Jumping through Hoops

Well, it's been another series of crazy weeks for us at the farm.  Beside the usual hussel and bussel of fall field work and running a dairy farm...we've been working hard on pushing forward our fall project for our cows.  Since we are young, starting dairy farmers, we have limited resources to use as collateral for the bank.  As a solution to help us better our farm, our banker suggested working with a branch of the government to secure financing for the riskiest portion of our barn project.  Sounds like a good plan, BUT just when we thought we met the criteria of the government agency, we only learn we have more hoops to jump through.  First, it was the need of an appraisal of our current farm, then it was forms that we had signed in early September that were now outdated and needed to be resigned, and now we needed to get "official" quotes for ALL work scheduled to be done on our barn project!  Oh good grief! 
If you've ever built anything, you know timing is everything and the longer this process continues, the farther into the fall we get, thereby increasing the risk of...oh that dreaded "s" word, SNOW!  We desperately need to make these changes to our farm for the betterment of our cows, so we can only hope that we are done jumping through hoops~!

Celebrating Ag Week!

This week we celebrate National Ag Week and Ag Day! This week focuses on celebrating the great industry in our nation that supplies us an affordable and safe food supply. If you had a meal today, you should probably thank the farmers that made it possible. Everyone from the corn and soybean growers, cow milkers, beef ranchers, fruit and vegetable producers, pork farmers, and poultry farmers had a hand in making your dinner, supper, lunch and breakfast a wholesome, nutritious and safe meal.

At Orange Patch Dairy we focus on making safe, wholesome products everyday. We eat and share those products (cheese and milk) with others. I know that I am truly grateful for the great farmers that we have had in the past. Farmers like my grandfathers and my husband's grandfathers who worked tirelessly starting their farmsteads, to be handed onto the next generations. I am also thankful for the next generation of farmers who are starting now. The times and seasons that a young starting farm face right now are sometimes unimaginable to the generations of past. As young farmers, we have faced some of the worst years in agriculture, only in the past 5 years. Our drive and determination to continue in the great occupation that our grandparents did helps us to push on to better times and greater success. I am truly thankful for my fellow young farmers-thank you for your strength, determination, inspiration, and support! I know that if we can make it through these hard times, the years that come will be all the more fruitful for ourselves and for all people who eat.

Happy Ag Week-Thank a Farmer!!!!