currently still in a Flood Warning. Some MN communities to the south of us had even more rain! It was reported that over 10 inches fell in less than 24 hours southeast of here. Want to check out what that looks like? See fellow dairy farmer Merri Post's pictures to give you an idea what the flood looking like. At Orange Patch Dairy, we had a LOT of standing water in the cows and heifer yards, as well as flowing over field roads to the south of our farm. It was amazing to see so much rain fall in such a short time period. Corn and soybeans in the field are now standing in water, in some places the water is almost as high as the ears of corn and soybeans are completely submerged. This flood will be delaying what was going to be an early harvest, but that's how it goes in nature and agriculture.
All of this water reminded me why it is so important to work to protect our farm environments. With this much water, we did experience runoff from our cow yards, and yes that runoff water did contain cow manure (fast moving rain water will pick up cow manure and wash it away). BUT....when we built our new barn, we had to develop a plan for an event just like this!!!! When we built our barn 5 years ago, our county required us to build a drainage ditch with a natural grass filter strip and a sediment catch. This ditch works to collect runoff water from the cow yards, stop top soil from running away, and stops cow manure from floating into the area rivers via our drain tiles & ditches. It's a really simple design; yesterday we got to see it work. The runoff water (complete with cow manure) runs into a large zig/zagged deep dug ditch. This ditch is filled with naturally growing grasses and native plants from our area. These plants slow the flow of the water, allowing the soil and manure particles to drop out of the water solution. The plants also use nutrients in the water to grow. By the time the water flows to the sediment catch, the water is pretty much free of manure. This water now flows into the drainage tile and to the drainage ditch.
We were able to build our ditch with funds from NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program). This federally funded program gives grants to farmers who apply, to improve their livestock operations to better protect the natural environment that surrounds their farms and the animals that make their farms habitats. Rest assured that the dollars that we received went straight to the engineering and construction costs of our ditch. We worked hard to design a system that would be able to handle most heavy rainfall events for our area while conserving the amount of space that it uses. I know that this ditch is working well for our environment as well as providing habitat for a number of ducks and geese that like to stop buy for a swim. So, at times like this I would like to thank the NRCS for the funds to protect our environment and our farm for generations to come!
All of this water reminded me why it is so important to work to protect our farm environments. With this much water, we did experience runoff from our cow yards, and yes that runoff water did contain cow manure (fast moving rain water will pick up cow manure and wash it away). BUT....when we built our new barn, we had to develop a plan for an event just like this!!!! When we built our barn 5 years ago, our county required us to build a drainage ditch with a natural grass filter strip and a sediment catch. This ditch works to collect runoff water from the cow yards, stop top soil from running away, and stops cow manure from floating into the area rivers via our drain tiles & ditches. It's a really simple design; yesterday we got to see it work. The runoff water (complete with cow manure) runs into a large zig/zagged deep dug ditch. This ditch is filled with naturally growing grasses and native plants from our area. These plants slow the flow of the water, allowing the soil and manure particles to drop out of the water solution. The plants also use nutrients in the water to grow. By the time the water flows to the sediment catch, the water is pretty much free of manure. This water now flows into the drainage tile and to the drainage ditch.
We were able to build our ditch with funds from NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program). This federally funded program gives grants to farmers who apply, to improve their livestock operations to better protect the natural environment that surrounds their farms and the animals that make their farms habitats. Rest assured that the dollars that we received went straight to the engineering and construction costs of our ditch. We worked hard to design a system that would be able to handle most heavy rainfall events for our area while conserving the amount of space that it uses. I know that this ditch is working well for our environment as well as providing habitat for a number of ducks and geese that like to stop buy for a swim. So, at times like this I would like to thank the NRCS for the funds to protect our environment and our farm for generations to come!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Rain Delay
I just thought I would take some time to blog, as I might be missing in action for the remainder of the week. We are patiently waiting for Mother Nature to cooperate with us; we are waiting to cut our 2nd cutting of alfalfa. We have enjoyed some much needed rain for the past few days and it has been great for the corn and soybeans, but it has made a mess out of our silage bag pad and we know our alfalfa fields will most certainly be moist and soft. Today we saw the sun for the first time in days, and it was a welcomed sight! With a little bit of a breeze we started to see dry soil again. We will need more days like this before we can hit the fields, but it sounds as though we have a chance of rain again on Thursday.
Time will tell, but for the time being, Jon was able to haul liquid manure over to the neighbor's harvested pea field. It's great to have such ag-friendly neighbors who appreciate the value of cow manure and its ability to grow great crops! We definitely appreciate having neighbors who will take our cow manure. By doing this they help us make sure we don't over apply nutrients on our own fields as well as stay within the limits of our manure management plan. Plus, sharing manure with neighbors helps them grow awesome corn too!
We were also able to take some time to work on a cow who suddenly developed a sore foot. Isabel, our 3 year old cow (who has had 2 calves and is pregnant with her third) started to favor her front left foot on Sunday. Sometimes cows will injure their feet like people do, misstepping. Other times cows have a more serious issue like a sore or infection. We trim the entire herd twice a year, which eliminates most problems, but since it's been about 5 months since the last trimming, little issues like this sometimes pop up. Isabel continued to favor that foot, so we decided yesterday morning (Monday) that she needed some medical attention. We lifted her foot with a rope, as we don't have a hoof trimming chute. She was actually a great patient. She calmly stood on 3 legs as Jon diligently worked to carve out the bottom of her foot. He carved hoping to find the problem, but we didn't find anything wrong with her foot! When we were about to give up on Isabel, Jon checked for a second time between her toes and found what appeared to be a small sore. Sure enough, that was our problem...a small sore that looked to have developed from a small stone getting stuck in her hoof. Cow's hooves are much like our fingernails, so they can pick up stones occasionally. We removed the small stone and the hoof tissue that was damaged. We applied some salve to help heal Isabel's foot and wrapped her up. While Isabel didn't start walking perfectly right away, she definitely was running around today! Keeping a close eye on our cows is critical to keeping them healthy. By catching Isabel's foot injury early we prevented any further damage to her foot as well as the risk that she could have slipped, fell and hurt herself even more. We work hard to prevent injuries and illness, but early detection also helps maintain healthy cows!
Hopefully I will be doing hay soon...pictures to follow!
Time will tell, but for the time being, Jon was able to haul liquid manure over to the neighbor's harvested pea field. It's great to have such ag-friendly neighbors who appreciate the value of cow manure and its ability to grow great crops! We definitely appreciate having neighbors who will take our cow manure. By doing this they help us make sure we don't over apply nutrients on our own fields as well as stay within the limits of our manure management plan. Plus, sharing manure with neighbors helps them grow awesome corn too!
We were also able to take some time to work on a cow who suddenly developed a sore foot. Isabel, our 3 year old cow (who has had 2 calves and is pregnant with her third) started to favor her front left foot on Sunday. Sometimes cows will injure their feet like people do, misstepping. Other times cows have a more serious issue like a sore or infection. We trim the entire herd twice a year, which eliminates most problems, but since it's been about 5 months since the last trimming, little issues like this sometimes pop up. Isabel continued to favor that foot, so we decided yesterday morning (Monday) that she needed some medical attention. We lifted her foot with a rope, as we don't have a hoof trimming chute. She was actually a great patient. She calmly stood on 3 legs as Jon diligently worked to carve out the bottom of her foot. He carved hoping to find the problem, but we didn't find anything wrong with her foot! When we were about to give up on Isabel, Jon checked for a second time between her toes and found what appeared to be a small sore. Sure enough, that was our problem...a small sore that looked to have developed from a small stone getting stuck in her hoof. Cow's hooves are much like our fingernails, so they can pick up stones occasionally. We removed the small stone and the hoof tissue that was damaged. We applied some salve to help heal Isabel's foot and wrapped her up. While Isabel didn't start walking perfectly right away, she definitely was running around today! Keeping a close eye on our cows is critical to keeping them healthy. By catching Isabel's foot injury early we prevented any further damage to her foot as well as the risk that she could have slipped, fell and hurt herself even more. We work hard to prevent injuries and illness, but early detection also helps maintain healthy cows!
Hopefully I will be doing hay soon...pictures to follow!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Hauling Manure-Day 3, DONE! FINALLY!
A quick look back at what it was like to be finished hauling manure, back in November 2009! We hauled it out again this spring but instead of being hauled to the field it was stored at a friend's farm where he will spread it this coming fall on his fields. Spring manure hauling sometimes is tricky with wet soils and spring rains we can have soil compaction, making for poor growing conditions for the crops.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Rain again...
Yep, it's definitely raining again. Looks like we could get over an half an inch. We enjoyed about 3.5 days of almost perfect weather. Local farmers were able to get into the fields and start harvesting their soybeans and corn. Some tillage has also started. We are still unable to harvest our corn, since it is too wet and the cost of drying it is too high. We are waiting for the custom harvester to come and combine our soybeans, so we found other activities to do....MANURE removal.
My father-in-law and brother-in-law worked on moving our manure from the calf/heifer barn this morning. I worked on hauling out liquid manure from the cow barn and Jonathan worked on cleaning up the dry cows and heifer lots. All in all, a LOT of fertilizer was moved to the fields today. We will work this fertilizer into the soils to make an awesome bed for next year's crops. A "Fall Cleaning" of manure. We were very excited about the dry weather, sad about the rain today and tomorrow, but looking forward to the forecast for next week....cool and DRY.
My father-in-law and brother-in-law worked on moving our manure from the calf/heifer barn this morning. I worked on hauling out liquid manure from the cow barn and Jonathan worked on cleaning up the dry cows and heifer lots. All in all, a LOT of fertilizer was moved to the fields today. We will work this fertilizer into the soils to make an awesome bed for next year's crops. A "Fall Cleaning" of manure. We were very excited about the dry weather, sad about the rain today and tomorrow, but looking forward to the forecast for next week....cool and DRY.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Corn planting continues
Corn planting continues at Orange Patch Dairy. My father in law was able to put in about 65 acres of corn in today and yesterday. He was having his usual early season problems with our 8-row John Deere planter yesterday, which slowed him down. The planter was skipping in a couple of rows...making for very uneven rows of corn. SO.....we brought it home, got it in the shop and fixed it. Back to the field. The weather forecast looks good for the coming days, so we are hoping to apply the last little bit of fertilizer, work that in, and finish planting our 250 acres of corn for the year. Since we work with our agronomist on nutrient management, we are able to utilize our natural fertilizer (manure) first for our fields. Our agronomist pulls soil and manure samples to calculate the amount of commercial fertilizer we need to apply each spring. Usually we only need to apply a "pop up" fertilizer. This fertilizer is used to help the corn plants get a good start on the growing season, after that the plants will rely on the organic matter, nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous of our cow manure!
Del Monte Foods delivered the packer for the pea field but no drill yet, so I guess that means that the peas will be planted soon! I love peas from the field! We usually plant about 30-40 acres of peas each year to be harvested sometime in mid-June. This allows us to have an empty field in the summer for manure application. Once the sweet corn is harvested in July/August then we move to applying manure on that field and seed the old pea field in with alfalfa. If we time it just right, we get a good rain in August and the fall seeded alfalfa is off to the races! The beauty of farming is getting the most from each acre without depleting it of nutrients. By rotating our crops and planting different types of crops like alfalfa, peas and sweet corn, we are able to better utilize our soils for our cows and our farm.
Del Monte Foods delivered the packer for the pea field but no drill yet, so I guess that means that the peas will be planted soon! I love peas from the field! We usually plant about 30-40 acres of peas each year to be harvested sometime in mid-June. This allows us to have an empty field in the summer for manure application. Once the sweet corn is harvested in July/August then we move to applying manure on that field and seed the old pea field in with alfalfa. If we time it just right, we get a good rain in August and the fall seeded alfalfa is off to the races! The beauty of farming is getting the most from each acre without depleting it of nutrients. By rotating our crops and planting different types of crops like alfalfa, peas and sweet corn, we are able to better utilize our soils for our cows and our farm.
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