Merry Christmas!

Sometimes your heart is so full it's hard to put into words how you are feeling. This year I am feeling overly blessed! Sometimes it's so easy to look at all the hard and difficult, stressful and consuming things in your life and lose sight of what really matters. When you let go of all that, and just live in the moment soaking up the little details..............it's so rewarding!

I hope this finds you all with full and happy hearts after the Christmas Season! 

From me to you I am wishing you all the best!!

Merry Christmas!  From me and the Ladies!

FarmHer Dilemma #42

FarmHer Dilemma #42: Work wear does not come in maternity sizes. Somewhat of an issue when your big preggo during the nice cold winter months!

Dear Carhartt,
                         You need a maternity line!

FarmHer Dilemmas

This morning I felt like I waddled through morning chores 38 weeks pregnant, and the real eye opener came when I realized I couldn't squeeze through the people walk way in the parlor. Yes it was comical, luckily I didn't get stuck! ;-)

I realized that we as women face numerous "dilemmas" as farmers, things that are unique to us as females. And well it's a part of our everyday glamorous life. From awesome work outfits, to amazing hair days, creative bathroom stops, fashionable footwear, hazardous laundry duty, literal child mud wrangling, the array and extent of these dilemmas is vast! And with the number of women counted as U.S. farm operators growing, I thought quite a few of you out there could relate.

So Welcome to a new series..........FarmHer Dilemmas

From the comical to the somewhat irritating I'll bring you things that I might find I run into as a FarmHer.

So what have you found is one of your FarmHer Dilemmas? 

P.S. I get no credit for the term FarmHer. Seen it floating around facebook and blogs for some time and think whoever came up with it is a creative genius!

A Year of....

Another year......another year flown by......at pretty much the speed of light!!!
A year whose theme should simply be: behind

Ok please tell me I'm not the only one sitting here wondering how in the world it's only 15 days till Christmas! While I could blame my behindness on  many things, I mainly think it's just lacking spirit. I usually love decorating and getting into the spirit of all the Holidays, but this year it's just been missing! :-( And that makes me sad!

First it was my son's 2nd birthday that I had fun plans for, but pushed those all aside as I fought back morning sickness. That seemed to last for far longer this go around and then I was suddenly looking at Summer. Summer flew by as if nothing could stop it. Add in an extra two cow related road trips and I felt like May to September passed in the blink of an eye! We didn't even get a garden planted this year! Technically I guess it's still Fall, but where October and November went I am still wondering.

And December, here you are! I had big plans for you! Mostly I feel this time crunch because well my due date for baby number two is 19 days away.....at little over two weeks! I was going to be so organized and get everything for Christmas done early, so just in case this little decides on an early exit, and also to enjoy this last time as a family of 3. But alas I still have the majority of my shopping to do, as well as decorating.

 I will give myself this pat on the back, I got our Christmas cards out early this year! The earliest they probably will ever be, they were done by Thanksgiving and I think I got them in to be mailed that following Monday. I love sending and receiving Christmas Cards! Probably one of my favorite things about the season!

And this weekend I finally felt a little Christmas spirit as we visited Santa and his reindeer. Well really just his reindeer, my animal lover son refused to go see Santa, but insisted on several trips to pet the reindeer. We also had a freezing, but at least dry, trip to get our tree.  Now to decorate, finish our gifts, and still have time to focus on our impending new arrival. So many blessings in this year, I just feel like it flew by!

Behind...my New Year's Resolution; to put this year behind me and find my Spirit. Wouldn't hurt if you told me you've had years like this as well?!?

*Also another New Years Resolution, get faster internet! Supposed to be getting installed on Monday, so maybe I can finally share pictures with you all again!* Woohoo, so far it's faster, so I'll add some pictures!*

   

There's Truth in That

I am seriously blown away by the response and support for my last post! To watch my tiny blog, and one little post reach over 15,000 people and growing in the last 48 hours seriously blows my mind. That's half again more people then live in my little home town!

But more than that I am loving the feedback from others who have felt the same! Both here and on our Facebook page. Who loved their own Mercedes and carry those favorites in their hearts forever. I just might have to compile all the stories that have been shared in feedback, it just goes to show that farmers really do care!  And that care isn't just for dairy cows, but all sectors of agriculture!!

That was my mission in my last post, the raw, unedited emotion that we farmers truly feel for our jobs. Because farming isn't just a job, it's a way of life, it's in our blood, sweat and tears, all the way down to our core.

And there's nothing more truthful than that......

Me, me, ME! Mercedes -- Scratches for me, right?

Today I Cried Over a Cow

Today I cried, ok honestly bawled my eyes out over a cow.......Yes, she was a favorite cow, Yes, farmers do have favorites, Yes, she will be greatly missed!

These are the moments I wish every consumer could see. The raw, real, true, emotion of dairy farming. Every time a another "animal rights" video catches someone abusing a dairy cow, every time a consumer assumes that is the norm, every time a company makes a claim in their advertising that they are farming better, I wish they could view these moments. The literal, blood, sweat and tears that truly goes into dairy farming.

And I'm not just claiming this as an "emotional woman".
I would show you my father, who's been a farmer from the day he was born 58 years ago, as he fights back tears and anger after having to put a respected Lady down, a Lady we just spent countless hours/days/weeks over trying to make better, exhausting every resource possible before having to give her a peaceful end. I would show him tired, sweaty, with a bandaged finger that's missing a finger nail and hurts like hell headed back out to the fields in the summer heat and sunshine to make hay to feed the calves through the winter, after just literally working 16 hours straight for the last 10 days in a row. Those same hours that ravage his body year after year.
I would show you my husband, the newbie to this life, who's embraced it to it's fullest, tired and cold, with aching legs from a disability, not stopping for a break as he doctors a calf again, only to loose her that night, I would show you his frustration and disappointment in not being able to save her. I would let you hear the true cuss words that portray that emotion when he finds her gone that morning .I would let you see his panic and frustration as we try to breath life back into a calf that we thought for a brief second had a heartbeat.  I'd show you his hands, with countless cuts, his back with aching sore muscles and his tired body as he gets out of bed again at 4:30 am for morning chores.
I would show you my mother, who chose this life to be with her high school sweetheart, in the milking parlor on the hottest day in the summer, the coldest day in the winter, milking diligently and carefully every Lady. I would show you her disappointment when a Lady hurts a teat, as she tries every trick in the book to get her milked out and keep her from getting sick. As she juggles keeping up with paperwork, worry over bills and literally not enough hours in the day to get it all done, getting it all done.

And I would show you me, the one who grew up in this life, knows it's every in and outs and still chose to stay, with tears rolling down my face as Mercedes the cow pictured above gets her lasts scratches from me before she leaves our farm for the auction. I would let you see my memories of Mercedes being born, of growing up friendly and sweet, having her babies and joining the milking the herd.  I would show you her unique personality that set her apart. I would let you see the connection I had with her, the care and true love I have for all our Ladies.

I would show you the tears on my keyboard as I write this............Yes, today I cried over a cow, because dairy farming is much more then a job to me.........it's my life.   

Flat Aggie

I volunteered to host a very special guest on our farm this month all the way from Kansas! Flat Aggie is part of a super fun and educational school program that introduces classrooms to different sectors of agriculture. We had a lot of fun showing Aggie our farm and this is the report for the classroom to enjoy! If your interested in hosting a Flat Aggie or starting your own program, I can put you in touch with the mastermind behind this project from Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom.

 Welcome to Oregon Flat Aggie! 

And more specifically the foothills of the Cascade Mountains that border the Eastern side of the Willamette Valley. The area of the Willamette Valley is one of the most agriculturally diverse in the whole nation. On a drive past our neighbors we can see everything from grapes in a vineyard for wine, grass seed, food crops like; corn, beans, peppers, cauliflower, orchards of apples, cherries and hazelnuts, berry fields full of every kind of berry; blueberry, blackberry, marionberry, boysenberry, ornamental flowers, hops for beer, Christmas trees and so many other crops. The Valley's temperate climate, not too hot in the summer and not too cold in the winter allows for all this variety. But we are a different kind of farm. Oregon is also home to about 350 farm families that do the same thing we do, Dairy Farm!

Aggie is greeted by Jen, who requires scratches on her nose and behind her ears!

On our Dairy Farm, Abiqua Acres, we milk around 85 registered Guernsey cows are brown and white in color and produce milk that is high in protein and butter fat. This rich milk is used to make your favorite products like yogurt, butter and ice cream! First things first I introduced Aggie to the "most important" job on the farm, giving the Ladies their daily dose of love! Each cow is a special individual in our herd and we identify them by name. I think Aggie would have liked to give every cow special scratches, but we had work to do!

Sunset welcomed Aggie with a
big slobbery kiss!

Hello Baby Bull!

While Aggie was here, we welcomed two new baby calves. Aggie got to meet the bull (boy) calf when he was just a few minutes old. The bull calf will go to another farm to grow up. Aggie helped feed the other new baby a bottle, a heifer (girl) named Sunset.  We are always excited to get a heifer calf because we will keep her to grown up and become a milk cow. A big part of our daily chores is the twice a day feeding of all the calves. Currently there are over 40.

Newborns move into individual stalls that we call the nursery, here we can monitor their care closely. They continue to receive milk until they are about 4 months of age. We learned our lesson with Sunset and Aggie stayed a safe distance from curious calf mouths! Besides milk the calves are also fed a special mix of grain that is formulated to help them grow. Once old enough the calves join a group pen of other calves their age. In these pens they are also fed grass hay that we grow and bale here on our farm in the summer.

With all the calves taken care of, Aggie learned just how much you have to feed a producing dairy cow. To make wholesome delicious milk for you and me, a dairy cow will consume a bath tub full of water and eat over 100lbs of food a day. On our farm our cows are fed grain in the parlor where they are milked, and then corn silage and top quality alfalfa hay. Aggie arrived just in time to see our hay barn almost completely full. In the Fall we purchase 350 tons of alfalfa to feed our Ladies through the winter and into the next growing season. These alfalfa bales are 3' tall, 4' wide and 8' long and weigh over 1,500 pounds. To feed them we use a skid steer loader.

Where's Aggie?

Nom, nom, nom, The Ladies enjoying their alfalfa hay!

Aggie helped drive the skid steer!

Aggie even got rained on shutting the gate!

Aggie arrived just as we shut the cows in off of pasture. For as many months as Oregon weather will allow us, our Ladies also rotationally graze fresh green grass from our fields. This is usually from March to about October. This Fall was especially dry so we didn't close the pasture gate until November!

All that food that dairy cows consume of course goes into their producing milk, and the heart of every dairy farm is the parlor where the cows are milked. Every cow is milked twice a day in one of our six milking stalls in the parlor. Here they enjoy their ration of grain and the relief of being milked. Their teats are washed and dried and then a milking machine is attached. The machine has a sensor that knows when the cow is done and takes the machine off. The milk travels through food grade hoses and then stainless steel pipes to the milk tank where it is cooled. Our milk tank is big enough to hold over 12,000 lbs. Currently every over day the milk truck is picking up over 7,200lbs, that's over 830 gallons! We sell our milk to Darigold cooperative and after it is on the truck and leaves our farm it is up to them to decide what delicious product to use our cows' milk in. Milking of the cows takes about 3 hours and the feeding chores about another hour. So just in daily chores we spend 8 hours caring for our cows. That definitely keeps our schedule full and almost makes the days feel longer when we go through the time change in November. It's dark when we start chores at 4:30 in the morning and dark again when we start chores at 4:30 in the afternoon! 
aggie parlor

November is a bit of an "off" season for us, in that the weather slows things down. Besides all the above and more that has to be done every day, twice a day, even Thanksgiving, we find ourselves trying to catch up on some extra projects in the Fall. This year it was replumbing our milking parlor and cutting down some trees in the barnyard that had died. Farmers are also continually expanding their knowledge and Aggie had the chance to join us for a dairy meeting with fellow producers.

We enjoyed having Aggie tag along with us in November! And we hope Mrs. Piatt's entire class learned a lot about dairy farming in Oregon in the Fall. Here's a few more facts about dairy farming and November in Oregon:

-Dairy Farming in Oregon-
*Oregon is known for excellent milk and consistently ranks in the top 5 states in the nation for milk quality.
*Milk is Oregon's official state beverage.
*There is over 120,000 Dairy cows in Oregon, with the average herd size over 350. We are a very small dairy at our herd size of 85!
*Oregon's most popular breed is Holsteins, with Jersey's coming in second and other breeds, including Guernseys, making up a small percentage of the rest.  The other three breeds represented are Ayrshire, Brown Swiss and Milking Shorthorn.
*Oregon Dairy farmers produce roughly 2.2 billion pounds of milk annually.
-Weather in November in Oregon-
*The daily average high temperature drops at least 10 degrees over the course of November from 57 to 47
*We see an average of  over 6 1/2 inches of rain in November.
* Our first "storms" of the season blow in from the Pacific Ocean with high winds and lots of rain.
*We also see our first freezing temperatures

*And lastly HERE'S a great visual map of the agricultural diversity in Oregon*

Thanks for Visiting Oregon Aggie!!
 

While Aggie was with us, we also welcomed 11 baby chicks! Could you help us name them? There are 7 yellow ones, 2 black ones and 2 brown ones!