We are a 5th generation dairy farm in Wisconsin. My husband and I rotationally graze our dairy herd and heifers and also raise beef and goats. We are in our mid 50's and are the primary labor on our 60 cow dairy. We hope you find our blog interesting. Sometimes its hard to explain every detail so feel free to ask questions and we will do our best to answer them. This is a daily diary about our life running a dairy farm.
Yesterday morning Bruce had an appointment in town after milking. When he returned home he went out and chopped what he thought would be 1 load that was left from the day before. As it turned out, what was left didn't fit on one load so he took the 2nd chopper box out to finish. He barely got done and a tire blew out on the chopper. How many tires did I say were involved in chopping! Anyway, that ended the chopping so he unloaded into the bag and went on to the feeding of the day. We had an extra late start to evening milking. I am SO glad we only have the one special needs cow.
Having animals brings its own entertainment and aggravation. Every day, the first cows out of the pasture and home are #13 and #33. Every day they compete to see who gets to be first, just like kids. Today for some reason they weren't the first at the gate. Bruce's dad always stands on the road when they come home and was surprised to see they were missing. He counted, and for some reason #13 was the 26th cow to come home. Our cows go into the same stall every day. There is a group of 3-4 that tend to get mixed up routinely, so much so that when you walk up and say "ok girls, straighten yourselves out" they all back up and go where they belong! We aren't on that end of the barn to see who chooses the wrong stall first, but they always rearrange themselves at our suggestion without any problems. We currently have some cows marked that we are trying to catch in heat and breed. This morning one of the marked cows bled off. That is basically the cattle version of a period which tells us we missed our chance to breed her. The purpose of the marking is so that when they mount the marking will be rubbed off. This mornings cow bled off and still has her marking on her, completely untouched. Once again, another cow that doesn't follow the manual! The biggest cow in the barn doesn't think she can cross a 16" gutter. Every day we have to escort her in to her stall.
Today involved a road trip to fix the chopper tire. After returning home Bruce had to cut some hay and chop it to feed the cows. It will be nice when we are able to start feeding out of the silo again but for now the cow TMR is really pretty
we use a paint stick to mark the cows
Signs of a bleed off. You wouldn't expect that with a 1500# cow
We had another beautiful day! Our day started with the goats getting out not once, but twice before we milked. We can understand them looking for something to eat when they are out of pasture but these guys are up to their bellies in grass. We are pretty sure there is a trouble maker in the bunch but we haven't had time to sit and watch and figure out who it is. Chances are if we removed the one with the bright ideas we would have goats that behave themselves, at least as well as goats can. For now they are all back in their winter fencing and eating TMR in a feeder. When you have animals involved in your life there is always something going on. This morning I turned off the water to the drinking cup for a cow. She insists on putting her upper jaw in the cup and lower jaw under it. All this does is run water in the feed alley and make a huge mess. When we kept the cows in during the heat we had to put up with it but now she will just have to do her drinking outside. She has the option of a waterer right outside the door when she leaves or the tank in the pasture. We also have a cow that got her tail stepped on in the pasture. What happens is a chunk of hair gets pulled out and they bleed and then paint themselves with blood. Of course this attracts flies and it's just plain messy. The more they swat flies the more they irritate it and the more it bleeds. After two days of this she is finally healed enough for the bleeding to stop.
We chopped again today. A couple of the new seeding strips have an abundance of ditches washed in them so I took a pretty good pounding today. By the time I got done my sense of humor was pretty much gone and I am already dreading these fields for the next 3 years! Bruce was pretty aware of my frustration and chopped the last load for me which was nice. Mike rode with me for the first load but after that I sent him home to sleep under a shade tree. He has gotten pretty comfortable riding in the tractor, so much so that he stretches out however he wants. Today he managed to have his head under the clutch when I needed to stop quickly. I definitely took him by surprise and after that he was a bit more careful how he was laying. I did have another first today. I saw a coyote come out of the corn field and into the strip I was chopping twice. I have heard them for decades but had never actually seen one before. They really are kind of pretty but considered a nuisance around here.
It is another late night again. As much as we like the cows on pasture I am already looking forward to them being in the barn. That being said, hopefully we have 6-8 weeks of pasture time yet.
Some days I struggle with these writings because there is so much that could be written, and so little creative energy left at the end of the day that I aim for the high points. These last days I could have written about the fact that we got a milk check again on Friday. This check is the one that they give us more money than we have coming since we are contracted low. From now until the 16th of next month we get to pretend it is really ours. Our current special needs cows milk culture came back with an infection that will need to be treated for atleast 10 days which just drags milking out longer than we like. We have been breeding cows like crazy. The wet spring and heat has moved this to later in summer than we like, which of course moves calving later and will collide with planting next spring. I try not to think about that. If Ed is cutting hay and we are chopping we have 34 tires involved. The flat tire on the chopper the other morning didn't seem like a big deal, especially compared to our earlier breakdown list. Bruce announced this morning that his apple tree grafts have a few apples this year. He is excited that we will again eat apples from his grandmother's tree, even if at this point it's only a few. When Bruce has any free minutes at all he likes to putter in the garden. This garden is small by Bruce's normal gardening style but it's growing well and we are excited about tomatoes and peppers that are now ripe and cantelope (Bruce's favorite) growing not quite fast enough to suit him. We also have a bush cucumber and butternut squash and that's it. Bruce grows his tomatoes between cattle pannels so they take less space and grow up. I have one flower bed and that is currently growing weeds. Having so much spring rain, along with every potential nice day being used for farming or working in town, I was forced to be realistic and just give up on adding another job to my list. I love dahlias and usually plant and dig them every year. We had the garden covered with plastic so we could uncover it and plant when we had time, we just planted the bulbs there when we planted everything else. I think the bulbs would have rotted by the time the flower bed finally dried out anyway. They are now making us smile : )
dinner plate dahlias just have to make you smile : )
The tomato's are behind Bruce. We have 14 this year in 32' of pannels
We continued chopping today. We are slower at getting it done for a couple reasons. The cutting takes the same amount of time as always. Third crop is generally about 1/3 of what you harvest for first crop by design of how the plant grows. For this reason we tend to rake a few windrows together first so there is more field time for Bruce and less for me. Another reason to take our time is the silo continues to settle so if we add some every few days we get more in. Ed stopped cutting a couple days ago because we were waiting for the bagger we rent. Matt thought we could have one a couple days ago. The frustrating part about renting is you have to wait. We have done this long enough to know that things happen and we too have had things happen and been the ones messing with the next guys schedule. For this reason we don't cut until we see a bagger as a general rule. Matt brought one this morning so Ed came today to start cutting again. Bruce went out with the chopper to start which definitely scored points with me. The strips we are chopping today are the ones I like the least. They aren't very big but they are the steepest ones we have and always make me nervous, even after all these years. I got out there and Bruce was out of the tractor looking for something. When I got closer I realized he was rescuing a toad he had seen. With the toad delivered to the corn field I continued to chop. Mike road with me again. He goes with Bruce all the time but these days are the first he has been with me in the tractor. Today on the hillside he kept sliding under my feet while he slept which made using the clutch a bit dangerous for him. Bruce came to switch chopper boxes when I got to the bottom strip. This strip goes into a point which either requires driving in and backing back out with a tractor, chopper and chopper box or you just chop as close as you can get. Since Bruce was there he agreed to chop. For many years Bruce was convinced that I could learn to back all of that up, and I can to a certain point. A few years ago I decided to try to clean out a point by driving in and backing up and turning. I was SO excited that I got all the hay cleaned up and managed to get out again, that is until I was back on the wind row and looked back. I had managed to hit the blower spout on the chopper box and twist it so what I was chopping was being blown directly into the next field! Since then Bruce has decided it's less time consuming to do it himself : ) Just as he got done he heard a "bang". Randomly we pick up rocks that go through the chopper. Based on the damage he suspects this time it was a piece of metal, quite possibly off the haybine. He had to stop and reset 3 knives that had gotten crooked, were hitting the shearbar,and making noise. The last loads chopped today went into the bagger. We still have room in the silo so we will be filling both for a couple days. The weather is perfect and as of today we have 62 acres harvested with 29 to go.
We continued chopping today. Bruce started the tractor when I was getting ready to go so the air conditioning could start. When I got to the tractor I found a border collie sitting on my seat, tail wagging. We swear these dogs can smile when they are happy and he was SO happy to join me for awhile. Sleeping didn't work quite as well today. I was chopping on the new seeding and sadly, these fields are much rougher than we would like. Loose soil and substantial rain don't mix very well together so for the next 3-4 years that these fields are in hay I will get pounded 3-4 times a summer. There are a couple places where there are ditches but the worst places have a bunch of small ditches together that set up a vibration when you go through them. The good news is there seems to be a good crop of alfalfa started and we are chopping more feed than we had expected when it was so dry.
With the silo bag empty and the silo unloader still up Bruce has to feed what we are chopping to the cows in their TMR. When they were eating only fermented feeds the change was a challenge for their digestive systems. The nice thing about them being out on pasture is what we are now feeding is basically the same thing they are eating themselves, just delivered to the barn. To do this we leave some of the chopped feed in the chopper box and then drive to the edge of the area where we can reload feed. We run a pile out and Bruce scoops it up with the skidsteer and puts it in the mixer. Generally it's faster than running to the bag but tonight when he went to feed he realized that he hadn't saved anything and I got to go to the field and chop enough for tonight and tomorrow morning. It is a good thing that we left some of what was cut for the morning since it still had plenty of moisture.
Does he look like he is smiling?
We can unload the chopper box here to get feed for the cows
Yesterday was a work day in town for me but Bruce continued to get ready to chop hay. The feed in the silo bag is now gone so we need to have something to add to the TMR the cows get in the barn. Bruce spent part of the day raking windrows together and then later in the day Ed raked and Bruce chopped a small amount and fed cows. When he was chopping he realized that the small tire that helps support the header on the chopper was flat. Ed came and took that for repair this morning while Bruce fed. Bruces day started out with the torque arm on the corn silage unloader coming loose. As a general rule, anything that comes in contact with a running unloader is pretty much junk. Luckily Bruce has an extra unloader in the shed but by the time he got the broken part taken off and the new one on and then got done feeding we started milking more than an hour later than we should have. Since we were late, we skipped breakfast and went straight to dinner and then went out and chopped. Mike likes to ride anything he can and came out to the field with Bruce, riding on the platform on the open tractor like a pro. He then joined me in the cab tractor for the afternoon. As the pictures show, it's a pretty stressful day for him. He slept for a couple hours on the floor but every time I got out of the tractor I would find him on the seat when I got back.
For the farmers trying to bale dry hay this weather is perfect. When we were first married they baled anything that didn't fit in the silo into small square (actually rectangle) bales. Often we were able to bale by 10 a.m. and would make 14,000 bales a year. Making hay this way required 3 people, 4 if someone was raking while we baled. We had to wait to bale until cutting was done because we didn't have enough people or tractors. Raking was the first thing I did on a tractor. In those days Bruce's mom would run the baler on an open tractor. This baler would form the bales, tie them and then kick the bales into an enclosed wagon. When the tying didn't work it would throw hay everywhere. Bruce would haul the loads and unload. We were lucky enough to have a conveyor system in the barn that took the bales up and then dropped them on an elevator and into the mow whichever direction we wanted. Bruce's dad would pack the bales in the hay mow. Later we made round bales with a rented baler. These we stacked in the pole shed and mow driveways. Generally the hay would be raked in double wind rows and then I did all the baling. Bruce always said a trained monkey could run the round baler since it was so much less complicated than the small bale baler. This baler wrapped the bale with twine and then deposited it in the field where we picked them up later. When it wouldn't tie and I was crawling under it rethreading it I always wondered how the monkey would handle that! We had a trailer to bring the bales home, 12 on a load. This required someone to drive the wagon and Bruce loaded and unloaded using the skid steer with a big spike attached to the bucket. We would borrow Ed's skid steer and have one here and one in the field to speed the process up. The weather has changed and getting hay dry is a challenge. Our labor force is aging. We now try to chop everything and have been renting a bagging machine for quite a few years. Now two of us can do the chopping. The silo bag can handle haylage that is dryer and also wetter than the silo so it is more forgiving with weather and timing. Progress : )
These are the round bales. Bruce stacks them 3 high using the skid steer and pallet forks
This mow of small bales has been stored for many years
This conveyor system used to make handling the small bales much easier.
We woke up this morning to heat and humidity and we thought "here we go again!" By early afternoon a front came through and the humidity dropped and the wind blew and it was beautiful out again! Ed started cutting hay today. It is normal to rake many windrows together to speed up chopping so that will start tomorrow. Bruce fed the steers grain and also dewormed them with a pour on product that is absorbed through the skin. This also takes care of lice and flies and a few other things that can make the cattle miserable. The heifers will also be dewormed when he gets a chance since they have not been treated since early spring. We tested milk tonight. I had not reported our breedings or pregnancies for awhile so we worked on that while Bruce milked the special needs cow. Our last fresh cow has had trouble with blood in her milk so she will continue to have her milk kept out of the tank until it clears up. She is a big cow with a big udder and extra swelling which doesn't seem to be improving like we would expect. Another cow not reading the manual.....
It has been a few days since I have written anything and there is a reason for that. There is nothing going on. Other than milking twice a day, feeding cows twice a day, steers and calves daily and moving animals around to new pasture, we haven't been doing much. Bruce was in for his third therapy appointment today and she believes he has a bit more damage from the bull incident than earlier believed. That being said, he has been behaving himself in efforts to heal and also to get ready to start making hay again. He has also been feeling good and wants to keep it that way. It has been challenging trying to explain to non farming medical people exactly why farmers are worn out. Today the discussion involved milking and bending vs squatting. Squatting is physically preferred but puts us in a more vulnerable position should a cow move around much. Bruce also pointed out that there are 5 steps in milking cows that would involve squatting (pre dip, wiping, milker on, milker off, post dip). 5 squats x 60 cows x twice daily milking. Generally we try to do a mix of both. We can both easily touch our toes so there is something to be said for our daily exercise program!
We got another inch of rain early this morning. We were lucky enough to get the earlier rains in time to do good things for the corn and later cut hay. The first cut hay is very short but thick so Bruce is hoping there is more feed out there than it looks like from a distance. Soon we will recut all the alfalfa seeding and the hay that was cut first. There is still enough time in the growing season that we may have opportunity for a 4th crop if the weather cooperates. This is the time of year that farmers start checking their corn often and Bruce reports that the ears have kernels and looks much like sweet corn would when it's ready to eat. The corn needs some time to ripen yet but at least we have ears so we can be happy we are that far. About 25 miles from here the ground tends to be more sandy and people in that area have already chopped their corn in order to salvage something for feed. The corn was stunted by the lack of rain and didn't have ears so it took twice as many acres to fill what they normally would. Chopped corn is the entire plant but the ears make about half of the tonage and also raises the feed value.
Bruce has been feeding the steers and heifers corn in feeders in the pasture. We have used these feeders for years but the steers have added a new dimension to doing this. First of all, steers are intellectually challenged. Second, they have nothing better to do than create problems. Every day Bruce has to tip atleast one feeder back upright because the steers have found tipping them over is fun. The heifers never did this. Bruce feeds 5 gallon pails of corn sprinkled the length of the feeders and generally the animals back up to let him go by and then they walk up and resume eating. These steers go forward, crashing over the feeder to the other side when he needs to get by. Every day Bruce comes home with a "those damned steers" story. The cows are now back on the first piece that the steers started following them on. The grass is really nice and the cows will enjoy not having the old growth in the mix.
We are continuing to enjoy summer weather. We had another couple tenths of rain over night which we were excited to receive. As of late the days are pretty routine. The cows get fed and milked and the heifers and steers get their usual TMR. Today the pasture animals all got moved to new grass, along with the feeders that go with them for their grain. It is no secret that steers are not known for their intellect and have all day to see what kind of trouble they can cause. Bruce has portable feed troughs to feed grain in. He has used them with heifers for years but this is the first group of steers on pasture, and the first that he has had to tip them back upright every time he feeds. They aren't causing any real damages but they are definitely annoying the farmer.
We saw something unusual in the steer yard this morning. A squirrel! We have rarely had squirrels come on to our yard, perhaps because they do just fine in the woods or because we have always had dogs or there is just enough distance between us and the woods that they just don't travel this direction. Made us smile.
That is it. Nothing terribly exciting going on other than the routine. Bruce did mention that the corn is filling kernels and we could potentially be cutting seeding/hay next week if the weather cooperates. The weather man is again mentioning heat and humidity in the same sentence for this week. ugh : (
It is never a good thing when the phone rings before you are out of bed. That is confirmed when, within minutes, it rings again. The first call was from Bruce's mom letting us know that there were heifers wandering around the yard here. The second call was from Ed who had heifers heading for his place 1/4 mile north! As Bruce was getting dressed Mike was already excited that there was something new going on! Ed managed to get ahead of the group heading his way with his truck and turned them back in our direction. Bruce and Mike headed out on the 4 wheeler and herded them back towards home. We live on a highway so Bruce's dad took the car out on the road to warn traffic and hopefully keep the heifers from heading west. Our biggest fear is that Mike will run out ahead of the group and get hit by a car so Bruce made him lie down and let the heifers enter the road first. By the time I got out of the house I could hear Bruce bringing them this way so I opened the gate into their yard and closed the gate that would have let them go back out to pasture. Perhaps a half hour passed between phone calls and the heifers being back in their yard and none of the people involved were even winded! We are so incredibly spoiled. If something happened to Mike I think we would have to sell everything because he is the only one who really knows how to move cattle around here! Mike is just like any border collie we have ever had. The other day he got his foot stepped on by a cow when he was letting them out of the barn. When he has free time he tends to limp. When he is working he forgets he has a sore foot and runs with pure joy. In the process of shutting gates I found his kong (toy) and I was holding it when he got done working. He went limping into the barn to get a drink and then came back out, panting with his tongue hanging out 4 inches yet. When he realized I had a kong he was ready for me to throw it, again running on all 4's. Needless to say, I only threw it far enough that he would lay on the grass and rest for awhile and promised him once his tongue was back in his mouth we would play : ) It was pretty obvious by the time we were done that we have a heifer that is very actively in heat. The fence was totally shorted out so Bruce had fencing added to his day before he even milked. Mike's entertainment didn't end with the heifers. While Bruce was out on the 4 wheeler his phone rang. The trucker we sell cattle through called to see if we had anyone we wanted to sell. We are quite a ways out for them to come to and they were going by to pick up a cow close to us. As it turned out, we had indeed planned on selling a cow this morning but hadn't gotten around to calling yet. Mike got to go and put the steers in their pen, get the cows home from pasture and then move the steers out of their pen since we move cattle though that pen when we sell them. He then got to move the cull cow out to the truck, put the steers back into their pen and then, after having a hose bath, got to take a nap while we milked : ) By the time the day was over we had 3 heifers in heat and 1 cow.
Bruces other project of the day was getting our manure spreader cleaned up so it can be fixed. We have 2 spreaders, one specifically for slop and one for solids like the pens with lots of bedding. The solids spreader has several floor supports that have rusted through, causing the floor to sag. Instead of Bruce spending his time trying to lay under it and weld he pressure washed it and then took it to the local machine shop to have it fixed. Bruce struggles with the concept of having others do work he is perfectly capable of but he is also learning he has to pick where his time and energy can be used.
We had storms move through over night. They didn't last long, or at least it didn't seem like they were around long. We woke up this morning to realize we had gotten 7/10 inch of rain! With the last rain we can already see the alfalfa has grown and the pastures are coming back. This rain helps guarantee corn, pasture and a 3rd crop of alfalfa.
Bruce had an early therapy appointment so I finished milking the last dozen cows and then did all the milkhouse stuff Bruce usually does. We have such a routine of what we each cover that it becomes interesting finishing up. I generally feed calves while Bruce finishes milking and I also put the soaps in the jars for the pipeline washer. He generally puts all the milkers in the sink, flushes the milk through and then takes the pipe out of the tank. There is a strainer that is removed, a hose attached and the milkers are then ready to wash. While he is doing that the dog and I are getting cows out of the barn into the yard. By the time we are done with that he is out by the road putting them across into the pasture. While he follows them out and closes the fence I take the electric wire off around the bunk that protects the steer feed from the cows and then I let the steers out and turn the lights and fans off. I managed to get that all done but it surely is a different thought process when you cover it all yourself. Other than milking and a repeat of the above there wasn't much more done than feeding. During the winter Bruce can feed the calves and steers for a couple days. In summer the feed spoils much faster in the heat so he has to feed everyone every day. Some days, when he has cattle to move to new paddocks in addition to the TMR mixing the feeding job seems endless.
Within the last month Bruce and I have both had birthdays. At 54 and 56 we don't bounce like we used to and at times the normal is too much. That is the current case with Bruce injuring his back when he brought the last heifer calf home. There hasn't been much extra farming the last few days with a therapy appoint and many rounds of ice then heat then ice. We called Joe yesterday to see if he could help me and give Bruce a break. As a freshman in high school, yesterday was his first day of marching band which was followed by the first cross country practice. Tired and rubbery legged Joe showed up to help us out and we truely appreciated it. Today Bruce was standing much straighter, picking what he did carefully, and alternating ice and heat and ice every few hours. He was not happy about spending such a beautiful day spending so much time looking at the ceiling but he is feeling better. Tonight when I got to the barn he announced "look at me! I can walk like a real boy". Simple things like bringing a calf home is part of our normal farming routine. Adding on to your age tends to change the balance of the things we do.
Our life revolves around other numbers. The cows are not doing spectactular but all things considered are doing ok. Our fat test and MUN are too low, our somatic cell count is too high. Bruce is increasing the protein amount to correct the MUN. The fat test tends to be an ongoing summer problem when cows are out on grass. We are doing cultures on high SCC cows to see what particular problem they have so we treat them correctly. The fresh cow is doing OK. She wasn't eating like she should yesterday so Bruce gave her a magnet just in case she has some hardware issues involved along with treating her for ketosis. This morning she had blood in 1 quarter so that quarter needed to be milked by hand. Already tonight that quarter was back to milk but she now has mastitis so Bruce treated her. The good news is she seems to be eating again. This cow is very heavy because it took a long time to get her pregnant. She has a bigger and lower udder than some which doesn't work that well with Bruce's back issues. Add to that the fact that she doesn't exactly have a charming personality. I guess someone has to make life interesting.
The other numbers these days are farmer and cow friendly temperatures. Tonight it's 72. In the last 4 days we have bred 5 cows. Breedings are running a bit later than we would like but the early rain and then the heat and humidity kept the cows from cycling and/or being active in heat.
This isn't the best picture but full moon's are fun. I wish I would have gotten out faster when it was just peeking over the hill.
We have been blessed with another amazing day. The day started with another new heifer calf that needed to be brought home. The cow didn't want to come so it took awhile for Bruce and Mike to convince her to head to the barn. The new calf needed a hutch set and bedded. As long as Bruce was at it he bedded the other two hutches and the 2 pens in the barn that Joe doesn't bed. Last fall we were lucky enough to chop a bunch of dry cornstalks for the bedding we used under the cows all winter. We were able to get so much that we also put a few loads in the end of a silo bag just to see how it would work to store them there. Bruce opened the bag and used them and they were perfect. We really like that bedding. Other than the random corn cob piece to step on its bright and clean much less dusty than the chopped barley straw we usually use. The other project of the day was moving heifers to new grass. This involved fixing the braces where a heifer broke her foot earlier. Cattle obviously don't read the manual so we aren't taking any chances that would allow something to happen again. Other than the addition of a fresh cow to take care of, milking is pretty routine. We will continue to be spoiled until early next year when the craziness of calvings begin again : )
There has been a sighting of the wayward cow. She has moved a little over a mile from our fields closer to where she actually belongs. Between where she was and where she is there is a block of about 200 acres of corn. Between where she is and her original home is about 40 acres of woods. The good news is she isn't doing any damage in our corn fields. I do wish them luck getting her back home. Evidently there is a natual spring in the area where she was sighted so she now has water. It is unusual for a cow to wander alone when there are other animals around. Everyone expected her to show up with our heifers since she has been within sight of 3 different groups but evidently chose not to stay. Hopefully someone will let us know when they catch her.
This morning Bruce's 4 wheeler wouldn't start. He had discovered last week that the battery is already 6 years old so we got a new battery for it but hadn't gotten it put in yet. Of course the cows are in the farthest paddock so Bruce walked all the way out, reset the fence and walked back in the rain. Thank heavens for nice rain suits! We got another inch of rain before milking was done! Bruce doesn't tend to worry since worry doesn't fix anything but this morning, after the rain he commented that the game had changed. He then talked about the pasture will finally grow. Perhaps the hay will grow a bit and it is early enough to harvest a 4th crop. The bag for the cow feed is nearly gone so we will need to open the silo much earlier than normal. Had it continued to be dry we would have had some serious feed inventory issues. Hopefully with this rain it will all work out fine. The pasture has had some leaf disease going on. Bruce thinks its from all the humidity and dampness when it was so hot. In any case the cows won't eat it. We are hoping the steers are more interested
We got the check for the stag steer and cows. We are paid by the pound of hanging weight which is approximately 60% of the total weight. The steer dressed out at only 576#. He is much smaller than we would normally sell them and we were paid $1.43 per pound. The cows, averaged a hanging weight of 607# and averaged $1.35 per pound. There was no problem stuffing all of them into the checkbook!
It has been really dry here. For that reason the potato leaf hoppers have gotten out of control in our alfalfa fields since that is the weather they like. Yesterday we had another first in the fact that we had our alfalfa seeding sprayed. We don't like doing this but we can't have the seeding destroyed either. With the dry weather the alfalfa crop is short so we sprayed in self defense. This morning Joe was here and milked with Bruce and I got to stay in the house and cook! During milking it clouded up and rained. It wasn't much but it was moisture so we were pleased. The sun came out and then later it clouded up and rained, this time a bit more but still not much. We were still glad. Tonight when we were ready to get the cows home it was thundering like crazy. We had the cows in the barn and it started to pour, and then the wind blew and when it was all over we had 6/10 inch and we were thrilled! Everything needed the moisture. The pastures are not growing back like they should, the corn is just starting to fill ears and the alfalfa perhaps will grow a bit before we need to cut it. It is funny how things look different. If we had gotten that half inch in June we would have been sick at the thought. Tonight seeing and listening to it rain was nothing short of magic : )
Yesterday and today have been picture perfect days. Sunny, breezy and low humidity. It seems like this is the first nice week this summer, or at least the first one I would consider normal. Yesterday we had Joe's help milking in the morning and then he and I scrubbed the bulk tank. The inside is self cleaning but the outside was looking pretty dirty. Our tank holds 1000 gallons so its tall and big. I was glad for the help. Yesterday afternoon Bruce and I went for a ride on the 4 wheeler to take some pictures and then go around our corn field to check for signs of the run away cow. We saw a couple places where the corn was knocked down in areas where she had been seen, but nothing that has us convinced that she is still around there. We haven't heard of any other sightings but there is a lot of corn close enough that she can be anywhere. We got the results of our last pregnancy tests and had 9 out of 12 pregnant. Having 75% conception is darned good in regular weather but in the heat it is amazing. With that information back I reworked the spread sheet I create with current information on all the cows, and identified who should be bred that isn't. We aren't getting cows pregnant as quickly as other summers on pasture, one of the frustrations of the heat.
We woke up this morning to 59 degrees. To us that is perfect sleeping weather! I worked in town today and Bruce moved all the animals that are on pasture to new grass. He also moved the feeders and fed them some corn and soybean meal and got them some mineral. The goats continue to get out ALL the time these days. The dog convinces them to go back where they belong without any problems. We suspect there is a leader and trouble maker in this particular group. I do believe it is time for some of them to leave.
Jason's corn. Bruce has an 8 ft reach. The outside rows tend to be shorter than those further into the field
The ears are forming and the silks are ready for pollen. There is one silk for every kernel.
This corn is easily 10 ft tall. It is on no till ground and a different variety than Jason's field
No till. We are very pleased with the weed control this year. When weeds grow it takes nutrients from the corn.
These are the brace roots that help keep the corn upright in the wind
This is the tassel or flower where the pollen drops from
After an unusual bunch of weather this year, today was darned close to perfect. Warm, windy and sunny with humidities that were comfortable. Joe came this morning and milked and then mowed the lawn and trimmed around the buildings. The lawn is really brown but now its even so we look a bit better from the road : ) Bruce spent the day hauling manure from the barn and steer yard. The steers got a couple corn fodder stacks to lounge on that the cows found entertaining when they were in the yard. We had someone stop in today and buy one of the male goat kids from January. Mike got to impress everyone by going around the corner and bringing the goats up, stopping instantly when asked to lie down and basically showed off his herding talents. Those guys were in awe since they had never seen a dog herd like that before. Bruce was darned proud! Some people have kids in recitals....we have a border collie who really is one of the best dogs ever and as many times as we have seen him work, he still makes us smile : )
The July class III milk price has been announced. The 2009 price was $9.97. It was $13.62 in 2010. We contracted for $16.43 and the price is actually $21.39. Our translation of this is an opportunity loss of $3727. Now we are talking serious money : ( From what I can see that could be a record price for any month in the last 15 years with a price of $21.38 for July 2007. The lowest price was $9.33 in 2002 and the highest was July 2007. Oh well, we knew this was coming, and even with that I contracted the rest of our milk for Aug, Sept, and Oct. The potential for a financial crash in the country makes me nervous. I am less afraid of not hitting the high on the contract, and terrified of the low prices we have seen as possible in the last few years. There is tremendous peace of mind knowing what we will be getting for our milk in those months. Now if we only knew what direction to go with the next year.
The stag steer went on the truck this morning along with 3 cull cows that were no longer paying for their feed. Each cow had a different reason for leaving. One freshened with mastitis and has never produced well. One we couldn't get pregnant. One is a staph aureus cow with little milk and a high somatic cell count. The steer sorted and loaded without any issues and it was funny to see Bruce just point his stick and the steer would go to the far end of the pen. It reminded us of the lasers in the Star Wars movies since the steers reaction was as though there were magic powers in that stick. We are glad he is gone and I will use my magical powers to stuff him and his cow friends into the checkbook later this week. Bruce went to the therapist today that has been helping him with his previous shoulder injury, also animal related. She found problems around the back of his knees and legs, perhaps from the steer pushing on him while he stood on the bunk edge. In any case, he has no serious damages and we are thankful : )
We did have an interesting dilemma this morning. In the process of letting cows out and keeping the ones that were leaving in, Bruce accidentally let a cow out that was supposed to stay in to be bred. Joe watched the road and Bruce and I and Mike went out to try and sort the cow out and get her back. After a few rounds of the pasture we ended up getting her home, along with 4 extras that we sorted back when we got the one we wanted in the barn. Mike worked really hard and during the process took a dip in the water tank to cool off. When we got the extras back he took another dip, sitting in there longer than I have ever seen him. What was funny is there was a cow that came up to get a drink, and she shook her head and flopped her ears in disapproval, and he continued to sit in her tank. I am not sure if he decided to get out on his own or she poked him with her nose. He and this particular cow have a love/hate relationship and it wouldn't surprise me if Mike sat in the tank longer just to annoy her. Gotta love animals : )
We had a quiet day today. It started with RAIN while Bruce was getting the cows home. Bruce got wet, the cows were sloppy to be around and we were thrilled. We ended up with only 2/10 inch but we could use some rain so it was better than nothing. Our yard is getting pretty brown. We aren't ones to worry about what the yard looks like but it is a constant reminder of how dry the crops are also. The seeding and alfalfa are short with the lack of moisture so our 3rd crop will not be what we had hoped. We have chances of rain in the forecast a few times this week. Hopefully we will get lucky a few more times. The steer that caused yesterdays chaos has been behaving as before. Bruce carries his stick with him whenever he in is the yard now just to be safe. We will still put him on the truck tomorrow. Those kinds of incidents don't promote second chances. Bruce cleaned pens today to make loading cattle tomorrow more user friendly. It was a warm day but the humidity dropped this afternoon to a more reasonable level and we finally had a nice breeze. I was able to open up the house windows for the first time in a week. As much as I like the benefits of air conditioning, I miss hearing the birds and the breeze and today the cattle complaining because Bruce chose to clean their pens before he fed them. : ) Since there is nothing more to note for today I will add a few random pictures from the routine.
It just happened that all the animals were in the ends of their pastures so Bruce had a full supply of reels. These are our fences. Bruce can set up a fence in 5 min.
These are the pigtail posts we use. They get pushed into the ground with your foot and the poly wire fence gets wrapped into the "pigtail" on top.
we are finding the fly tape much more impressive than the flies do
Joe was here yesterday morning and milked. He always eats breakfast here and then he and Bruce continued out to do the routine barn chores like feeding the calves and steers and scraping all the feed alleys by the cows. This gets done every day and when its hot, twice a day. As a general rule Bruce's dad still cleans the alleys but Joe gave him opportunity for a day off. When they were through with that Bruce decided to take advantage of the help and clean up around the silo bags. We have a love/hate relationship with these bags. They are relatively convenient to fill, but that includes buying the bag and bagger rental. They are much faster to feed out of since you use the skid steer instead of an unloader. No unloader maintenance required. There can be problems with spoiled feed, especially when rodents chew a hole in the bag, or once years ago, a raccoon walked around on top and poked holes. The biggest challenge with the bags is dealing with the plastic. As you remove feed you cut away plastic. Over winter with all the snow the plastic was burried, then plowed around and mixed in piles of snow and spoiled feed. When everything thawed there was a huge mess to clean up. We have a dumpster so Bruce took the skid steer and started by digging plastic loose with the pallet forks. Then he bucketed the refuse around, and Joe picked out any plastic that showed up. They only worked less than 2 hours but they managed to get the area pretty much cleaned up. The spoiled feed is now in a pile and ready to go into the manure pile for spreading in fall. There has been no new sighting of the beef cow that is assumed to still be roaming our corn field. With this particular area planted alternating tilled and no till, it's a solid block of 23.5 acres, and the chances of randomly finding this cow are pretty slim. We do know that she was picked up at a farm only a couple miles from here and she happened to get off the trailer and proceed to push her way through a small opening between the trailer and the barn. It is good to know she is not mean and aggressive, but she still doesn't need to live in our corn.
Bruce had an interesting start to his day. The steers live in the same yard that the cows go through between the barn and pasture. To make this work we have a corral of gates along the barn wall and whenever the cows are traveling the steers are herded by Mike into this corralled area, and once the cows are on pasture they are let out to continue resting, eating and drinking in the yard. I was warned when this group was put out there that we had a stag steer in the group and I needed to be aware. A stag steer is one that has been castrated, in this case with a band, and one of the testicles wasn't in the band correctly. When this happens the testicle stays up in the body cavity. This keeps it too warm for fertility so they aren't able to create a pregnancy but they do have hormones like a bull and can be a problem. Sometime during the night, the steers who have nothing better to do but find trouble, managed to get the gate that closes their pen away from the barn wall. When Bruce and Mike were putting the steers in their pen one of them got behind the gate. When Bruce was trying to put that one in the pen the stag steer kept pushing him back out so Bruce kicked him in the nose. The stag steer decided he did not approve and he put his head down and chased Bruce into the corner by the barn and the bunk. It was lucky Bruce could climb up high enough that all the steer/bull could push at was his legs. Somewhere in this process Bruce touched the hot (electric) wire around the bunk and the steer got a shock also. This caused him to back off for an instant so Bruce had a chance to get over the gate into the barn. He then got his "attitude adjuster/pick handle" and went back out to continue putting the steers in their pen. The steer put his head down to come after him again Bruce hit him very, very, very, very hard up side the head. He said it would have been a home run in any ballpark. The steer now has respect and an appointment with "THE truck" on Monday morning. This is the first time in Bruce's life that an animal has threatened him, with the exception of newborn calves who sometimes do the same thing. A former neighbor had a similar incident happen and he was killed. I am no longer allowed to let the steers out for now (usually I do it) and Bruce will carry his stick just in case. Until today he never gave us cause for concern, but there are no second chances. The good news is the steer has a head ache and Bruce is perfectly fine. Monday can't come soon enough. Tonight Bruce just said "hello" to the steer and he turned and walked into their pen. It seems they have come to an understanding as to exactly who is boss.
The rest of the day has been a non event. Now that Bruce has "nothing to do" he has the option to pick and choose what he accomplishes between the feeding, milking & misc. barn necessities. Actually today he didn't really get to chose since the manure pit was full to the door again. He hauled 7 loads and piled them on the back of the other place where they will be easy to reload and spread after the corn is harvested.
Not much excitement around here today. Joe came and helped milk and then did some more picking up for us. Bruce had to move the heifers at the other place across the driveway so Joe and Mike helped with that. Bruce put up another fly strip and ordered a couple more. We are pretty impressed with how they are working. The only other excitement in the neighborhood is the run away cow. Ed saw it last night and we now know it's a beef cow and she is living in our corn field, the one I posted a picture of a few days ago with the varied strips visible. Bruce is a bit concerned given the fact that a single cow is capable of knocking down plenty of corn, and as expensive as it is we would prefer this not happen any more than absolutely necessary. Today he called the trucker that lost the cow in the first place. We are not sure who it belongs to at this point, the original farmer who shipped it, the trucker himself or someone's insurance company. In any case we think it is odd that no one has contacted us or even been out looking for it. Hopefully we will get some information tomorrow.
Joe came both yesterday morning and this morning. I had an early appointment in town yesterday so he and Bruce milked, and today Bruce had an early appointment so Joe and I milked. Joe has been busy helping with other things besides milking which is really nice. The calves get bedded, the barn gets extra alley scraping and little by little he is helping us get some things caught up. It has been interesting trying to get things done, earlier with all the rain and recently with the heat and humidity.
Bruce has installed fly tape in the back of the barn with plans to put some in the dairy barn also. So far we have been impressed, probably much more than the flies. We are both excited that using the tape may help eliminate the fly spray we use.
Again today Mike made us smile. It was still warm but the humidity was a bit lower and we had a breeze so the cows went to pasture this morning. Bruce had given the cows a smaller area of pasture and by mid afternoon they were warm and complaining. We went over and Bruce disconnected the tank hose and sprayed them all down and then we moved the fence so the cows had more grass. While we were doing this Mike seemed to disappear. When we were on the far end doing the fence he suddenly showed up, and again disappeared as we came back home. As it turns out, his latest cool spot to relax and wait is in the culvert under the driveway into the pasture. Unlike any other dog we have had, he is a creature of comforts. His first choice of places to hang out these days is in the house in the air conditioning. Once Bruce suggested he come out with him and Mike laid down with his chin on the floor. There is no doubt what his preference was. If he is outside he has spots under the porches he likes. In the barn he lays behind the bulk tank on the concrete. In winter he lays in this same spot because the compresser blows warm air out there. He will never lay down on a wet spot if he can find a dry one and he will lay on something soft if he can. He will swim through anything while he is working but will walk around from dry spot to dry spot otherwise. Today after we were done in the pasture he was warm. We suggested he take a dip in his tank and he stepped in and right back out.....it was not cold enough to suit him today.
We have an adventure going on in the neighborhood. A couple days ago the neighbors had some animals to sell and in the process of loading them another animal (someone elses) escaped off the trailer. Today Bruce's mom saw an animal along the road and called Bruce but by the time he got over there it was gone. We suspect it is spending its time in our corn fields so who knows when the owner will get their animal caught and sold.
I need to back up a bit with my postings since I am a bit behind. I guess I will report in categories : )
As mentioned before, we tested milk Friday night. We have since had a chance to actually review the results of the evening. The heat has taken its toll, not on everyone but for a few. The cow that stands out the most gave 115# the previous month and only 64# this time. She was also the cow in the barn that most noticeably did not handle the heat very well. We will see what the rest of the reports say later this week.
The cows were out during the day on Saturday. The original plan was to let them out for awhile but it didn't get too uncomfortable until later in the day. When that happens they tend to congregate in one place and create a mud hole. Prepping them for milking took much longer than normal because they were all dirty. We were also pleased on Saturday that there were 3 cows in heat. Hopefully their breeding's will result in pregnancies, regardless of the heat. When we were done milking we noticed that there was a cow that would probably have her calf over night. She was a cause for concern for a number of reasons. Besides the obvious heat issues she was an older cow. She has staph aureus which challenges her immune system. It took us a long time to get her pregnant and she was very heavy. She was showing signs of milk fever which is a calcium imbalance. We don't see milk fevers very often any more. Years ago, before feed testing and nutrition balancing it was fairly common. Initial symptoms are cold ears and lethargy. In more extreme cases you have a 1500# cow staggering around as though she is drunk. The next level is they can't get up. Perhaps the most dangerous situation is the cow who is staggering on her feet since she can easily hurt herself and catching her so you can treat her can be dangerous for us. The treatment in the more extreme situations is a vet call and an IV treatment. This cow was a bit unsteady on her feet so we ran a bottle of calcium under her skin and put her in the pasture right across from the barn by herself. I woke up about 1:45 and made a trip out to check on her. She had already had a nice heifer calf that had crawled under the fence and laid down. She was definitely not happy with the calf's choice since she couldn't get to it. I came back to the barn and then went back and gave the calf its roto corona virus vaccine. I made the cow walk around for me and she was doing great so I headed back to bed : ) Sunday the cows stayed in the barn during the day. Our fresh cow needed an additional dose of calcium under her skin in the morning but had cleaned over night so she was doing well. The day was again hot and humid. Today the weather was a repeat of yesterday. The only thing saving us from pure misery was it stayed cloudy. Joe was here and helped milk and then pressure washed 9 empty hutches and washed all the feed pails. Bruce dealt with a cow that had a very sore foot. As it turned out she had a bunch of sand and grit worked in through a sole crack. No wonder she was limping! He cleaned it up, treated it, and put a block on the good side to take the pressure off the sore side of her foot. In the process she managed to fall down in the trim chute once Bruce took off the belly bands that are used to help her balance. She managed to get back on her feet (this is a fairly enclosed space) and walked back to her stall. Other recent cow events to note are a couple of teat injuries, although minor ones. It is a mystery how cows can step on teats when they are outside in what is considered the perfect environment. We treated one cow for pneumonia last week. With the heat it is surprising we haven't had more. Our most recent milk culture came back fine. Nice!
The calves are doing fine. I only have 3 in hutches currently which is a nice change from having so many in early spring. The last calf is now past the point of the new calf concerns, and the one born over the weekend should be on track to do just fine. They don't read the manual, but I am hopeful.
We could use rain. The humidity along with our clay soils are really keeping the corn growing. The soil holds moisture (earlier a problem, now a blessing) and the humidity in the air also minimizes the plant requirements. We are now seeing signs of leaf hoppers in our new alfalfa seeding. Signs of trouble are yellow v shapes on the leaf tips caused by a toxin that they inject when the suck out the plant juice. We may need to spray for them which is something we have never had to do before. So far the pasture is still in good condition but keeping the cows in means they aren't harvesting like they should. It also means our haylage in the bag is disappearing faster than we would like. When the cows are out Bruce adds 250lbs. in the mix. When they stay in the haylage needs to be increased to 1000lbs.
Vicky was here today. Lower milk production and lower butterfat tests, along with higher somatic cell counts are common with the heat. We are not alone in our frustrations. Prices for soybean meal is expected to go up due to heat in Texas destroying the cotton seed crop. Cotton seed is another protein source to feed cows and having less of it available will create a higher demand for soybean. She suggests we consider contracting some of our soybean needs to control our protein costs. We discussed fly control, timing of worming everyone on pasture and also what amounts of corn to feed to those on pasture to keep it in their diet and help them grow. She was glad to hear we have bred quite a few animals and has high hopes for pregnancies, although the heat may complicate that.
Yesterday was again a special day in Wisconsin with the 2nd half of our property taxes due. Another $3500 out the door. Enough said.
Recent breakdowns have been minor. We had a tire on the tractor with what turned out to be a valve stem problem so that was relatively cheap to fix. The tractor fuel tank was leaking but that ended up being a loose fuel return hose. A water float came lose and had to be replaced in the pasture.
The goats are out routinely. They have decided they don't have to respect the fence where they were in. The dog loves this....the farmer is less than pleased. Today Bruce built some temporary fence around areas of the farm where we can't mow. The goats can eat and do clean up duty.
Mike continues to work hard followed by napping : ) We did manage to get a video of him cooling down after working. We have a shallow water tank that he uses when he is hot. He is the only one who decides when he is warm enough to use it and how long he will soak. He hates the camera but was warm enough that he was sidetracked and didn't notice. We have never had a border collie use a tank to cool down before although it's very common for this breed to like one. In the pasture he will crawl into the cattle water tanks to cool off if he decides he is too hot. Those tanks are much smaller so he makes us smile and when he gets done we just dump the tanks and let them refill. Tonight it is 83 degrees with a dewpoint of 83. 99% humidity. Winds 3mph. The dog was more than willing to take a dip in his tank tonight when we got done : )
