2010...the end

The discussion this morning in the barn was that today could finally be a day that we could do whatever we wanted since nothing is pushing us that had to be done, other than basic chores.  Of course for me thats about 4 1/2 hrs. for milking and for Bruce that ends up it being about 7 1/2 hours when you add up feeding, milking, feeding goats, fixing Ed's silo.  I enjoyed a nap.  Bruce reports he fell asleep at the table for an hour.  Sometimes naps have to sneak up on him it seems.  This afternoon I was in the mood to work on getting our books out of here so the accountant can do our taxes.  I mentioned our income stuff earlier.  Our expenses break down as follows:  purchased feed 17%, rent of equipment and property 12%,  payroll, employee benefits and cropping expenses each at 11%, utilities (elec. & phone), machine repairs and interest expense are each 4%, property taxes and property insurance are 3% each and our vet and general herd health costs and custom hired equipment/people are 2%.  The primary feed we purchase is a protein mix that in Feb. 2010 was $346 ton.  This month the same mix is $522.  While the corporation shows an operating loss, it was a good year here after hearing stories of how other farms are surviving.

Just when we get everyone milking in the tank and the milking process streamlined one of our March cows had her calf tonight while Bruce was feeding.  Welcome to another bull calf.  We are FULL with calves and having to get creative as to where to put them.  Hopefully we can get some animals into the other barn and free up space here this week.

Stuff

The first phone call of the day was "can you dress warm and come out and run the corn silage unloader"?  That certainly isn't a sign of a good day but I went out and watched the mixer while the 550#  of corn silage ran in. While I did this Bruce was up in the silo watching the unloader going around and trying to figure out what its issue is. At this point he thinks in this cold weather it needs the collector ring dismantled and greased so that it turns easier. While I was waiting and watching I did have entertainment.  Mike came charging into the feed room all excited that I was there.  It wasn't long before he came in again, this time with his kong.  Our previous dog, Max, was a professional at playing fetch, so much so that if you ignored him long enough you would have a stick, pine cone, ice cream pail cover, 5 gallon pail cover, plastic milk jug, random piece of wood and even a rock at your feet to choose from.  Once, while Bruce had help here pouring cement, Max was the self appointed entertainment committee for the cement truck driver. Since the driver had arms, Max pulled one of the height marking stakes right out of Bruce' project for him to throw.  Mike doesn't get that concept.  He spent the first 6 months of his life either kenneled or running with about about 10 other border collies.  We suspect "keep away" was not only fun but a survival thing at that point in his life.  His version of playing fetch is running into the feed room, and as soon as you acknowledge he has something, turning and bounding out to get away.  He played this game at least 10 times while I was there but once when he came in I lunged at him as though I was going to jump over the 4 ft. wall and grab him.  It's hilarious seeing a crazy happy 2 1/2 ft long dog turn around in a 1 ft space!

Normally Bruce leaves the house first to mix feed and I come out in time to help milk.  When things go badly I tend to start milking myself just to keep the work of the day moving along.  He did announce that feeding wouldn't take as long now that his electric feed cart had all 3 speeds again.  He then explained that every time the connection would fail he would have to go around to the other end and kick the battery box to get it going. The connection that was bothering was the one on the battery tray that pulls out so you can work on the batteries.  At times it would stop in end alleys or corners where he couldn't get past the cart and he would have to go all the way around a row of cows to get to the "kicking" side.  Sometimes it would move1 ft and he would have to do it again.  He is more than thrilled he managed to get it working yesterday.

We spent the middle part of our day going to the funeral of a neighbor, 62, who died of lung cancer.  She was soft spoken, generous and had no health history to suggest she should have a cancer diagnosis in Nov. 2009. It's sad when farmers spend their whole lives working, and when they finally get to the point of being free to do things, one of them is gone.  Perhaps she can be a wake up call for the rest of us.

All day it has snowed on and off, big fluffy flakes.  By this point tonight we have at least 4 inches on the ground.  Life will get interesting when the wind blows again. Bruce spent the afternoon filling feed box again while I spent mine paying the bills.  Today is the "guess" milk check day along with the arrival of our steer check.  I do not believe we have ever seen fed cattle prices this high. Given the fallout in 2009 and the forecast of fuel prices etc. we most definitely have a place for this money to go.  All of our financial records are done on computer.  I love to hit "print" and be able to read what it says.  My hands don't write like they should and I can get so much more detailed information this way.  I follow a long history of record keepers on this farm, all the way back to a little black book written in the 1880's in German.  We always find it interesting to look at the numbers in total at the end of the year.  So far, this looks like it could be our first good year in quite awhile.  It is also February.  Gotta love endless farmer optimism.

Great End Of The Week : )

Today we continued the hoof trimming project.  During the waiting time Bruce removed a stall mattress that needs to be replaced.  We moved 2 calves out into the hutches.  I continued to wash pipeline and by the end of the day had the whole thing done!  I have to make honorable mention for Dr's. Karna, Steve, Anne Marie and of course Ibuprofen for making it all possible!!!  One project Bruce worked on was the electric feed cart.  One of the connections wasn't working correctly so all 3 speeds weren't working.  Normally he would have picked the feed cart up with the skid steer and pallet forks but the doors are frozen shut yet and he couldn't get through the steer yard.  He spent the afternoon laying on the feed alley and working under it with his head lamp on, alternating with moving cattle around for Jared.  He is glad to have that project off the "to do" list.

Before trimming

After trimming.  It doesn't look pretty but now she will walk straight.

A couple of the things Bruce did yesterday, after cleaning where the goats have been living, was make a pail holder out of scrap metal strap and also bringing in a barrel bottom for a feeder.  We knew they were wasting feed but we also now realize that they weren't really drinking as much water as we thought.  The little ones don't quite get the concept of what the barrel is entirely for.

While we were working inside, Ed managed to haul 8 loads of manure out of the steer yard.  That's the last big cleaning project left but much of it is frozen yet.  We were glad he cleaned what he could.  Anything done now makes spring planting go more smoothly.

Tonight we had everything current.  Pipeline clean and marked. Culture and drug results done.  Cows where they belong.  Calves where they belong.  It's been a LONG chaotic month.  We still have 6 dry cows in two groups.  The bulk tank weights are going UP for a change!  We are going to like getting back to a more normal routine.

Super Crazy Busy Good Day

We had the hoof trimmer here today, which is primarily the reason we moved cattle yesterday over to Ed's.  The original plan was to move them to our other barn but Bruce found more to fix there than he had anticipated.  At some point he will have to fix the fence that the snow has taken down but for this week we just went to plan B.  With the middle pen open, Jared backs his trim chute right into our barn.  This has proven to work great since he can come here in any kind of weather.  Today was nice enough (for February) to have the doors open which was a nice change. Jared's chute has electric lights, hydraulics etc so he really doesn't need more than a plug in.  The cattle are taken through the gates and into the chute where the head gates close on the front like a stanchion to catch them.  The entire chute lifts the animal so they are at a people friendly work height and belly bands lift to support the animal while their feet are pulled up, generally one side at a time.  He uses an angle grinder with a rotoclip head on it (wheel with carbide inserts)  to reshape their hooves and hoof knives to remove any troublesome tissue.  Generally the problems he finds are over growth, warts & heel cracks but occasionally they can have a sole ulcer.  Once they are trimmed they are bandaged if needed and then they are ready to go.  We have them checked this time of year so their feet and legs are ready to do the work of traveling on the pasture.  While the cattle are in the chute,  we have short waits while he is trimming and we use this time to do small odd jobs.  Today we moved calves in to the pen in the barn and the new calves out into the hutches.  I washed the pipeline and vacuum line while each cow was out being trimmed. That works great for me since I am too short to do it while the cattle are standing there. We use wet erase markers and make the PVC vacuum line our "message board" of sorts, identifying the cow and also if she had a dry quarter.  We use leg bands to identify dry, staph and hold cows, each with different colors.  Bruce forked out the areas where the calves and goats have been and rebedded.  Most importantly, we trimmed in such a way that the cows that had been moved all over the barn to create dry groups, were actually put back where they belong!!!  We like our cows to go back into the same stanchions all the time and it was kind of surprising how many still remembered where to go after being inside so long.

With everyone moved again milking was a bit challenging, especially since I started by myself.  It didn't take too long before it all made sense.  Round 2 tomorrow....

The entrance to the chute.  Jared shuts gates while he is working  and we have another cow waiting in this pen

They are bandaged after a tetracycline poultice for warts or to protect the heel after the overgrowth is removed  that  causes heel cracks and then bacterial infections which erode the hoof further

The feet are pulled up and secured so they can be trimmed.  Once they are done the chute goes back down to the floor and the head gate opens so they can exit from the front.  He is then ready for the next waiting cow.

Red bands identify dry cows, green bands identify staph aureus cows, pink bands are cows with milk  being held out of the tank.  As Joe noted, black number is the address and the blue numbers are their names.

Cattle Shuffle

It wasn't exactly an eventful day but we did stir some animals.  We managed to get the gates loose and sell 6 steers.  Bruce bedded the yard at Ed's and then we took a dozen animals out of the back of the barn and put them in the yard there.  Now the center pen is open and available for the next couple days.  The cattle will all get their hooves trimmed in anticipation of the grazing season.  It is kind of funny, in fall we get excited about the cows coming back in and then by this point we are ready to kick them out.

Done With February Calves-Yipee!

Our day started with a phone call again.  Another bull calf has arrived.  When I arrived at the barn Bruce was just feeding cows so I started milking myself while he did that and got bedding down.  I was just doing what I needed to do and then suddenly realized another cow had feet sticking out.  A heifer calf, #899 was born before we were done milking.  That is the end of our February calvings!!!!!  The next calf is due March 9 and there are only 4 that month.  We are grateful that the last calvings were much less chaos than the earlier ones.  That leaves my current calf count at 8 heifers and 10 bulls to feed.  I will wean 4 the minute I can get them into the barn again.  With the grazing of cows our freshening of cattle has turned a bit more seasonal.  I had 2 calves in mid Sept. and 1 in late Dec.  I have to say, I got really spoiled with a break that long and this month has been just a bit intense keeping everything going.

Bruce spent the day plowing snow, this time to a barn at our neighboring place.  To this point we didn't have animals that needed to go down there but the barn here is full and its time to move some out.  We've put off using this barn mainly because its the least handy to use, having been remodeled from a dairy barn originally and then a beef barn.  It has low ceilings and the yard is steep. The other thing he did down there was check the fences to make sure they are all working.  We have another feed box available for this yard so Bruce also got that out from where it was parked and ready to go.  Since we are trying to get Ed's silo empty, getting animals down there on a feed box should also help. The feed box for the heifers here got filled today since the winds were cooperative. Bruce took milk cultures tonight so we can get everyone where they need to be and milking streamlined.  To do milk cultures we need a sterile milk sample. This is done by wearing new milking gloves and then scrubbing each teat with alcohol and individual gauze pads, paying special attention to getting the ends clean.  You then carefully squeeze some milk  out of each teat being careful not to touch the teat ends.  The cultures get done by our vet clinic and we should have results back before the weekend.

Lucky day

I guess sometimes you get lucky.  The brunt of the storm went north of us.  We ended up with a few inches of sleet but nothing that even needs plowing!  It is still slippery out there but easy enough to get around on.

Bruce continued the pen cleaning adventures today but it was a much smaller production.  These pens are in the back of our barn where it isn't supposed to freeze.  We still had an east wind today which is a good direction for having the doors open and being able to get  it done.  It did mist all day so the push buttons on cab door latches would freeze and the window on one side was frozen full.  This was nothing more than an aggravation in the process so he just cleaned anyway. We need to have this area cleaned out by Thursday when the hoof trimmer comes, and since Bruce has an advanced grazing class tomorrow, today seemed like the best day.  We have 6-8 pens in the back so the cleaning process involves lots of animals to move.  We have a border collie named Mike.  He is 3 1/2 years old, purebred, tri color, short coat.  All that said, he doesn't look at all like the black and white border collies we have had in the past.  Now that the days have been warmer he has been thrilled to be out helping.  Even when there is nothing for him to do he loves to watch the steers or the goats.  In summer he lays by the fence for hours.  We refer to this as "goat TV".   In summer he allows Bruce to drive him around on "his" 4 wheeler.  He herds the cows, heifers and goats wherever Bruce wants them to go.  We are probably the only farm in the county that, if there are animals out, the dog and Bruce go put them in.  We have had 2 other border collies.  The first, Buddy, was good as a working dog for Bruce but didn't really like people.  If you tried to pet him and praise him he would growl.  He had a stubborn streak and we really had to get on him at times, to do what we wanted.   Even with that, he worked well for us and lived to be 9.  The second one we had was named Max.  Max was a people friendly dog who could play fetch for hours.  People were just arms to throw things and he would bring you a variety of things to choose from.  He was a good dog also but tended to get pretty excited and would make his own plan at times regardless of what Bruce wanted.  He was a good worker and a friend and lived to be 13.  His were big shoes to fill.  We found Mike in northern Wisconsin.  He was already 6 months old and had been kenneled so we had a few bad habits to break.  Within a couple months he was herding for Bruce.  When you say "lie down" he drops, chin on the ground.  Anyone who has worked with these dogs knows that they take the term "lie down" as more of a suggestion and just getting them to stop is sometimes as good as it gets. He is an incredible worker and sometimes, even after having border collies this many years, he and Bruce will do things with the goats or cattle that stop me in amazement.  In winter he has tennis balls to burn us his energy.  He carries one in his mouth and actually dribbles 1 or 2 with his front feet all over the house.  These dogs thrive on being busy.  There will probably never be a video of him doing this.  He has no problem looking a 1500# cow in the eye and leaping 3 feet high to bite her nose to turn her around but for some reason he is scared to death of the camera!   I think to mention him tonight because Bruce got lots done today with his help so it was a good day for Bruce.  Mike, on the other hand, got a bath.  There is nothing worse than clean water!

Mike, before he was afraid of the camera

Again, ahead of the storm, well kind of

The forecast was for snow and ice to move in over night so we were surprised to wake up to nothing going on.  Ed called early, offering to start cleaning his yard since it too was stomping through and the ground was still open.  While we were milking last night and after Ed got done, he realized his key had been left on in his truck.  Since it was still here he walked the 1/4 mile over and got the skid steer to start piling.  The cattle got fenced on the back side of the bunk so the gates can be wide open and he could just work.  Since the dog was here he used the next best thing to get them where they needed to be, bribery with corn!  There are a number of reasons we are so excited about the opportunity to get this done. It has been a very long winter.  Normally we would have had opportunity to do this at least a month go.  The ground is open so we can get it where it needs to go.  No piling and reloading etc.  Cattle comfort, it will now be easier for them to get around, eat and lie down.  The build up of manure and bedding was making it much more difficult to get the feed box under the elevator.  Since getting that silo empty is pretty important we will be able to continue that process with the yard cleaned.  While we were milking Ed came to get the tractor and they decided to put the chains on since it had started to mist and the road was slippery.  I milked while Bruce helped and as soon as we got done milking Bruce headed over to run the skid steer so once again they could make great progress.  By the late afternoon and 22 loads later they had the yard totally cleaned.  We had sleet for most of the day instead of the foot of snow in the forecast.  Both barns cleaned.  Bruce is ecstatic!  Final tally, 45 loads x 6 ton per load = 540,000# and 9 acres ready to dig and plant corn, 16 hours on the spreader tractor, 14 hours on the skid steer.

The yard, back to concrete and much easier to park the feed box in

This barn was full to the stanchions.  Just cleaning out the final corners

350 bushel spreader

This is a corn fodder stack we use for bedding.  They get hauled home and pushed in with the skid steer

A Farmer Home Run Day : )

Walking home last night under a full moon and bright stars.  Nice. Waking up at 2 a.m. for a bathroom stop and camera check and finding a calf has arrived.  Waking Bruce up to handle it...Hmmm  Seeing a bald eagle go right over while I was feeding calves this morning. Awesome! I guess 2 out of 3 isn't bad!

Just when the fields are coming out and the barns are thawing they have a storm in the forecast.  Not just a basic storm, this one has ice and then potentially a foot of snow.  The barns thawing this time of year mean cattle are breaking through so getting around in there for them is like us wading in crotch deep snow.  Bruce had to use the skid steer and cut a hole through an 8 ft snow bank, plowed up by the county,  to get to our fields.  Manure gets spread on 2nd year and after corn ground.  Corn uses a lot of nitrogen to grow.  The first year this nitrogen is provided in the rotting and break down of the previous crop which is generally alfalfa.  After that it needs to be provided with some form of fertilizer.  A byproduct of having cattle is manure so other than weather issues the two enterprises compliment each other well.  Ed came over and hauled loads and spread while Bruce used the skid steer to clean out the barn and chisel the yards loose. This makes the job go much faster since Bruce can have a load already piled and waiting to load when the empty spreader gets back .  By the time they were done they had hauled 23 loads!  Bruce also got a few stacks home and bedded the barn again.  Days like this, when we make huge progress, especially with a storm coming is our Home Run Day!!  With the storm warnings posted we decided to keep the newest 2 calves in the barn.  The plan was to set the last 2 hutches but now it will be less to clean around if we wait.  I went and got the storm panels for the last 7 hutches and tied them on so we will be ready for the clean up.  I hadn't put coats on the last 2 calves because it was so nice out but I put them on today.  They will appreciate them with this weather change.  This morning we took 4 milk samples for drugs and all 4 cows passed.  A couple of them are too early to milk into the tank because they just had their calves but we have the information we need when the time is right.  Bruce says this is good because it will give him more time to plow snow.  Here we go again.....

Milk Checks & Misc.

This morning started out with another bull calf.  We had hopes of a couple more special cows passing their drug tests but in the chaos of getting out of here today we forgot the samples.  Oops : (   Today was another day of appointments in town and a "farmer date".

Yesterday was milk check day.  Our price is based off the class III milk price but this is the check in which we get paid for the balance we have coming for our January milk.  Every load of milk that leaves our farm is tested for drug residues, butterfat, protein, solids and somatic cell count.  Twice a month a random sample is also checked for bacteria's that monitor our sanitation process for prepping cows before milking and our pipeline washing system.  We are paid based on pounds of butterfat, protein and solids.  At times there has been a deduction for solids depending on what the markets are for this product.  If our somatic cell count goes too high there is a deduction for that but there is also opportunity for premiums if we keep it low.  This check also includes bonuses based on volume, quality, zone differential and our sanitation reports.  Since this all varies from month to month, the easiest comparison is the class III base.  This month that base price is $13.48.  That translates into $1.16 per gallon.  Premiums add approximately $ .50 to that.  Within the last 15 years the highest price was in 2008 at $19.32 and the lowest was in 2003 at $9.78.  In 1996, the first year in this history it was $12.73.  I will post this information monthly.  The price volatility in recent years has caused tremendous financial losses, the worst being in 2009 when the prices were as low as $9.31 while the costs for fuel, seed and feed skyrocketed.

With our warm weather the fields are really starting to come out of the snow.  This will be helpful since the barns and yards are thawing and we can spread manure directly where it needs to go.  As small as we are, we are firstly caretakers of animals that provide our living.  In doing that we are agronomists that grow crops as feed and are responsible for the soils and fertility that make that happen.  We are also environmentalists, always aware that this is our land.  Our water source is in the center of it.  We are constantly aware of the issues of run off, chemical use and soil erosion.  Balancing all this with weather, limited labor and growing seasons can be a challenge.  Every year is different because the weather is unpredictable and for some odd reason we go into every spring with an optimism for a new year.

Mixing Feed In Pictures

Over summer we harvest 3 - 4 alfalfa crops and in fall we harvest corn, chopping the plants and then blowing this feed into our 20' x 60' stave silo's.  The closest one is full of corn silage and the further one is full of haylage.  The feed is blown up the pipes on the left.  You can see a caged ladder that can be used to climb the silo on the outside and look in a door from above.  After the feed in blown in, its own weight packs it down and it ferments which is what keeps it from spoiling. These silo's have unloaders that grind the feed off the top and blow it through a pipe to a door.  From there it is dropped in a tube to an elevator below.  The haylage silo has a short elevator into the main elevator.  The corn silage drops directly into the main elevator and then goes directly into the mixer. A silo like this holds approximately 500 tons of feed.  In fall our corn is shelled and blown through a pipe into our 20' x 60' harvestore.  This is a glass lined, oxygen limiting, steel silo where the corn also ferments.  This silo is full of individual corn kernels and has an unloader in the bottom.  The corn gravity flows down and the unloader drops it into a hopper and auger where it is delivered to a 4'x4'x8' holding bin in our barn.

The corn gravity flows out of the bin and is held by a slide that closes.  We use ropes downstairs to open or close this slide.  Below the slide is a flipper that deflects the corn to either the tube going to the green/red roller mill on the right or to the orange hammermill on the left.  This too is changed with the pull of a rope.  The roller mill on the right is used for the steer and calf feed.  The hammermill on the left is used for the cow feed.  The ground feed is then dropped into a hopper and into a tube where it drops into our grain cart.

The ropes to the left open and close the bin.  The red ropes switch between processors.

Hammermilled corn is fine like cornmeal.  This makes it more digestible for the cows.  This cart is parked and ready to unload into the auger hopper.

This is the heart of the project...the mixer.  The elevator on top delivers the haylage and corn silage.  The corn is delivered by being dumped into a hopper and augered up into the mixer. (red auger in front)  The protein mix is delivered into the mixer via the auger on the right that dumps into a metal slide.  The large overhead door allows us to deliver feed out of our silage bags by dumping it into the mixer with the skid steer.

Our custom mix protein is delivered by bulk truck  through a cover on top

Corn after it goes through the roller mill.

The haylage is actually brown but the flash makes it look this color.

Corn silage coming into the mixer on top of the haylage

Corn Silage

We have a battery operated feed cart to deliver the mix to the cows

The original plan for the day was to try and sell steers but it was so foggy that I could hardly see the barn from the house.  The only projects for the day were fixing the flashing lights on our big tractor and digging around in the yards some more.  It is starting to feel more like March with everything thawing the start of the "mud" season.  Colder by next week.

Conspiracy Theory

I have to say it's nice to have all the calves lined up in hutches.  They have their bottles figured out so I just drop them in the holders and go out later and get them when they are done.  The pneumonia calf is back on track.  I am SO glad the calves are outside now but the warm weather and fog are as bad as having them inside at this point.  It was warm enough tonight we were milking with the barn doors open as though it was summer.

Bruce managed to get the feed box filled with the help of Ed again.  They are both tired of babysitting the unloader.  As of today there is 30 ft. still in there.  It is a funny thing, when you want to get something empty it takes what seems like forever.  If you are short of feed and want it to last the feed goes down too quickly.  Bruce spent some of the afternoon with the skid steer trying to get the manure loose in anticipation of cleaning yards and barns one of these days.  The inside area of the barns thaw before the doorways so already the cattle have to fight their way through some deep spots.  The nice thing about this weather is the snow in the fields is settling fast so when they do haul manure they can put it where it belongs instead of piling it first.

Bruce came in tonight at supper time and announced that he was convinced there was some sort of conspiracy against him getting in at a reasonable time.  He had started mixing feed early and everything was going fine.  I called and asked what time supper should be and he said 6:00.  At precisely 6:00 the corn silage unloader dug itself down and the slide that feeds the hammermill plugged up with something that thawed loose and fell in.  When he went to unplug the hammermill he turned on the light and the bulb blew so he had to go hunt one down so he could see.  Needless to say he burned a little extra time.  It isn't in my best interest physically to milk by myself but for sanity sake I started again while he fed.  Luckily it didn't take him as long as I thought it would and we got in at a respectable time after all.

Finally Some Cooperation!

We are finally feeling like we are getting on top of things.  I have 12 hutches but we still have 2 buried in the snow.  We also think there might be a couple fences out there.  The 10 hutches that we have set are full.  Feeding calves still takes some time since the calves are new but its getting easier with every feeding.  The calf with the belly ache has been treated for pneumonia.  I was concerned about that yesterday but today we are pretty sure she has that going on also.

This is a picture of the last set of twins.  They are a lot of calf to produce, deliver and a large empty spot once they are out.  They tend to have plenty of energy which is why the picture is blurry.  Once calves figure out people bring food they get pretty excited.  This is also the new 1/4 swiss calf.  She is so brown and has such long legs.  Her dark eyes make her look like she is in a constant state of surprise : )

Today I went for a farm supply run myself.  No farmer date this time.  : (  While I was gone Bruce and Ed filled the bunk but there was no prayer of getting a feed box filled with the wind.  It seems like there is always something to fix and today was no exception.  Bruce put a new wheel on the wheel barrow that they use to clean up the feed alleys every day.  It's nice it was a small project and an easy fix.  A sure sign of spring is the start of the open houses at the equipment dealerships.  We don't go but we take advantage of the parts discounts so tomorrow Ed will pick up some filters for us.  Tonight we tested milk again.  The "will to die" cow has passed her drug test and contributed 10# tonight.  Chances of her sticking around very long don't look good.  I am disappointed because she was a nice cow. One of the newest heifers is already milking 90#.  Thats the bad news/good news from the evening. The rest of the cows are doing fine and the cull cows are still earning their keep so they will stick around awhile longer. I was able to hang all the bottles in the hutches tonight and Bruce only had 3 special needs cows.  We have 3 due any day and then hopefully we can get everyone settled into the routine before the March calves come.

AND: The latest goat video! They cooperated for the camera!

Finally!

Arrived at the barn this morning to find a heifer calf.  Given the fact that her mom has been identified as having staph aureus already we fed her colostrum from another cow.  Since staph aureus can't be cured we need to do what we can to manage it.  We made sure that 4 milk samples were taken for drug tests in hopes of making the evening a little more streamlined.  Sure enough, they all passed! (and there was much rejoycing!).  Two of the cows are already identified with staph aureus so we will only need to do cultures on the other two before they can blend into the routine.  In the meantime, we can sell the milk but we need to sanitize the milkers between cows.  The amount of milk we are dumping right now is crazy and it will be nice to finally get paid for some of it.  We had a 2nd heifer calf arrive about 6 today.  This one is darned cute since her mom is a holstein/brown swiss cross. Pictures tomorrow.  This morning we took 2 more calves out into hutches, leaving one empty hutch. With this last calf our hutches are full.  It's nice to have feeding so much more streamlined.  Since I feed milk to bulls and milk replacer to the heifers, when I put calves in hutches I put the bulls starting on the west end and heifers starting on the east end.  That way they are atleast in groups and I can feed right down the line.  Some sanity finally : )

Bruce managed to "putter" as he called it.  He replaced the fan belt on the skid steer that had been slipping.  The heifers got fed and the goats got feed and new bedding.  Ed's silo needed to have the unloader let down a door and some silage chopped loose.  Sometimes, when it rains hard, water seeps between the staves (concrete silo sections) and soaks into the feed.  This isn't a problem unless those little spots  freeze like a rock and the unloader can't chew them up.  That is what was happening.

We had another awesome spring feeling day today.  Getting to the hutches currently is a challenge with the water running down the driveway and over the ice.  A couple more days and we should have driveways down to the gravel again!

Let the Chaos Begin : )

The phone beat the alarm this morning with the arrival of a bull calf.    Today we had to be focused on calves, primarily getting hutches set and the calves out in them.  By 11 a.m. it was already in the low 40's and sunny so while working outside it will feel like a heat wave!  While milking itself seems like a no brainer these days, dealing with the special needs cows and calves is feeling like chaos.  The cow count is:  #28 looking good and eating well, just waiting for her drug withhold to be over.  #55 must have heard we were calling the vet because this morning she is brighter and very interested in eating and pooping.  Tune in tomorrow.  #12, the most recent twins adventure may have actually cleaned (expelled both placenta's) but seems to have a quarter with a hint of mastitis so Bruce will treat her while her milk is already being held because she is too fresh.  The fresh heifer has cleaned and was well behaved for a first ever milking.  The cow that had the calf this morning, #23, has cleaned and seems fine.  On the calf end of life I have bull calves on extra milk and the new one on a single bottle so far.  I have heifers on everything from extra milk to a single bottle to half milk/half replacer.  There are times that I just have to stop and think it through as to who gets what.  In order to speed up the feeding process I have been warming the waste milk from the previous milking for the bull calves while we are still milking.  Our water is heated to 180 degrees so I run a sink part full of water and then set 2 pails in it.  It really doesn't take very long to warm so by the time Bruce is milking the "special" cows I have most of the bull calves fed.  I am very glad the newest 4 calves, including the twins, have been good drinkers.  Today we have a heifer calf with an unexplained belly ache but we have also decided the bull calf with infection in his joints is healing to the point he doesn't need antibiotics anymore.  A loss and win.

It was an  awesome day out there with 52 degrees and sun.  There was water dripping everywhere and equipment  thawing loose.  Bruce spent nearly 2 hours in our manure spreader chopping.  Bruce scrapes the spreader every day after he spreads his load but it still builds up 1/16 inch every day while it's freezing.  Now that it has warmed up so fast the manure build up has come loose in big chunks, and if he didn't chop it up so its small enough to go through the auger and impeller it would bend everything.  Needless to say, there was  laundry to do!  While he was doing that I was spending time in the barn tagging cattle and banding calves. The calves get an orange numbered tag when they are born.  When they are cows in the barn they also get larger yellow tags with the stall number where they stand.  Our cows always go to the same stanchion so tagging helps us help them find their stall when they start going out in spring.  Last summer Joe pointed out that the orange tag is their "name" and the yellow tag is their "address".  We still smile when we think of that since we had never thought of it that way before.  Since we have moved staph aureus cows and sold quite a few we desperately need to get the details caught up.  I also banded the bull calves that have come in recently.  We have stanchions in their pen that I can catch them in.  I use a bander and a rubber band that has been compared to a "green cheerio" and slip the band over the scrotum, making sure the band is between their testicles and their body.  This cuts off the circulation and they just dry up and fall off.  For some reason this information tends to make the males cringe (lol) but the calves are more disturbed by being caught and don't even notice once you let them go.  It's painless, bloodless and in summer it avoids fly problems.  It is also easy for me to do so it's one less job for Bruce.  Doing this when they are small also eliminates any accidental breeding of heifers since they are raised in the same pens and pasture until they are big enough to start the steer finishing ration.  While I was in the barn working I noticed that the heifer calf with the belly ache was laying way over on her side and beginning to bloat.  I got her out to walk but she was obviously feeling miserable so when Bruce came he took a large syringe needle and poked it into her belly.  He kept his ear close, listening to it as it hissed.  When the air seemed to quit coming out she was noticeably more comfortable already. Tonight she was walking around.  She doesn't look like she feels good but isn't bloated.  I didn't feed her tonight but did put a coat on her and move her outside.  It's so nice out there so I think she will like having more room and fresh air.

Bruce managed to dig our calf hutches out of the snow and get them set where they belong.  He got a corn fodder stack for me to bed them with and tonight I have 3 calves moved out there and 2 more will go in the morning when I get the fences in place.  Feeding already seemed to go smoother since the hutches have bottle holders.  Once the calves figure out where the nipples are I just walk away and they can feed themselves.  It was a very long day but we sure got alot done.  Bruce announced at supper that it was going to be a "4 ibuprofen" night.  I agree totally.  Bruce sent a text to our daughter tonight... "52 and sunny.  My brain says I have at least 6 weeks of winter yet.  But today my soul could very faintly smell spring"  ; )

All Just A Days Work

Knowing full well how uncooperative cows can be, we stopped by the barn when we got home and I did a quick check.  1:30 a.m.....no sign of any calves coming.  (and there was much rejoicing!)  As usual the alarm went off at 6:00 a.m. but we were glad it wasn't followed by any phone calls from the barn.  Since cows ideally need to be milked every 11-12 hours, and I had milked so early last night, I started milking again while Bruce fed.  The newest cow with twins, now known as #12 to save confusion, is eating like crazy but of course has a retained placenta even after 2 bottles of calcium.  Grrr.  Cow #28 still has a retained placenta and really stinks.  In the people world she would have a D&C done but in the cow world nature has to take its course and we give antibiotics to prevent a whole system infection.  Cow #55 continues to struggle and we will have the vet again on Monday.  A call this weekend would involve the routine call charge plus an emergency fee and then the surgery fee and who knows what being the weekend.  We are suspecting she has a DA that is flopping back and forth since she will eat for awhile and then not.....never totally quitting but never getting going.  Twins are just tough on cows.  These days the vets can do ultrasounds on cows.  Many dairies use this technology to identify twins and sex of calves.  Unless you intend to abort a set of twins the information is just information and since we raise all our calves the sex isn't vital information either.   For us, this information would let us know that 3 calvings will need 6 hutches but that's it. Currently all of our special needs cows add 1 hour to milking.  It will be nice when someone gets to the point of being milked into the tank.  It would be nicer if it happened soon, before the other 8 have their calves, but chances of that are pretty slim.  This too shall pass.....

Breakfast was followed by a recovery nap for both of us.  It was warm today,  nearly 40, so I burned a bunch of mineral sacks that had collected in the feed room.  Bruce had to go to Ed's and fix the silo unloader.  The cotter key that holds the bracket that holds the blower spout onto the torque arm : ) broke off while the unloader was running and proceeded to wrap the blower spout into a pretzel. He had to take it off, "blacksmith" it straight, and put it back on. A new cotter key and a couple " big " hammers and it was back in business. Jim calls this percussive maintenance.

As we started milking tonight the heifer that is due was starting to have her calf.  By the time Bruce got half done with our special needs cows the heifer calf was here but not really breathing.  He took a piece of straw and stuck it up its nose and, as expected, it tickles and makes them snort and shake their head and get more oxygen going.  They can go from limp to trying to stand in less than a half hour which always amazes me.  I have to say I appreciated that kind of timing tonight.  That's almost cooperation which was obviously a misjudgement on her part!  Now we officially have 4 special needs cows.  I am feeding 5 heifer calves and 7 bulls, 3 of which I can wean soon.  The newborn calves get a whole gallon of colostrum their first feeding.  This milk is full of antibodies that the mother passes to the calf through her first milk.  After that the bull calves continue to get milk, 2 quarts twice a day for the first week.  I increase it after that to get them growing, especially in cold weather.  With the staph aureus infection within the herd the heifer calves get the gallon of colostrum for their first feeding.  The 2nd feeding they get 2 quarts of colostrum milk.  The 3rd and 4th feeding I mix half milk and half milk replacer to give their systems a chance to adjust to the change and by the 5th feeding they are completely on milk replacer.  It is actually cheaper to feed the calves milk straight from the pipe line so that is why we feed our waste milk and eventually milk in general to the bull calves.  Since we don't pasteurize our milk we feed the heifers milk replacer as a disease management tool.

We did it! A night out!

Bruce feeds the dry cows after milking at night.  We have found that doing this promotes calving during the daytime hours...generally after 5 a.m. atleast.  Knowing this and having both 9 cows due and plans to go out tonight,  getting to the barn this morning and finding calves shouldn't have been a surprise.  Finding another set of twins though was.  Realizing they were heifer twins was a shock!  As mentioned before, the heifer in a bull/heifer twin combination is always infertile so having both  heifers is awesome.  Already this year this is our 3rd set of twins.  Since we have records for everything I looked back to see when we had another set of heifer twins.  In 2010 we had 3 sets of twins, all bull/heifer combinations.  In 2009 we had 2 sets of twins, again, bull/heifers.  In 2008 we had only 1 set of twins...that time a heifer combination.  The record seems to be in 1990.  We woke up New Years morning to 2 sets of twins and ended up with 4 sets in 5 days...11 sets for the year.  This cow is eating like crazy so that is a good sign.  I wish I could say that for the one that is struggling.  Sometimes you wonder when its time to just give up.  A friend once said that sometimes cows just have "the will to die".  That seems to be true with that one.

Bruce had errands to run in town today and came home to find that his father couldn't get the east barn cleaner motor to start.  He is thinking its a loose wire since hitting it with a hammer a few times seemed to be the fix for today. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Tonight I ran haylage and corn silage into the mixer while Bruce hauled manure. When he got back I started to milk extra early while he fed.  Out of the barn in record time for our night out!  Hopefully we won't come home to any new calves...the night is guaranteed to be short enough already!

Running out of snow to move

This is the snow that Bruce pulled out from around where the hutches should be.  The hutches are about 4 ft. high so the piles were pretty impressive. When he started blowing, the tractor was not running right so he had to put on his mechanics hat.  He found a loose connection on one of the injectors and with just a little tightening it was fine.  He then continued to blow all of the snow across the road and into the pasture. Tonight you wouldn't know it was ever there. The blower tractor wasn't the only thing causing trouble today.  When its cold the skid steer seat belt will build up moisture and freezes.  You have to have the seatbelt secure before it will start so today Bruce ended up using a blow dryer to dry out the latch three times so it would make the correct electrical connection and start.  Sometimes procrastination pays off.  If we had gotten all the hutches in place and bedded in anticipation of the calves that are due we would have a huge mess with alot of shoveling involved. This way it was once again a skid steer, snow blower and done : )  Unless we need to clear an area to pile manure in the fields we may actually be finished cleaning up the snow from last weeks storm.  Yipee!

This morning during milking the vet that treated #28 the first time stopped in.  He had called to check on her and he and Bruce were playing phone tag so he just stopped in when he was going by.  Since she had a retained placenta he recommended antibiotics for her but she is looking brighter and eating.  As long as he was here we had him look at the cow that was struggling after having twins.  She is actually looking much brighter today than she had been but isn't eating like we think she should.  At this point she doesn't have DA and although he can hear a faint "ping" he feels her gut is full enough she should be fine.  So far, as poorly as they have been doing, we have still gotten lucky.

Today Bruce let the silo unloader at Ed's down a door again.  It was windy but blowing  from the right direction so the barn blocked the wind from causing a problem, letting them fill the feedbox  for the heifers.

No fresh cows today but the udders are getting more full so its just a matter of time.  We are supposed to have plans tomorrow night so I have my fingers crossed that they will all wait until Saturday to do anything.  Cows do not have a reputation for being cooperative.  We will see....

Lots of Miscellaneous Today

Milk sample #6 sent in and once again it tested positive.  Cows that aren't feeling well don't metabolize antibiotics very quickly.  Until we get a negative test we will continue to milk her after the pipe has been pulled out of the tank.  Making the mistake of milking a treated cow can be expensive.  The first option is to dump our tank when we realize it.  If a treated cow would accidently get picked up by our hauler we would be responsible for contaminating  the milk on  his whole load and have to pay for it. For this reason we sample every cow, we don't take any chances.

Once again the county had  end loaders moving our snow banks back.  Bruce went out and cut our fence wires along the road where he has a splice just for this situation.  It is better to control where it has to be fixed than to have the fence tear off elsewhere.  With all that snow it's a guarantee the weight would snap all the insulators off the posts if the wire were left intact.  After 2 days with 2 huge end loaders the neighborhood is finally open!

Bruce officially started a manure pile today.  He was headed out to an area where he had been able to spread but got off track in the snow on the way there.  When you stop moving with a 160 horse 4 wheel drive tractor with chains on and it's in deep enough to be hung up,  it's time to abort the original plan and do what you have to so you can get back out.  Now there is a pile that he will have to clean up later.  We have always wondered what we would do if we got that tractor stuck, and we are content to continue to wonder and not have to figure it out.

Believe it or not Bruce found more snow to move today!  The area involved today is where our hutches are supposed to be.  All I can say is "amazing" and I will try to do pictures tomorrow.  He still has to find the actual hutches but slowly they are coming out from under the snow as it settles.  We didn't really need them until now and it is time to get serious.  We have 9 calves due yet this month, 5 on the same day, 7 within 3 days.  As frustrating as it is when cattle don't read the manual, this is one situation I am thankful they don't!  We breed our cows by artificial insemination.  When you breed a group of cows within 15 minutes of each other you know the exact date of conception.  The good thing is they will have their calves anywhere from 2 weeks before their due date to 10 days after....basically within a 3 week window.  That is why 5 due on the same day isn't a crisis....unless of course they actually follow the manual : )

It was too windy today to fill the feedbox at Ed's so Bruce got a half dozen buckets out of the silage bag and put them in the wagon.  Hopefully that will tide them over until he can get it out of the silo again.  He is on a mission to get that silo as empty as he can.  It's only 16 ft in diameter but 60 ft high like ours.  It's going down fast but there is always more feed in the bottom of a silo because it's packed more from all the weight above. He can't put the new augers in until the unloader gets to the bottom and spring is coming even if the thermometer says -10 tonight : )

I Like Longer Days

Tonight I walked to the house and the moon was barely a slit.  Very neat to see.  We are in an amazing time of year.  The days are noticeably longer.  Tonight its -6 but most of next week they are talking nearly 40 degrees.  As Bruce says, 2 months til grass.  Hard to believe with the snow so deep at this point.

Today we had the herd analyst here to look at our cows and pick out the bulls for their next pregnancies.  The bulls we use are tested for certain genetic markers that are heritable.  These include things like fertility, milk production, calving ease, size, longevity, legs, udders, teats, and disposition.  We have our cattle pedigrees back 4 generations on paper but many of them go back much much further.  For many years before I came here the calves all got names.  They were always done alphabetically and I think they used every category from food to flowers to animals.  By the time I took over naming them there were so many "Anna's" and "Susie's" etc that it was hard to know which one was which.  We started putting in eartags starting with 1 and the latest calf is 893!  The numbers certainly keep information clearer.  Many of the cows still get names...... : )

We picked up our meat today and judging by the size of our animal we can definately sell some more.  We would have sold some Monday but the gates in the pen we use to sort are frozen down.  It is definately time for a thaw here!  The county worked on opening our road today, a full week after the storm.  To this point there was barely room to meet a car but today they had a big end loader and bucketed it off the road.  If we get another blowing snow it will be 12 feet deep when it fills in.  Counting the days til spring.....

The day started as usual, with feeding and milking.  Our nutritionist Vicky came and checked us out.  Most of the dry cows passed inspection with the exception of one that is too thin so we will need to give her some corn.  The cows and heifers that have freshened according to the rules are doing great.  The two that are struggling look really thin and tough but show signs that they are gaining.  A tough start means less milk so less income for us.  It's simple math.  We need to get our heifers bred...they are big enough...it's time! We sold 2 cull cows again today.  We need to get stalls sanitized and ready so we can get the 10 heifers up into the dairy barn that are due in April. Lots to do.  Bruce again pointed out only 2 months til grass : )

Believe it or not, Bruce found more snow to move.  This time he needs to get into the haymow above the dairy barn and also in the haymow at our other buildings so the 3 ft drifts had to go.  Last fall we were blessed with some gorgeous weather that allowed us not only to make corn fodder stacks, but also chop our's and Ed's chopper boxes full.  We then back a chopper box in upstairs and run the unloading system with an electric motor.  The bedding drops through a hole in the floor of the mow into a cart below and we use it to bed the cows. We also have chopped barley straw in a mow but we like the corn fodder....it's much less dusty than the straw, not to mention more user friendly to get down to use.  Our chopper boxes are stored in the other barn until they are needed so hopefully tomorrow he can switch an empty one for a full one

This morning, when Bruce was feeding the calves their TMR, some of it fell out of the cart in front of the sick cow.  To our surprise she loved it!  The only real difference is the haylage comes out of the silage bag and its currently grass cuttings from our pasture.  We made sure both special needs cows got plenty tonight.  Whatever makes them happy enough to eat gets them going.    Another discovery tonight is the latest goat trick.  They are big enough that they can jump from the ground and land on their moms back while she is standing.  This creates a whole new playground, especially when you can jump off the pails too : )  Do they do it when I have a camera.....NO  : (

Sunday....day of rest...not!

This morning after milking I got the 3 calves that were in the hutches into the barn.  I just fill a bottle with milk, and since they have been drinking out of pails for awhile, they are excited about a nipple and will follow me anywhere.  Once they are in I feed them in pails as usual.  They are in a pen with a weaned heifer calf so that will work well.  I like starting them in groups of 4 in pens the size we have. Now that they are in the barn I can start heading them  into the next phase of eating including using a drinking cup.  Bruce spent the morning moving more snow.  One would think he would run out of snow to move pretty soon but today he moved the snow that had blown  in against the south side of the barn.  First he pulled it all away from the building and then used the snow blower to make another pile.  I can no longer see the road in that direction.  I convinced him to nap since it is Sunday but he is much like a kid and argued, then agreed to 1/2 hour and set a timer.  Today its really pretty warm (for Feb.) so he cleaned the back of the barn.  The forecast for the week ahead is really cold again.  There was no point in trying to take it anywhere since the fields are all blown shut so he used the skid steer and dumped it in a pile in our steer yard.  Atleast when it does thaw he will be able to reload it easily on concrete.  I bedded the hutches with corn fodder and took 3 bull calves out after getting their coats on.  The hutches too are getting deep.  We seem to be in a weather pattern that Sunday is the day to catch up before poorer weather.

A Day Off From Snow Removal

Bruce's father tells of the days they used shovels to open the driveway after snowstorms and of the wind filling it back in by morning.  Eventually they bought a tractor with a loader on the front.  This was a huge improvement in saving time and human wear and tear but using it created huge banks of snow and the wind was able to fill the area that much deeper. Cleaning it out the next time was a bigger job than before.  The summer I arrived here we purchased a 6 ft. snow blower on an auction.  It could be used on our smallest tractor, the loader tractor, and would remove the snow and only leave banks as high as the snow it was removing.  The downside was it was used on an open tractor so, at times, you would get plenty of snow thrown back at you depending on the wind.  Even with that, it seemed like a piece of equipment straight from heaven!  In 1995 we upgraded to this 8 ft. blower that would fit on our cab tractor.  The driveway in the video is probably about 15% of what we need to plow these days.  In snows like this we have two neighbors we help out also.  The snow blower and alternator are wonderful pieces of equipment that we are perfectly content owning but never using.

It was a quiet day on the farm.  Bruce was again able to fill the feed box out of the silo at Ed's.  The sick cows are eating hay and holding their own.  The latest cow that freshened has passed her drug test  and is now being milked into the tank  Tonight the two special needs cows added 45 minutes to the evening by the time we stop milking, pull the pipe out of the tank, milk each of them, and deliver the medications they need.  The cow the vet saw has most of her placenta still inside and attached so she will need to be watched closely for awhile yet. There are some things on farms that are frustrating.  The days are long and even when you do everything right the cows don't necessarily read the manual.  These are the days we repeat over and over and over, "this too shall pass".  

We are wishing for warmer weather so the barns and yards will thaw.  The heifers in the lower building have to get down on their "knees" to eat their grain because there is so much frozen manure/bedding in there.  Generally, by this point in winter, we have a thaw and the opportunity to get everyone back down on the ground.  When it does thaw there is a good chance that we will be piling everything because the snow is so deep in the fields we can't get to or through the fields it should go on.  If we did spread on the snow many of the nutrients would run off with the snow melt and not be available for our corn crop.  Piling means we will have double the work but atleast the cattle situation will be improved.

I spent a good portion of the day paying bills and finding the desk.  It's time to get the books in order and delivered to the accountant since, for us, taxes are due March 15.  

Silo's and snow

Another morning of silo unloaders that like attention.  Bruce is now thinking the corn silage unloader needs taking apart and cleaning.  Perhaps the grease isn't getting where it needs to go and it's sticking.  The vet visit was a pleasant surprise this morning in the fact that the cervical prolapse is just something that will happen when she lays down and isn't a serious problem and, at this point, she doesn't have the displaced abomasum (DA) we expected. When there is stress and a feed interruption the abomasum will sometimes fill with gas and then flip over causing a blockage on both sides of it. Bruce compares it to having a ball (feed) in a tube sock.  The weight of the feed keeps it hanging as it should but if you flip it, it twists. Thats what can happen to cows. A common name for this condition is "twisted gut".  If she would have had a DA they have to do surgery to correct it.  So far, so good, but given how she feels we will keep our fingers crossed.  She did test positive for the start of ketosis.  That's not a surprise since it's pretty common also with stress and feed interruption.  When a cow doesn't eat enough it sets up a chain of events that causes ketosis. What happens is that she doesn't get enough energy from the feed she is eating so she starts to rapidly metabolize her fat stores.  This process frees up ketone bodies in her system which cause depression and lack of appetite.  So if this starts it's a vicious cycle....the cow doesn't eat....she feels poorly...she doesn't eat..... Untreated she dies but generally its easily treated with IV glucose and oral propylene glycol.  This condition is critical in human diabetics.  This is why, in dry and fresh cows, keeping them comfortable, happy and eating is critical.  Delivering twins commonly sets this situation in motion.  In the case of the current cow we think the fact she was standing next to a milking cow allowed her to steal the dairy TMR and not eat her dry cow feed.  By the time Bruce got done feeding today he had set the doors down in both the haylage silo here and the silo at Ed's.  Unless one of them gives him trouble he shouldn't have to climb them for awhile.  The haylage silo here has 20 ft in it.  Its nice if we can get it empty by spring.  We have a little more than 3 months til harvest.  Now that the driveways are all open Bruce spent a couple hours cleaning the excess snow out of the goat yard and their feeder.  The dog found it to be great fun since Bruce had to leave a gate open and he was in charge of returning the heifers and goats to where they were supposed to be.

Digging out

Yesterday morning, blown shut

Opened up with neighbors truck off the road

Snow from the east creates all kinds of challenges

Just like in the city, Bruce made a windrow of snow to blow

Opening up the driveway to the silage bag

Finding the bag and making room to work.

The day started with a silo that needed to be let down a door so Bruce could mix feed.  We have 2 concrete stave silo's that are 20'x60'.  One holds corn silage and one holds haylage. As of this morning  we have 42 ft of corn silage left. We won't harvest corn silage again until sometime in Oct. so having that much left is a good thing. While the feed was mixing Bruce thought he would try using a leaf blower to get the snow off of everything in the feed room.  Our minerals come in plastic lined paper bags so having all the snow melt would compromise them.  He was thrilled that it worked better than he even expected.  Today the cow the vet saw yesterday is slow but doing OK.  When they were here they did a blood draw to check for calcium and phosphorous levels which came back fine.  The cow that had her calf yesterday is doing great.  The calf with the belly ache is not impressed with me cutting back her feed.  I am glad all she had was a belly ache.  As a general rule, if you get calves past 7-10 days they rarely give you trouble.  This one is old enough that she just had me confused.  The snow clean up continued today.  Bruce used the skid steer to pull the snow out from where he couldn't get it with the snow blower and then proceeded to use the blower to add it to the pile.  We now have a snow pile that is easily 10 ft high and 50 ft long.  In past years it has taken until mid June before it was all melted.  The size of this pile is well on its way to take that long to melt also. This storm has  taken  many hours of Bruce's time with 7 hours on the snow blower tractor alone in the last two days. Along with silo's we store our feed in silage bags.  As a general rule they are 9'diameter x 250' long.  We put the best quality feed in the upright silo's so its available for the dairy cows and the rest of the feed is stored in bags.  Years ago we baled a lot of dry hay but its really hard to get weather cooperation to do that anymore.  We use the bagged feed for the goats and also to fill feed boxes when its too windy to get feed out of the silo at Ed's.   We are trying to get the silo at Ed's empty so we have room to store this summers feed harvest.  Bags cost $965 each so the more we get in silos the cheaper our storage is.

Bruce started feeding early with great hopes of getting in the house at a more reasonable hour.  First there was a lump that came down from the corn storage bin and plugged the tube that feeds the roller mill that grinds the corn.  He ended up taking it apart and cleaning it out.  Next the corn silage unloader dug itself down so he had to climb the silo and fix that.  His only explanation for why it did that was it must have missed him and wanted him to come visit.  Neither milk sample passed the drug test so we still have 3 special needs cows to milk at the end.  When Bruce went up to milk the one the vet saw yesterday she had something coming out that we thought was potentially her uterus.  Bruce called the vet and tried to describe it and then asked her if he could send her a picture via cell phone.  She proceeded to laugh and then gave him her number.  He sent a picture and she called back and said it was a cervical prolapse.  It is something that they will need to come and deal with but it could wait til tomorrow morning.  She recommended another bottle of calcium under the skin, given her medical history thus far.  She is not eating which means her medical list will probably be longer tomorrow.