Give Me a Home Where the Cows Don't Roam

We used to have a vet that believed in the signs.  When we were working cattle she would either give credit or blame to the signs depending on if they were in the head, feet, etc.  I have no idea what the signs have been in this week, but they have definitely been against trees and fences.

It began on Sunday when a tree fell in field #1 and laid a six foot section of barb wire fence down.  Not much, but a big enough hole for several heifers to walk out.  Some of them, and what we thought were all of them, came around to the main gate on their own to get back in. The nine others, well, they took a leisurely stroll through the woods that night.  Monday morning we got a phone call that our calves in field #2 were out, however these were the now found heifers from field #1 which we then locked in our neighbor's empty pasture.

On Tuesday we got a few of the losties from field #1 back home and checked their fence again.  The next morning in field #3 another group of heifers found themselves on the outside of the fence.  They easily walked back in the field when we went to feed them.  On the way back to fix the fence in their field another neighbor flagged us down to tell us that the calves from field #2 were out.  So we changed directions and went to go put them up and saw up another tree.  We then hooked up our trailer and moved a few of those that were cooperative from field #1 and brought them back home.

Today we were on our way again to fix the fence in field #3 when 3 heifers from field #4 climbed over yet another fence that was pushed down by a fallen tree limb.  We put them back in quickly and then went back to our neighbor's with the trailer to get the last of those animals.  Unfortunately we were only able to get one.  While there we got a phone call that the calves from field #4 were back out.  We left the last two animals to return home and fix that fence.

After lunch we found the calves from field #3 and led them back home with the trucks and fed them.  We then  got the tree off that fence and repaired it.

Our plans to go back and get the remaining losties from our neighbor's pasture were thwarted with a constant downpour this afternoon.  That must be part of the signs, too.

If all of this sounds crazy and confusing then you are not alone.  Normally we might have maybe one group of animals that finds a hole in the fence in one month or longer.  Never every day of the week with calves out.  Tomorrow I hoping if life really goes by the signs on the calendar then they will be much more favorable to fences, trees, and farmers.

Dairy Farming and Christmas

There's no doubt that Christmas is a busy time.  Family gatherings, parties, church services, shopping for presents, and all the other things we do make it a little chaotic around the house.  For dairy farmers there is one constant thing and that is milking time.

Everything, including Christmas, in some way revolves around the cows.  What we do and when we do it has to be before or after milking and feeding.  That's just part of dairy farming. So if we arrive a little late to something it is only because we wanted the "girls" to be well fed and taken care of.

But the big question most folks want to know is do cows celebrate Christmas? I'll let you judge for yourself, but I will add that they did decorate with some lights again this year.

From Moo to You: Milking the Cows

While you can buy milk at the grocery store it does not appear there magically.  Milk comes from cows on dairy farms, many of which are just like mine.

Our cows are milked two times a day; once early in the morning and once in the mid-afternoon.  After they've had some hay and silage to eat we walk them to the holding area behind the dairy barn.  The cows waiting to be milked stay there and those that have been milked can then walk back out to the feeding areas.

The cows enter the barn five at a time on one side.  While one group is being milked the other side is being prepped for milking.  The milkers are then put on the cow and the milk flows through the hoses and into the pipeline.



From there the it goes into our milk tank for storage.  The milk is stirred and kept cold until the milk truck comes to pick it up and take it to a processing plant.  Then it is bottled or made into other delicious dairy treats.   All of our equipment is washed after each milking. The tank is also cleaned after each pick up.

After being milked the cows have hay and fresh silage waiting on them to eat.  Then they are free to roam out on the pasture field until the next milking.