Wow, has the summer ever gone by fast! We've had hay to bale, corn to spray and cultivate, the county fair, and now - sweet corn to pick and sell! What started out fourteen years ago as a pocket change enterprise for our young boys, has grown into an 18 acre, hand-picked undertaking every August. When milk prices were so low, we needed a niche market to help to strengthen our cash flow. Once we got the business off of the ground, and God blessed it, there was no looking back. We have a great crew of pickers that helps us out. They show up every evening at milking time to head to the field to begin filling the three trucks. On nice evenings, the picking goes fast. There have been times, though, when we've really had to hurry up to beat an incoming storm, or when the boys were still in school - Friday night football games! Farmer Rick and I used to be able to do it all when they were still around the farm, but now that they're grown, we need the help. Farmerette is a big help too, but she is often helping me milk while the crew is picking.
The cows are quite happy too at this time of year because they get the sweet corn silage and leftovers from the day dumped in their feed wagon in the night pasture. Once they see Farmer Rick head out to the field to begin chopping, they begin to sing a chorus of moo's and sometimes get rather impatient as I try to finish up milking before he returns! If the sweet corn starts to ripen faster than we can use it, we will chop off an additional row or two to keep up with the younger corn. So, as the season progresses, we pick our way across the field, closely followed by the corn chopper for feed for the cows. We try not to waste anything on the farm.
I remember a saying from the oldtimer's: "We used everything from the pig but the squeal".
Boy, is that ever true. Even though milk prices have improved over the last couple of months, we know that they won't last long. Having an extra income for six short weeks of the year is a tremendous help in paying off planting expenses and catching up on other bills before the milk price takes a dive again. We are very, very thankful that God has blessed our efforts and continues to provide us with a means to continue this life that we love!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
IT IS SO HOT!!
It's been a week now of very very hot weather. Keeping the cows cool and healthy is a daily (and nightly) challenge. When it's this hot, we keep the cows in during the day and run the funnel fans over them, just to try to keep them somewhat comfortable. If we put them outside, they just stand at the gate and don't go munch grass. They'll then come in the barn, just panting. Sounds like we're in for atleast a few more days of this.
Hay is down, trying to dry. With it this humid, it's rather hard to coax it along to dry. But second crop needs to be in the haymow already, so it gets cut, whether it's going to dry fast or not. There is a chance of rain today, so we'll see if the hay gets washed or not! Rain has been falling rather heavily all around us, but there's a little area in our southern part of the county and the neighboring county that has missed the rain every time. Although I hate to see the hay get rained on, we could use it! It's rather depressing to see the rain go north, the rain go south. Rain goes north, rain goes south. Every time.
But we continue to trust that God will bring us the rain when he's good and ready. He has carried us this far - what else can we do but trust?
Hay is down, trying to dry. With it this humid, it's rather hard to coax it along to dry. But second crop needs to be in the haymow already, so it gets cut, whether it's going to dry fast or not. There is a chance of rain today, so we'll see if the hay gets washed or not! Rain has been falling rather heavily all around us, but there's a little area in our southern part of the county and the neighboring county that has missed the rain every time. Although I hate to see the hay get rained on, we could use it! It's rather depressing to see the rain go north, the rain go south. Rain goes north, rain goes south. Every time.
But we continue to trust that God will bring us the rain when he's good and ready. He has carried us this far - what else can we do but trust?
Monday, July 4, 2011
Summer on a Farm
Blog or pull a calf. Blog or try to get 2000 bales of hay in the barn before the rain hits. Blog or cultivate corn. Blog or fertilize hayfields.
Summer hits with all of its many seasonal duties that consume the day before the beginning until way beyond the end. Everytime I would try to sit down to write a quick note on the page, there would always be something looming over my shoulder that needed doing, and the keyboard would get left for days on end.
But here's a quick snapshot of how things have been going: Cows are enjoying their daily trek to the woods and swamp for their pasture. Farmerette and I love taking a walk through the woods, calling the cows up for evening milking. Usually they are already at the gate, but occaisionally they straggle in, wanting to get that last bit of grass before heading to the barn. Evenings find them outside now, too. The weather has been rather hot, so since we have some leftover hay bales that didn't make it into the haymow, we put several on a wagon at night for them to munch on. As much as I love walking to the woods to bring cows up at night, it's no fun looking for them early in the morning in the dark! So by feeding them the hay on a wagon at night, they stay close and don't wander off to the woods.
First crop of hay is up. Silo is filled and haymow is half full to the peak of the roof. Second and third crop should fill the remaining section of the barn to the roofpeak if we get enough rain. Spent most of the day after church yesterday cultivating corn. There is much to learn from cultivating. Patience, diligence, staying awake! One thing that I'm often reminded of, is that when cultivating with a four row implement, when you get off by one row, it just doesn't affect that one row, but it affects all four rows! I hate turning corn under by mistake! Not many farmers cultivate anymore with the price of diesel and the time it takes, but we have found that it works very well for us. Since we use a very limited amount of spray on our land, going through and cultivating reduces our weed populations and gives the corn an extra boost. It's almost like applying another application of fertilizer! Many times, just looking at the field the day after it's been cultivated and it looks like it's jumped six inches!
We will soon be broadcasting nitrogen on the corn - should have been done already, but we're running behind due to a knee injury of Farmer Rick. He may need surgery, but we'll know more soon. That will slow us down even more. When he's laid up, I have the full load of chores. Getting up for morning milking at 4:30 am, trying to be to work at 8 am on the days I work, coming home and organizing neighborhood kids to help me unload hay, milk again, clean stalls, do all of the other feeding and cleaning barn, getting in the house by 11:30 pm, showering and getting back up at 4:30 takes its toll. June has been a very long month and it's really drawing my energy level down. Hope to get caught up on things eventually.
Cows are waiting at the gate for morning milking, two are due to calve this week, hay to bale and three more fields to cultivate today - even though it's a holiday for most - the work still goes on on a farm. Maybe we'll get in town tonight for the fireworks - atleast they're after dark and most of our work (for the day) is done by then!
Summer hits with all of its many seasonal duties that consume the day before the beginning until way beyond the end. Everytime I would try to sit down to write a quick note on the page, there would always be something looming over my shoulder that needed doing, and the keyboard would get left for days on end.
But here's a quick snapshot of how things have been going: Cows are enjoying their daily trek to the woods and swamp for their pasture. Farmerette and I love taking a walk through the woods, calling the cows up for evening milking. Usually they are already at the gate, but occaisionally they straggle in, wanting to get that last bit of grass before heading to the barn. Evenings find them outside now, too. The weather has been rather hot, so since we have some leftover hay bales that didn't make it into the haymow, we put several on a wagon at night for them to munch on. As much as I love walking to the woods to bring cows up at night, it's no fun looking for them early in the morning in the dark! So by feeding them the hay on a wagon at night, they stay close and don't wander off to the woods.
First crop of hay is up. Silo is filled and haymow is half full to the peak of the roof. Second and third crop should fill the remaining section of the barn to the roofpeak if we get enough rain. Spent most of the day after church yesterday cultivating corn. There is much to learn from cultivating. Patience, diligence, staying awake! One thing that I'm often reminded of, is that when cultivating with a four row implement, when you get off by one row, it just doesn't affect that one row, but it affects all four rows! I hate turning corn under by mistake! Not many farmers cultivate anymore with the price of diesel and the time it takes, but we have found that it works very well for us. Since we use a very limited amount of spray on our land, going through and cultivating reduces our weed populations and gives the corn an extra boost. It's almost like applying another application of fertilizer! Many times, just looking at the field the day after it's been cultivated and it looks like it's jumped six inches!
We will soon be broadcasting nitrogen on the corn - should have been done already, but we're running behind due to a knee injury of Farmer Rick. He may need surgery, but we'll know more soon. That will slow us down even more. When he's laid up, I have the full load of chores. Getting up for morning milking at 4:30 am, trying to be to work at 8 am on the days I work, coming home and organizing neighborhood kids to help me unload hay, milk again, clean stalls, do all of the other feeding and cleaning barn, getting in the house by 11:30 pm, showering and getting back up at 4:30 takes its toll. June has been a very long month and it's really drawing my energy level down. Hope to get caught up on things eventually.
Cows are waiting at the gate for morning milking, two are due to calve this week, hay to bale and three more fields to cultivate today - even though it's a holiday for most - the work still goes on on a farm. Maybe we'll get in town tonight for the fireworks - atleast they're after dark and most of our work (for the day) is done by then!
Monday, June 13, 2011
It's Haying Time!
One of the appealing aromas around the farm (and there are plenty of unappealing!) is the smell of fresh-cut alfalfa. Watching the hay fold under the discbine, coming out the back in a nice neat windrow is a blessing to behold as you begin to calculate just how far up the silo will be filled after completing this field. After our cool wet spring, we knew that atleast we'd have a plentiful first crop to begin our haying season with. Believe it or not, we are now coming up short on rainfall and could use a healthy dose of it. We have one-half of a twelve acre hay field mowed down now, half for baling and half for chopping. The silo is nearing the top, so we top it off with one or two loads a day until completely full, because each day it settles a door or two.
The cows sure lick up this new cutting of hay! After eating the hay from the haymow all winter and spring, having a new taste of fresh hay in their mouths is something that brings them in from pasture in a hurry. They quickly step into their stalls and bury their noses in the sweet smelling alfalfa and forget all their worries of the day. By having dry hay on their bellies before we give them haylage and grain, we create a cushion that rests on the bottom of their stomach that lets the "wet" feed filter through it as it slowly digests. This system of having a filter allows the heavier and more dense feed to digest more slowly, releasing the nutrients into their system rather than "slugging" through heavy forage and grain right away. This also allows the cow to chew her cud much longer, giving her system a more continuous flow of digestive compounds, thereby raising our butterfat and protein.
Happy, healthy cows is what we strive for. We are constantly reading and watching for best practices that allow our girls to live long productive lives. Just watching the last cow fade out of sight as she follows the herd over the hill to pasture each day is satisfying enough. We know that they'll begin to meander back up to the barn when the afternoon sun begins to fade, waiting at the cowyard gate for us to open it up and let them come into the barn for evening milking, beginning the cycle once again.
The cows sure lick up this new cutting of hay! After eating the hay from the haymow all winter and spring, having a new taste of fresh hay in their mouths is something that brings them in from pasture in a hurry. They quickly step into their stalls and bury their noses in the sweet smelling alfalfa and forget all their worries of the day. By having dry hay on their bellies before we give them haylage and grain, we create a cushion that rests on the bottom of their stomach that lets the "wet" feed filter through it as it slowly digests. This system of having a filter allows the heavier and more dense feed to digest more slowly, releasing the nutrients into their system rather than "slugging" through heavy forage and grain right away. This also allows the cow to chew her cud much longer, giving her system a more continuous flow of digestive compounds, thereby raising our butterfat and protein.
Happy, healthy cows is what we strive for. We are constantly reading and watching for best practices that allow our girls to live long productive lives. Just watching the last cow fade out of sight as she follows the herd over the hill to pasture each day is satisfying enough. We know that they'll begin to meander back up to the barn when the afternoon sun begins to fade, waiting at the cowyard gate for us to open it up and let them come into the barn for evening milking, beginning the cycle once again.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
A Weekend Drive
Nothing beats a weekend spent camping with the daughter and a good horse. OK, maybe you have something that you really enjoy doing, but for this farmer, getting away for just a couple of days, no clock to live by, outdoor cooking and some good trails to follow are what fills my tank back up, giving me the outlook I need to go back to the farm and take up my place again.
Farmerette and I packed up our gear, horse and road cart and headed north. Each Memorial Day weekend, we travel north to meet up with our harness club for a fun weekend of driving, campfires and good food. We have friends that we look forward to seeing each year up there. The group of people that bring their horses and carts are very knowledgeable horse people who take very good care of their horses. They care deeply for their horses and all are well fed, well trained, and enjoy the atmosphere of being out for a new adventure. No drunken poker run trail riders here. Which is nice. We don't do those rides.
After arriving, we made sure our mare was settled in her outdoor corral, then unpacked the harness and cart. We set up our table with our camping gear and made the gooseneck of the trailer into our home away from home. A cooler well-stocked with food and a coleman stove are enough to get us through the weekend. After getting camp set up, we had time to get in a couple of games of badminton. We had wanted to harness up for a quick drive before dark, but it had started to rain lightly, so we decided to see what the weather held for the next day.
And what a beautiful day for driving it was! I saddled up and took an early ride just to settle my mare down while Farmerette made a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. Once we had finished up breakfast and tidied up the camp, we hitched up and headed out on the northbound trail with some friends and their horses. What a blast! Beautiful!
Farmerette and I packed up our gear, horse and road cart and headed north. Each Memorial Day weekend, we travel north to meet up with our harness club for a fun weekend of driving, campfires and good food. We have friends that we look forward to seeing each year up there. The group of people that bring their horses and carts are very knowledgeable horse people who take very good care of their horses. They care deeply for their horses and all are well fed, well trained, and enjoy the atmosphere of being out for a new adventure. No drunken poker run trail riders here. Which is nice. We don't do those rides.
After arriving, we made sure our mare was settled in her outdoor corral, then unpacked the harness and cart. We set up our table with our camping gear and made the gooseneck of the trailer into our home away from home. A cooler well-stocked with food and a coleman stove are enough to get us through the weekend. After getting camp set up, we had time to get in a couple of games of badminton. We had wanted to harness up for a quick drive before dark, but it had started to rain lightly, so we decided to see what the weather held for the next day.
And what a beautiful day for driving it was! I saddled up and took an early ride just to settle my mare down while Farmerette made a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. Once we had finished up breakfast and tidied up the camp, we hitched up and headed out on the northbound trail with some friends and their horses. What a blast! Beautiful!
The trails are nice and wide, accomodating the width of the wheels of our carts. Whenever we would slow down and give the horses a break at the walk, we'd get the camera out and snap some pictures of the scenery around us. The county maintains this area of 4,000 acres. Some of the old timers refer to it as the pine barrens or bird sanctuary. Back in the 40's to mid 70's, this used to be a bird dog trial and training area. The geography is different here than our usual pine and oak forest around home. This area is quite open with scrubby oak and an occaisional small pine. The habitat is a bit different from home here also, but the bear, coyote, deer and wolf are frequent visitors also - just like home.
The black horse above is ours, while our friends ahead of us are driving an arab mare with their spotted pony following behind. We call it "ponying". This is a good way to exercise more than one horse and for getting a young horse used to heading out away from camp, accomodating them to the rigors of what they will encounter on the trail. We had left our pony home, but would like to bring him along on a future trip.
After an enjoyable weekend of driving and just plain fun, we packed up and headed back down the road in the direction of home. It's so hard to leave such a beautiful place, but we are so thankful that the state and county maintain such a nice, clean place to camp and enjoy our horses. We hope that it will remain accessible for many years to come!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Busy with Fieldwork
It's been a few days since our last entry, but believe me, we have NOT been on vacation! Very early mornings and late nights doesn't allow much time for anything in between. All but five acres of corn are in the ground. The last field is going to be a couple of days in the waiting because it's so wet. There are many fields around us that haven't been planted yet. We had a fairly dry week last week, but when the rain came, it just kept coming. All of a sudden we find ourselves at the end of May with still more corn to put in the ground. Time sure has flown by!
It won't be long and it'll be time to get the discbine (hay cutter) out. Grease it up, check bearings and blades and get it ready to pull out to the field. Almost the entire first cutting of hay will be cut, chopped and blow in the silo for haylage. There should be plenty left over for baling, but we like to have the nice first tender hay put in the silo. We fill it all the way to the top, adding an additional load each day as it settles. It's amazing how much the haylage will settle as it gets near the top. Just about the time you think you have it full, it's settled a door on the silo and we need to go back out and chop another load. But when you think of how much feed it takes to feed the cows all winter, you need to have it full in order to make it through until pasture the following spring.
One nice thing with all this rain, we have plenty of pasture for the cows and horses. It's so neat to ride down into the woods and swamp and find the cows munching in grass up to their bellies. When they're full, they like to bed down in the birch grove just below the hill to the east of the barn. They soak up the sun that filters through the trees and quietly chew their cud, fading in and out of sleep. That's what makes milk - content, healthy, comfortable cows. Most of them know when it's time to head back to the barn for evening milking. Just like kids in a candy store, though, the heifers like to drag their feet, taking their time for one of those last mouthfuls before they're brought in the cow yard for the evening. They have plenty of hay to keep them full at night until they go out to pasture the next morning, but who wants broccoli when you can have ice cream?!
The horses are also getting fat and shiny with all of this good green grass. I have to watch them carefully so they don't get too much. Horses can founder with too much of a good thing. They complain a bit when I bring them up from pasture each night, but once they hear the grain bucket rattle and the hay being put in their stalls - they're all lined up at the gate ready to come in!
It won't be long and it'll be time to get the discbine (hay cutter) out. Grease it up, check bearings and blades and get it ready to pull out to the field. Almost the entire first cutting of hay will be cut, chopped and blow in the silo for haylage. There should be plenty left over for baling, but we like to have the nice first tender hay put in the silo. We fill it all the way to the top, adding an additional load each day as it settles. It's amazing how much the haylage will settle as it gets near the top. Just about the time you think you have it full, it's settled a door on the silo and we need to go back out and chop another load. But when you think of how much feed it takes to feed the cows all winter, you need to have it full in order to make it through until pasture the following spring.
One nice thing with all this rain, we have plenty of pasture for the cows and horses. It's so neat to ride down into the woods and swamp and find the cows munching in grass up to their bellies. When they're full, they like to bed down in the birch grove just below the hill to the east of the barn. They soak up the sun that filters through the trees and quietly chew their cud, fading in and out of sleep. That's what makes milk - content, healthy, comfortable cows. Most of them know when it's time to head back to the barn for evening milking. Just like kids in a candy store, though, the heifers like to drag their feet, taking their time for one of those last mouthfuls before they're brought in the cow yard for the evening. They have plenty of hay to keep them full at night until they go out to pasture the next morning, but who wants broccoli when you can have ice cream?!
The horses are also getting fat and shiny with all of this good green grass. I have to watch them carefully so they don't get too much. Horses can founder with too much of a good thing. They complain a bit when I bring them up from pasture each night, but once they hear the grain bucket rattle and the hay being put in their stalls - they're all lined up at the gate ready to come in!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
A Mooing Alarm Clock
The sun was already streaking through the bedroom window at 4:35 a.m. The start of a new day. Although the alarm clock wouldn't go off for another 10 minutes, sleep was no where to be found.
The first moo and I figured "not a problem". The second moo ensued. Maybe a cow is coming in heat. But by the third moo, I recognized it. A distressed momma cow. There's no mistaking the sound of a moo when a momma can't get to her calf.
Get out of bed. Pull the boots on over my pajama bottoms and throw a coat over my shirt. The mooing got louder. As I continued to coax my eyes open, I could tell that someone (some cow) wasn't very happy. We had a cow that was due two days ago. First of all, she wasn't too happy about being in the maternity pen. Second, after she calved, her calf was quite a lively little thing, and it got away from her, further than she could go - out of the pen! And, the calf couldn't just wander off - it had to find its way to the barn gutter. The lively little heifer calf decided to plunk down in the manure. All I could see were two blinking little eyes and a couple of ears twitching. She had probably wandered down the barn aisle and stumbled in on her wobbly little legs.
So, the clean-up process begins! Put some twine around the heifer's neck and pull her up by the milkhouse door. Put the sprayer on warm and hose her down! When a calf is especially dirty like this, it's important to make sure that the navel gets cleaned off really well, then dipped in iodine. Infection can quickly settle in through the umbilical cord that is still attached. And, although I want to hose her completely off, I have to leave a little bit of afterbirth clinging to her so that her momma will recognize her scent and still want to lick her off.
Once the heifer's bath was complete, over to momma we went. Boy, was she ever anxious to get at her job of cleaning up her calf! She promptly let me know that I did not do a good enough job and proceded to clean up her shivering calf. I surround the heifer with straw and left the two together. Now - a chance to head up to the house, put the pajamas in the laundry, and start afresh with a new set of barn clothes for the day!
The first moo and I figured "not a problem". The second moo ensued. Maybe a cow is coming in heat. But by the third moo, I recognized it. A distressed momma cow. There's no mistaking the sound of a moo when a momma can't get to her calf.
Get out of bed. Pull the boots on over my pajama bottoms and throw a coat over my shirt. The mooing got louder. As I continued to coax my eyes open, I could tell that someone (some cow) wasn't very happy. We had a cow that was due two days ago. First of all, she wasn't too happy about being in the maternity pen. Second, after she calved, her calf was quite a lively little thing, and it got away from her, further than she could go - out of the pen! And, the calf couldn't just wander off - it had to find its way to the barn gutter. The lively little heifer calf decided to plunk down in the manure. All I could see were two blinking little eyes and a couple of ears twitching. She had probably wandered down the barn aisle and stumbled in on her wobbly little legs.
So, the clean-up process begins! Put some twine around the heifer's neck and pull her up by the milkhouse door. Put the sprayer on warm and hose her down! When a calf is especially dirty like this, it's important to make sure that the navel gets cleaned off really well, then dipped in iodine. Infection can quickly settle in through the umbilical cord that is still attached. And, although I want to hose her completely off, I have to leave a little bit of afterbirth clinging to her so that her momma will recognize her scent and still want to lick her off.
Once the heifer's bath was complete, over to momma we went. Boy, was she ever anxious to get at her job of cleaning up her calf! She promptly let me know that I did not do a good enough job and proceded to clean up her shivering calf. I surround the heifer with straw and left the two together. Now - a chance to head up to the house, put the pajamas in the laundry, and start afresh with a new set of barn clothes for the day!
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