Today I had the honor of speaking at the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin's Business Conference, and let me tell you...it's been a blast! How awesome to see so many producers excited about milking cows, caring for cows, and communicating to consumers! It's been great to see many producers taking advantage of the great seminars with awesome topics...like how to handling our cows better or how to communicate with consumers more effectively. Dairy farmers are always striving to do a better job. We are always looking for new methods to make our cows more comfortable or increase the level of care they receive. New innovations are also displayed in the "Hall of Ideas", where I am looking forward to searching tomorrow...great new products from dairy companies that help us care for our cows! The other great thing about this conference, besides the education is the networking with fellow dairy farmers...
Let me tell you, it might not seem like it, but we dairy farmers are VERY social people. When we do get off of our farms we LOVE to talk with other dairy producers about what's working for them, what's working for us, new ideas with dairy industry representatives, and latest current events. It's great to share with producers from across the country your common frustrations and joys, because those are what bonds us together. It's been an awesome experience to share with fellow farmers the joys I have writing this blog, posting on Facebook and Twitter, as well as our YouTube channel. I hope many of those I spoke with today are as inspired as I am to continue sharing our stories...because dairy farmers have such GREAT stories! Thanks to all dairy farmers for the hard work that you do everyday! You are greatly appreciated!
Showing posts with label social interaction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social interaction. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Check out Cows n' Crowns!
Hey All! I've been busy lately, devoting time to my new blog Cows n' Crowns a tribute to the 50 years of Brown County Dairy Princesses. If you get a chance, please check it out, we are currenlty featuring princesses from the 1960's. It's been a blast collecting information from these lovely ladies! More to come in the next weeks.
As for the farm, well today was moving day for the calves. I usually move calves all at the same time when I have a group of 4 ready to move to group housing from the calf huts. Today was moving day for Theresa Joy and Theresa May. They have been growing so nicely. Both calves have gained about 50 pounds a piece, they have been dehorned, check by a vet and they are ready to be in a group pen. In this pen they will join 4 other calves, teaching them about social interaction, preventing them being over whelmed by new friends. We will move this group of 6 calves together for the rest of their lives as heifers (animals that have not had calves) until they freshen (have a calf). Theresa Joy and Theresa May were so easy to move with the halter. All of the attention from the preschool kids on our farm tour definitely helped to mellow them. It's amazing how much attention and care from humans helps to calm a calf, developing a future animal that will be easy to handle, trusting of humans. So I moved the calves inside, moved the previous calves in the smaller pen into a larger pen, the calves from the larger pen (about 12 head) were moved to the outside lot...where they will stay until they are comfirmed pregnant. Of course all of the calves were moved into pens that were freshly bedded, clean and dry.
Other than moving calves, Jonathan has been working on getting our hay equipment ready to go. We have about 7 days until we have to cut down 2nd cutting of alfalfa. So our clock is ticking ;)
As for the farm, well today was moving day for the calves. I usually move calves all at the same time when I have a group of 4 ready to move to group housing from the calf huts. Today was moving day for Theresa Joy and Theresa May. They have been growing so nicely. Both calves have gained about 50 pounds a piece, they have been dehorned, check by a vet and they are ready to be in a group pen. In this pen they will join 4 other calves, teaching them about social interaction, preventing them being over whelmed by new friends. We will move this group of 6 calves together for the rest of their lives as heifers (animals that have not had calves) until they freshen (have a calf). Theresa Joy and Theresa May were so easy to move with the halter. All of the attention from the preschool kids on our farm tour definitely helped to mellow them. It's amazing how much attention and care from humans helps to calm a calf, developing a future animal that will be easy to handle, trusting of humans. So I moved the calves inside, moved the previous calves in the smaller pen into a larger pen, the calves from the larger pen (about 12 head) were moved to the outside lot...where they will stay until they are comfirmed pregnant. Of course all of the calves were moved into pens that were freshly bedded, clean and dry.
Other than moving calves, Jonathan has been working on getting our hay equipment ready to go. We have about 7 days until we have to cut down 2nd cutting of alfalfa. So our clock is ticking ;)
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