The Last Day of 2012

This morning we welcomed our last calf of the year, another heifer!!

 This little one is such a go getter, she just wanted to eat me instead of get her picture taken!

 She is looking for a J name, any good suggestions that correlate with the New Year? We were kind of thinking of Jubilee. Her Mom's name is Jerri.

So she makes 35 heifer calves for us in 2012! What a great way to end the year!

To you and yours Happy New Year

And all the best for 2013!

Christmas Calves?

More then a little behind this week as me and Little Farmer spent the whole week with a nasty cold! But these are last week's calves, so not quite Christmas calves, the closest we got was the 22nd. She was properly named Jingle!

Hoping you all enjoyed a very Merry Christmas! 

Shine, Jingle and Joyful!

Celebrating 60 Years part 2

Here is a continuation of our 60 year celebration on our facebook page. Make sure to like us and follow along if you haven't already! Also make sure to check out the first of these posts so you don't miss any of our farm's history!

#17 The next purchase that still has a foothold in our herd today came with Peps Acres M Mandy. She was bought in 1965 from the Poepping Bros.

 #18 There have been 108 descendents of Peps Acres M Mandy, 14 generations strong. 25 of these are in the herd today, with only one, the youngest, being an ET. And she is the only ET from our herd found on any of our family trees! Abiqua Acres Aarons Marna-ET is pictured here with her surrogate Mama Shadow. See the cute story of how she got her name!

 #19 This "M" family has been put on the map of the Guernsey world because of Abiqua Acres Goliaths Mari-EX90. Born on 6th of January 1998 Mari produced 174,216M, 8,137F and 6,127P in her lifetime. She had two daughters and still has 3 direct female descendants in the herd, but she might sound familiar because she is the Bull mother of Abiqua Acres Banger Martini (pictured) and Abiqua Acres C Marksman-14GU315. While Martini was not promoted to the active list, we are excited about the impact that Marksman could have. Available through Accelerated Genetics he is starting to have daughters freshen across the country.

#20 Another fun little tidbit about this "M" family. In 2010 we had 4 generations in the milking herd at the same time: Abiqua Acres Hotshot Miracle, her daughter Lorry's Missy, her daughter Maxies Midnight and her daughter Glacier Midori!

#21 The most influential purchase to affect our herd came with one of Alan's first purchases in 1967 from Frances Hertel - a calf named Vanher Banker Snooks. This family has by far been one of the favorites, I am finishing up some of the numbers to show the scope of this families impact. I will bring you more on the "S" family tomorrow!

#22 1968 The first stall shed is constructed and concrete slabs poured.

 

#23 Since 1970, when we first started tattooing, there have been 1,408 heifer calves born at Abiqua Acres. That's an average of 34 per year.

#24 Our largest calving years on record are tied with 44  heifer calves in 1980, 1984 and 1994.

#25 A TV crew for "Oregon at Work" overtook the farm for a day in 1972. From parlor clean up to manure spreading the crew took a lot of footage that day. We are unsure of what became of those efforts, but makes a fun entry in the scrapbook and somewhere there is a day at Abiqua Acres on film!

#26 October 11th 1973: Alan claims Junior Champion of the Youth Show with Jr. Yearling Abiqua Acres Heros Susan, on the colored shavings at the Western National Guernsey Show in Fresno, California.

#27 Remember the "S" family I mentioned earlier? This productive and prolific family is responsible for 135 females in 14 generations with no ET work! Today there are 19 in our herd from this family.

#28 The "S" family also accounts for 18 cows that have surpassed 100,000lbs of milk, the first to reach this milestone is the pictured Abiqua Acres Heros Susan. Total milk for this family: anyone care to take a guess? 5,408,681 lbs of milk over the lifetime of this family, this number includes the cows still in our herd and will continue to grow with this productive family!

     

#29 With the production and longevity behind this family a young sire has been place with Genex: Abiqua Acres Grumpy Sergeant 1GU442. With NM$, DPR and PL off the charts for this bull Sergeant rightfully tops the list of the American Guerns ey Association 's herdlife booster young sires. Sergeant’s pedigree is backed with an impressive 5 generations to reach the 100,000m milestone. And his sister Abiqua Acres Faros Speranza makes the 6th generation with her living lifetime record of 130,781m. Pictured is her bull calf Abiqua Acres Geo Sputnik who we are also hoping to place with a bull stud. Needless to say we are beyond excited about this favorite family now hopefully making an impact across the Guernsey breed!

#30 The Mann's youngest daughter Dena was crowned as the Oregon Guernsey Queen in 1974. She represented the Oregon Guernsey Breeders Association during the 1975 National Convention that was held in Oregon. During this year Dena also served as the Marion County Dairy Princess, representing her local farmers at fairs and festivals.

  

#31 Dena ended 1975 with a bang as she claimed Grand Champion Showmanship at the Oregon State Fair. It was a heated class, but her showmanship cow Abiqua Acres Prince Palma was able to help her to victory.

#32 Raised with a love for dairy farming and the Guernsey cow, Alan Mann was the 1976 recipient of the National Outstanding Guernsey Youth Award from the American Guernsey Association. At the age of 21 he was already fully involved in the family farm and in fact had spent most of high school doing chores before and after school while his parents were away on trips.

#33 May 20, 1977 Additions and remodels to the milking parlor are finished, with double the milking stalls and a new milk tank! Lorna is the first cow to be milked on the new side. This double 3 side opener is the same parlor we still milk in today.

    

Featured!

Today is a mind numbing day, so I feel like my excitement has been dampened. This week in general has just been horrific all around the world. Makes me want to dig a hole and crawl inside! But then again it is a reminder that we never know when our last day will be. Never take anything for granted, always express your love and gratitude and appreciate the little things in life that make you happy!

So with that I unveil my exciting news for the day: I've been featured in an amazing blog called Faces of Agriculture.

Please check it out and be sure to follow our facebook page for our farm! Also if you have some time read through some of the other stories on Faces of Agriculture. I am truly honored to be among these great stories from all sectors of agriculture!

{Wordless Wednesday}

Little Farmer Names

Remember our first ET calf from 2 weeks ago?

Well my Little Farmer had the honor of naming her, here's how the conversation with my 1 1/2 year old went:

Me: "We need to name Maranda's new baby."
LF: "Marna"
Me: "Oh were you trying to say Maranda? That's right we have to name her baby something close to her name.:
LF: "No Mama!! Baby, Marna. Marna Baby."
Me: "Oh you want to name the baby Marna?"
LF: "YES! Marna, Marna, Marna"

He has sense grown to totally love Marna and asks to personally see her. I have to admit I am a pretty proud Farm Mom for his first calf name! And while not my first choice, it is at least a decent name!

So thanks for the suggestions everyone, but I would like to introduce:

Marna

Celebrating 60 Years!

We are celebrating over on our Facebook Page, the reason; 60 Years with Registered Guernsey. As our farm is a 100% registered Guernsey herd this is a huge part of our history. So I hope if you are on Facebook you will like our page and follow along with us. But if not, I will also be posting all of our tidbits here.

So here's  a recap of the history I have shared of our farm and family so far!

#1 December 27th, 1952 Paul & Delores Mann purchase their first registered Guernsey; Judy's Mae Anna

#2 Paul and Delores Mann purchased the farm from her parents shortly after their marriage in 1942.

 #3 The farm first came into the family in 1938 when Roy moved his family to the Silverton area so that his daughter Delores could attend High School. Delores' parents are pictured here shocking hay.

#4 Paul and Delores Mann were blessed with 5 children. Here they are pictured in 1957 with one of their 4-H showmanship heifers. Left to right is: Diana, Dena, Wendal, Merlin and Alan.

#5 One of the first notable cows (that has a picture!) was purchased in 1955 by Wendel; Cloverlawn Nylon. While not much of a milk cow, Nylon was a great showmanship cow. Wendel is pictured here (on left) with Nylon taking Reserve Champion Showmanship honors at the 1958 Oregon State Fair.

#6 The first milking parlor was completed in 1959 and the farm has sold grade A milk ever since.

#7 To celebrate the completion of the parlor Delores threw a surprise "barn warming" party for Paul. Back when newspapers reported on social events, this party was covered; here's what was said about the event: "Paul Mann tried several time on Sunday evening of last week to go to the barn to start his chores, but each time his wife kept him in on some pretext until suddenly a house full of friends arrived for a no-host supper and surprise "barn warming" for Paul. The new modern milking parlor of block construction was inspected by the guests, some of whom had never seen the raised milking platforms or bulk cooling tank. The part adjourned to the barn after supper to see Paul milk and do his evening chores. They presented him with money for a new electric clock for the milking parlor. Mann has 30 head of dairy cattle, most of them registered Guernseys."

#8 In the early 60's the farm announced that: "Wholesome farm fresh Guernsey milk by the Gallon or Half Gallon, Now available at their farm or Ideal Market." This started a somewhat short adventure in bottling and selling our own milk, which also included home delivery.

#9 The farm was very active in the 4-H program; with the Mann's serving as leaders and participating in activities from Christmas parties to showing at fair, 4-H was always a top priority for the whole family.

#10 "The Paul Mann family in the Abiqua district have completed plans for the 4-H Dairy Training meeting to be held at their Guernsey farm this Saturday. The meeting will be attended by club member, their parents and friends, and anyone else interested in the project. Don Anderson, Extension Dairy Specialist from Oregon State University, and Elmer Meadows, Guernsey Fieldman, will conduct the session which will include phases of dairy training. Selection of dairy animals, raising dairy calves, sanitation with the dairy project, and judging animals will be studied. Members of the Marion-Polk Guernsey Breeders will also be present. Members of the Powers Creek 4-H Livestock Club will furnish cookies." The farm hosted over 120 people on that day, March 17, 1962, a testament to their commitment to the 4-H program!

 

#11 During the years that we did sell our own milk, it was a full time operation for the whole family. Here is a great shot of Delores bottling in 1962.

#12 Today our herd is made up of 16 active cow families, with about 6 of them accounting for 75% of the herd. Barbara enjoys genealogy and every cow since the first purchase in 1952 is charted.

#13 Of that first registered cow, Judy's Mae Anna who was purchased in 1952, there are still 17 direct descendents in the herd today. This includes an up and coming heifer we are keeping an eye on: Abiqua Acres Judgements Juno. Juno was the 1st place Spring Yearling and Reserve Junior Champion of the 2012 Oregon State Fair. She is also #101 on the American Guernsey Association-Top Heifers Ranked by Parent Average CPI for December 2012. Juno is bred and we are excited to have her calve next June. She is Bred and Owned by Ben Sichley.

 

#14 Another cow family that is still present in the herd today started with the purchase of Lovelake Knights Belle on September 12th, 1962. There are 18 descendents of this family present in the herd today, including the pictured Abiqua Acres Verdict Beatrice.

#15 This "B" family also holds the highest scored cow ever bred by Abiqua Acres. Born December 6th 1968 Abiqua Acres Dariboy Beatrice was sold in the early 70's and went on to be scored EX-93.

#16 Delores acted as the chaperone for Adrienne Ellison, Oregon's Dairy Princess in 1962. Miss Ellison and Mrs. Paul Mann headed to Chicago, Ill. for the American Dairy Princess Contest on September 8th 1962. An exuberant send off was arranged at the Portland airport that included a band, milk toasts and a crowd of well wishers. Adrienne was not crowned as the American Princess, but I know my Grandmother enjoyed her role!