If a Dairy Farmer Won the Power Ball

Yes, I did buy one Power Ball ticket. Do I have faith that I will be the winner? Of course! Half the fun of the ticket for me is to enjoy the time daydreaming about what I would do with the winnings. Today I thought about how I would use it to improve our dairy farm. So after taxes, charitable donations, and helping friends and family members out, this would be what I might do with it.

• New manure spreader and tractor. We could use one, trust me and I think that would be awesome to tell the morning show's reporter when they came out to interview me.
• Hay, hay, and more hay. The drought we endured this summer left us with a very lackluster crop.
• An iPhone. I don't want one because I want to be an Applefanboy, but I read in a dairy magazine about a new app and attachment that will let users check the somatic cell count of milk for individual cows. Improving milk quality? I am a fan of that.
• Robot milkers. The fourteen year old boy that resides within me screams that robots are cool. Robot milking units that I have read about seem to be about improving cow comfort and the farmer's time. I think I would definitely want to explore using them.
• Webcams around the maternity area. Wi-fi at the farm is very limited right now, but I would love to extend it and add webcams so we can better monitor our pregnant or postpartum cows.
• Of course there are plenty of repairs that need to be made and these could be attended to.

Short list? Yup, but I'm sure I'll think of more to add to it. What would you do on your farm if you won the lotto?



photo credit: Lisa Brewster via photopin cc