Boring Photos of Clouds

I usually read a few blogs in the morning while I eat breakfast.  Today I read Trent Bown's post, Slow Down and Smell...the Farm.  He said even farmers should remember how nice it is to live in the country and do what we love, and enjoy it.  So, I took his advice.

The beautiful sights I took in today were thanks to a cold front moving in.  The clouds really caught my eye today.  I just couldn't get enough of them.

Morning On the Farm

Dairy farmers start their mornings early.  At 4:30 I was bringing the cows off the pasture to be milked.

While the cows were being milked I started doing the feeding.  First, I let the dry cows come down out of their pasture to eat their morning breakfast of silage.  These are pregnant cows that are taking their maternity leave from milking for around sixty days.  One of them had a calf last night and we were lucky enough that she brought it down to the barn with her.

Next I began feeding small groups of calves and then the baby calves in the calf barn.  These little calves drink milk twice a day, along with water, hay, and grain.  They grow up fast.

By the time this is completed we move the dry cows out and begin the morning feeding for the dairy cows after they finish milking.  After cleaning up the dairy barn I headed out the fields to feed grain to our larger heifers that will one day join the milking herd.

Finally, after that was finished, it was time for me to grab some breakfast before starting the morning chores.

Talking

Thursday on my lunch break I watched the first panel of the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance's Food Dialogues.  I thought it was a great opportunity for the ag community and consumers to start an open conversation about what expectations they have of each other while sharing thoughts and questions.  Two great posts about the entire town hall can be found at Common Sense Agriculture and Cause Matters.  While I didn't get to watch it all I did think about the concept of it while I was on the tractor that afternoon.

To achieve success a business must produce a quality product that the consumer will want to purchase.  The ag community has to do the same.  Consumers also must have reasonable expectations for the products they want.  A desire for specific production methods may not be feasible for anyone on any level.  But where should the products and the consumer cross paths?

I like to think that I fall in the "do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" camp, but I still have to make money to take care of my family.  The one thousand cow dairy and the man that is selling veggies from his garden at the farmers market are the same.  At the end of the day they have to make a profit because they cannot do it for free.

Dialogue was the purpose of those town hall events.  I don't know if they achieved that goal, but I do know they made a start at it.   I think farmers need to convey how and why they do the things they do.  When 100% of the people use agriculture products maybe everyone needs to listen.

...And The Cows Were Oblivious

Life can be frustrating sometimes.  Things were running smoothly while we were chopping corn. Then the chain that runs the part of the chopper that blows the silage into the wagon came off.  Instead of coming in and working on it at the shop I thought we should fix in the field.  That didn't work.  

We then brought it in and realized that we needed new sprockets, which are the wheels the chain runs on.  When they finally came in at the parts store we still couldn't get the chain to run.  When we turned it by hand
the chain kept rolling right off.  After tweaking, coaxing, and pleading didn't work we tried another new chain.  A-ha!  That was the final piece of the puzzle and we were able to start chopping again.

Did our "girls" notice the bump in our rode to harvest this week?  No, I think it is safe to say the cows were oblivious.

Sky Blue Sky

After a very dreary and soggy week, the sun came out and dried everything up.  The rain did a lot of good and the grass is finally growing again much to the calves delight.  

Because of the dry weather we had begun to feed more hay to our cows and calves in the fields.  Thanks to
the abundant rain we can save more of the hay for this winter.









The good news is we're back to chopping.  We are over half finished with our corn and still have some sudan sorghum to go after that.  More silage for me to blow up the silos!

   

Rainy Days and Mondays (Always Get Me Soaked)

You know it has been a rainy day when you've gone through three pairs of jeans and two caps and your keys, wallet, and cellphone are still wet.  The rain gauge topped out at 6" this afternoon for one day's worth of rain before I dumped it.  The majority of it was during the day today.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad that tropical depression Lee is bringing us rain because it has been dry and dusty here.

Needless to say, we won't be able to do any field work this week.  We had planned to continue chopping corn silage, but I suppose that will have to wait for a while.

Still, these muddy days will be put to good use.  We have plenty of chores around the farm that we have been putting off.  We have a couple groups of calves to move and vaccinate.  There's also maintenance to do on tractors and other machinery.  No one that ever looked can say there's nothing to do on a farm.