We farm....who needs a casino

Newborn picture, smallest kid

smallest kid at 8 weeks

her sister, 8 weeks

I thought it was time for a baby picture update.  These guys are really growing! Their horns are a good two inches long already.  The smallest kid is still the smallest but her sister is pretty comparable to how big  the rest of the kids are.

We got to the barn this morning to find our water heater isn't working again.  It is time to replace the current system whether we like it or not.  Bruce reset it again and left a message with our dairy equipment supplier to get us some pricing information.  Otherwise today was more of the same.  Bruce filled the feed box. As part of this process he had to let the silo unloader down a door again.  The silo has 22 feet in it.  Hopefully we can get it down to the point that they can put the new augers in.

An option we have available to have more control of our milk price is forward contracting.  We could do it through a broker if we wanted but we also have the option to contract with the help of our milk processor. We are able to contract in 25,000# increments.  Anything we produce over our contract gets priced at the going rate.  In an effort to protect ourselves from the low prices we experienced the last couple years we have opted to contract some milk for the months of February through September at this point.  Contracting basically locks in our price, and that price replaces whatever the class III price is.  The class III price for February was announced on Friday as $17.  Since the 2009 price for February was $9.31 and the 2010 price was $14.28 we took advantage of being able to contract for $16.  As it turns out we have lost the opportunity to make $1. per hundred pounds on the milk that we have contracted.  On the bright side, anything we don't have contracted is priced at the $17. rate and therefore increases our overall average price.  Even though it's disappointing to lose money on this contract, I am excited for the higher price.  The industry really needs this, so in the big picture it's all good.