Hello Guernsey Dairy Mama

Have you enjoyed following me? You can now find me at: 

Guernsey Dairy Mama

It's almost with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to this space! This has been my blogging home for the past four years, and it definitely feels like home! But I have finally taken the plunge to have more creative freedom with my little space on the web. It's a whole new adventure and challenge that I am really looking forward to! 

Seriously Thank You for joining me here, reading my posts and following along with my journey. When I decided to re-brand last Fall, I didn't really know what a journey it would be. But I am excited for the future and where this fun little hobby can continue to go. So I hope you'll all join me:

www.guernseydairymama.com

Dairy Farmers visit the Capital

Democracy only succeeds with engaged citizens.

I'm excited to have begun my journey with the Oregon Young Dairy Leaders class of 2015/16. The first session certainly pushed me out of my comfort zone as we headed to Oregons Captial. We spent the day behind the scenes and met with 12 representatives. Truly interesting to see the inner working of our state government and those that govern us. I honestly have never been a very " political person", but I know if we don't make our voice heard, then someone else will tell our story for us. Especially in this legislative session there are several bills that would be extremely harmful to the whole of agriculture in Oregon. I was really impressed with the openness of those we met with and their encouragement to truly feel that the Captial is our building. They really want us telling our stories and how pieces of legislation will impact us so that they can make informed votes for the betterment of their constituents. 

Really a great kick off to becoming a better voice for the dairy industry. Looking forward to the next year with this great group of young adults from the Oregon dairy industry! 

Rep Mike McLane is an FFA & 4H supporter

Enjoyed our time with Senator Betsey Johnson

OYDL with Rep Greg Barreto

A big thank you to all the representatives that took the time to accept appointments with our class. Great introductions with them and I look forward to building on those relationships.

~

P.S. if you get a chance to visit Oregon's stunningly beautiful capital, seriously an amazing building! Make sure to check out the carpet on both the house and senate sides. More than certain it gives the PDX carpet a run for it's money! ;-) It also fun to wear non barn clothes for the day! 

~

Cows on Pasture

My favorite day of the year has arrived! And a whole month earlier than last year. Today we let the Ladies back out onto the pasture! It is always so much fun to watch them return back outside to the lush green grass. After a little bit of fun and kicking up their heels they got right down to business grazing and then taking a snooze in the warm sunshine!
We do everything we can to make their winter care the best that it can be. The reason we pull the Ladies into confinement for the winter to protect our ground. The pacific northwest just gets too wet in winter, and if we allowed the cows to stay outside they would make a complete mucky mess of the pasture. This break throughout the winter not only protects the grass, but also allows it to get a wonderful healthy growing start. This in turn helps to provide feed for our cows.
It's all one big circle that dairy farmers care greatly for; we care for the land so it can in turn help care for our Ladies. It is definitely my favorite view to see those gorgeous brown and whites on the lush green Spring grass!

Freckles leads the herd

Bette takes off running!

Bookie and Ramira butting heads

Notice Jolanda jumping for joy in the background?!?

Muzzle deep the grass is lush! Jesusita and Anna are enjoying!

All settled down for a nap!

Brooklyn soaking up the sunshine!

Seriously my favorite day! And it was so warm here today, the sunshine felt amazing! I hope you had an equally great day! Happy Thursday!

Robot Tour

When I throw the word robot out there, dairy farm probably doesn't come to mind first. But that is exactly what I am talking about, robotic milking on the dairy farm. We are excited to be launching into the adventure of transitioning our farm to robotic milking. After much discussion we felt it fit our management style and where we want to take to our herd for the future.

So while our start of date is still a ways away we are currently taking the time to visit as many farms as we can that are currently using robots. We are in the research and development phase of our plan and touring other farms lets us learn from them. Last week on my facebook page I mentioned we were headed on a little adventure; that was to tour 3 farm in Washington that are robotic.

Here you can see the collar the cows wear.  I think they enjoy them as a fashion statement!

On a robot farm the milking is done by a robot that lets the cow visit and be milked as she likes. She enters an individual stall, much like our current parlor, and her information is read from a collar on her neck. That information includes pretty much everything under the sun about each cow, but it gives the robot a map of her udder so she can be prepped and milked. While she's being milked she's eating grains fed according to how much milk she is producing. Each quarter of her udder is on an individual take off, so they come off as she is done giving milk. Once she is completely done she is sprayed with teat dip, the stall opens and she goes back to her day. It's pretty much exactly what we do now, just a robot is doing it. Click here to see a robot in action.

A big part of success in a robot barn is the layout and design of the barn. As the cow is free to come and go as she likes, the flow, as it is called, is very important. The three farms we visited retrofitted their robots into their existing barn, instead of building new like we plan to, but it was still beneficial to see how the cows moved through their designs.

It was also great as all three farms also graze their cows as we do for as many months as the pacific northwest weather allows. Those insights on grazing were very beneficial. Part of grazing success is a sort gate the cows must go through before leaving for the pasture. This gate reads her information on her collar much like the robot and either lets her out to graze and sends her back into the barn as she still needs to be milked.

Graze Gate

One thing completely evident on all three farms is how calm, relaxed and contented the whole herd of cows is. They really enjoy getting to pick their own schedule and that frees up the farmer's flexibility. Since we've announced our plan to move to robotics we've heard lots of people ask what we are going to be doing with all our free time if we aren't milking cows. A farmer doesn't put in a robot to not manage his cows, it's simple another tool we can utilize, I guarantee we won't run out of things to do!

We are all very excited for this adventure. But there is definitely still a lot to learn and decide, it almost all feels very overwhelming at times. Without a doubt though we are excited for this future and what it will bring to our farm, our family and our Ladies!   

Happy Robot Cows!

2014 Year End Review: Farm

After I highlighted my efforts in agvocacy in 2014 I thought it would be fun to take a look at what happened on our farm this year!

The biggest change for 2014 was the number of cows in our herd. For the second time ever and in the last two years we opened our closed herd to bring in animals from two Oregon herds that were selling their Guernseys. We used to say the future was near that we might be the only large number Guernsey herd in Oregon, sadly that day arrived. So with mixed emotions we welcomed 16 head from the Bosch family, Kilchona Farm in Tillamook, at the beginning of April. We have never brought that many animals into the herd at once, but the transition went smoothly and the timing could not have been better being out on pasture. Then in November the opportunity to bring 8 cows from the Wil-Rene herd, of the Jansen family from Forest Grove, presented itself. The timing was opposite, but we couldn't say no to these great genetics and again the transition went smoothly. 

Bette & Baja two days after their arrived!

 This brings our milking cows number to consistently over 90 cows and at max for our facility. We wouldn't push our facility if we weren't already planning an expansion into a new robotic facility by 2016, with 120 milking cows. 2015 is going to bring a lot of change, crazy busyness and challenge, but we are so excited to meet this new venture and build the future of our farm!

So let's look at what these lovely Ladies achieved in 2014.

We shipped 1,402,447lbs of milk. That is 163,076 gallons!! 

Received a quality award from our coop for producing milk above the standard requirements for the 2013/2014 fiscal year. 

 We welcomed 80 new calves! 41 Bulls and 39 Heifers. And had a record breaking 5 sets of twins, two sets being born on the same day, which has never happened here before! One set of twin heifers, one set of twin bulls and three sets of heifer and bull.
Welcome to: Jazzelle, Jellato, Regina, Rowdy, RockyRoad, Jentle, Sprout, Babs & Bobbie, Raindrop, Diana, Super, Louisa, Blackcap, Chanelle, Blueheat, Bungalow, Jesstine, Brenna, Fancie, Jorja, Venita, Rainy, Snowdust, Moodini, Minuette, Bessy, Jessandra, Jazarah, Jacket, Spaz, Milan, Jellica, Roana and 5 more newborns awaiting names!

Twin heifers for Babette. Bobbi & Babs

Captured this sweet moment of Velma and her 12th calf!

 A few personal cow achievements. Kicked off the year with one of our favorite young cows Abiqua Acres Martini Jen classifying EX-90. We celebrated Abiqua Acres Goliath Velma's sweet 16th birthday. We also had a successful show season, taking strings to the Oregon State Fair and Northwest National Guernsey Show. We took grand champion with Abiqua Acres Challenge Spirit at Oregon and placed in the top half of all our classes at the Northwest.  Bittersweet this Fall as we lost our favorite show cow Abiqua Acres Aaron Meara, she has been greatly missed!

Grand Champion Challenge Spirit

It's been a good year for the dairy industry. Milk prices were at record highs and feed prices stayed reasonable, meaning we saw a tiny profit this year, which will hopefully hold us through the rough outlook for the year ahead. Just like always most days saw us with ups and downs on the dairy farm. This is the life we love and we wouldn't have it any other way than spending it with the lovely brown and white Ladies we love! So Thank You 2014 and bring it on 2015! 

2014 Year End Review: Agvocacy

Wow! 2014 flew by faster than the speed of light for me! I feel like it's still December 29th, 2013 and I was looking at my second child's due date! Literally, where did the year go?!? I guess you throw two young boys into the daily grind of farm life and time is going to speed right by!

Here on the blog things were a little slow, I just didn't have time with my keyboard; only publishing 26 new posts!  But it was hard to compete when I ended 2013 on a huge  note when my post "Today I Cried Over a Cow" went viral and pulled in over 23,000 views to my blog in December. I was in no way expecting to maintain those numbers, and I thoroughly enjoyed my social media interaction in 2014.

After the birth of my second son I kicked my agvocating skills up a notch by attending the regional AgChat convention held in Portland. It was a great experience and my favorite part was meeting many of the faces behind some of my favorite blogs I follow. It really fueled my passion to hit this year hard. 

Last years end numbers completely blew my mind, to have my writing circulating to that many people was out of anything I ever expected to happen. So while 2014's numbers look slight in comparison, it still makes me proud to know that many people took the time to stop by my little space on the internet. And I fully feel I lived up to new year's resolution and my goal.

My top three posts written for 2014: 

1. What is in a Dairy Farmer's Day

2. Springing in a Dairy Cow

And #3 was tied with

Spring is Here 

&

Factory Farm or Family Farm?    

My personal favorite blog post this year was a project I worked on in coordination with Oregon Dairy Farmer's Association helping to promote the Northwest Farmer's Fighting Hunger campaign. With their increased efforts to promote the campaign they were able to double the donations from 2013. It was so fun to be involved in this project and I look forward to helping make a difference in continuing to promote it! 

 

While I didn't log much time on this space here, due in large part to horribly slow internet connections. I was able to mobilely update our farm Facebook page Abiqua Acres more regularly. Sharing pictures and posting on a more regular basis saw the audience there double without much effort on my part. I think I am most excited about these interactions because I am literally reaching thousands of people every week! I think most people are already on Facebook, so creating and sharing information there is a great way to reach an audience that might not otherwise take the time to visit the blog here.

With the positive interactions occurring on Facebook I decided to launch my new name there first, I briefly mentioned it here, and am looking forward to finally transitioning my blog to that in the new year. Guernsey Dairy Mama has taken off and flourished on Facebook without my pushing it at all. Launched the beginning of September and I already have 549 followers, my goal was to end the year at 500! Now granted those might seem like tiny numbers, but any number that I can agvocate to makes me happy! 

I am also super excited about the other projects that my social media interactions included. Most notably joining the team of Ask the Farmers. I am so excited to see this group reach a large crowd and the positive direction and conversations that are already happening in this 6,000 strong following! 

While I saw the most reward for my effort on Facebook I also enjoyed branching out to instagram this year. I transitioned my account there to Guernsey Dairy Mama and have really enjoyed sharing pictures I snap while working with my ipod touch. Mobile, easy and a picture is worth a thousand words; it is a quick and easy platform to be involved with. Not to mention their editing tools are a lot of fun to play with on pictures!I've been enjoying sharing a picture of all our newborn calves.  

Here's my favorite from this year on my instagram account:

It really has been an outstanding year for me and my agvocating efforts. I love interacting through my writing and social media and sharing my dairy life. I haven't set an goals for 2015 yet, but I am already looking forward to all the new year may hold! 

~Darleen 

Guernsey Dairy Mama 

      

Northwest Farmer's Fighting Hunger Results

The beginning of June Dairy Month I brought to your attention the Northwest's Farmer's Fighting Hunger campaign. Well the results are back and I am so happy to have been involved in such a successful year:

So THANK YOU to everyone who participated and helped #fightsummerhunger!

Very proud that Oregon won this little Challenge, of course everyone was a winner in this situation. Hey The Farmer's Wifee, better have Washington step up their game next year! ;-) Extra thanks to her for helping spread the word! 

Springing in a Dairy Cow

Every Lady on our farm gets at least 60 days of dry period before calving and starting a new lactation. Dry period means that she is not milked, basically like maternity leave. She gets to relax all day and basically do what she wants, while her body focuses on her baby and preparing for a new lactation. This is custom practice in the dairy industry to allow cows at least 60 days before they calve again. Our Ladies enjoy their dry period on a separate pasture.

Brooklyn, Angel & Blackberry in the dry cow lot

A cows gestation period is the same as humans, 9 months. At least two weeks before their due date we bring them in off the pasture and out of the dry cow group into our Springer Barn. This is a special bedded pack pen, for  the sole purpose of calving. We like to have them in here so we can watch for signs of calving and keep an eye on how they are springing.

Springing, defines a cow that is starting to make the changes that mean calving is close. We don't put a lot of weight on the due date, as a cow can very easily and safely calve within 2  weeks of either direction of her due date. And our herd of Guernseys seems to always be on the later side. We instead closely watch her body, attitude and appetite for changes and then any signs that their might be a problem. A cow that is really Springing will have swelling in her udder, you can tell her milk is coming on. A very loose, floppy and swollen vulva. Their might be a slight change in her manure, to a smoother, lighter side. And clear, mucousy discharge might be present. Also another little fun fact, the term Springer or Springing, meaning a cow is close to calving, came from the ideal calving period being in the spring.A farmer would be wanting to see these changes on his cow in the Spring.

1. Jesusita just came in off the dry cow pasture a week ago. Her due date is August 2nd, obviously she is going to go past that date. This is a typical look for a dry cow. No obvious bagging up, tight unswollen vulva. Everything looks great on this dry cow.

2. Charity is a Springer heifer, meaning her first time calving, so not the best comparison, but it's what I had in the barn right now. You can see her udder is starting to change a bit, showing a little filling. Her vulva is a little soft and swollen. Her due date is August 6th, she is showing signs of being closer to calving, probably still a week or so.

3. Jenelle calved 7 hours after this picture was taken, she was 14 days past her due date. Excuse the udder, there is definitely more swelling here then we like to see and will be working closely with her to get this down. We tend to see a little more udder swelling in the summer months. But this is a good representation, her vulva is obviously loose, floppy and slightly swollen. And her udder is very bagged up, filled and swollen.

Each cow is different, but this is the typical progression for a dairy cow that is springing. I'll try to snap some progression pictures of Jesusita as she springs and gets closer to calving, so you can see the progression of one cow.  

Factory Farm or Family Farm?

I'm sure by now you have heard the term factory farm thrown around. Quite frankly I've heard it more times than I ever care to have ever heard it! I am really curious as to who came up with this term, as it really has no definition, but it seems to have painted quite a picture in people's minds. Over mechanized farms that are inhuman, cold and run by Big Ag corporations. Honestly every farm I have ever been on comes no where close to falling under this category. Most all farms, 98% of farms in our country are solely family owned. The other 2%  also contain family farms that for tax purposes or other reasons have become incorporated. Farmers are a minority of our population though, those same numbers appear as farmers make up just 2% of the population feeding the other 98%.  

As a farmer I am SO confused by the term factory farm, I have yet to encounter one and being in agriculture all my life I've stepped foot on quite a few farms. What does factory farm mean to you? Does it paint a picture in your mind? Have you been to or know of a factory farm?  Does it mean so many acres or a certain number of animals? Because families are behind large and small farms, farms that produce crops and animals, farms of all kinds.

This week a campaign was launched to purchase drones to spy on these factory farms. An independent journalist is determined to get to the bottom of what is really happening on these farms. Farms like this:

Looking at this picture I see a farm, a small farm, one that probably isn't even active anymore for it's original purpose as the two barns on the bottom right have damage to their roofs. I see a farm much like many of the family farms I have been on before. A farm that is even smaller then our own farm.This farm could even be an organic farm. This is what they want to spy on? You can imagine my concern, they want to spy on farms just like mine and many of the people I know.

Our Farm looks much like the one above, are we a Factory Farm?

So why drones? I am wondering if this journalist (who I am not linking to for obvious reasons, let me know if you want more information) has even tried to visit these farms that he considers factory? I have yet to meet a farmer that would refuse a interview from a genuine person looking for truth. I think he could go to much less trouble and expense to find his truth is he just visited some farms. Speaking of expense, I am sickened by the amount of money he has raised in 5 days, his original goal was $30,000, he's surpassed that now at over $40,000 and is now wanting $90,000 for this little project. And People Are Donating!!!! I can think of a million more worthy causes than spying on my neighbors. How about we start with feeding them, that seems like a much better use of those funds!  

So I am done with the term Factory Farm.

Because when I look at agriculture in this country I see 

Family Farms! 

Do you have a family farm? Do you disagree with the term factory farm? I invite to join us in spreading the word. Create a photo collage and share with your social media outlets. Be sure to include the hashtags #myfamilyfarm and #factoryfarm when sharing! And then also be sure to link up below!    

An InLinkz Link-up

A Little Perspective on my Dairy Lifestyle

Dairy farming, farming, ranching, most sectors of agriculture are a lifestyle all of their own instead of a job. There's no nine to five, TGIF's, leaving it all at the office for the weekend. We are married to our job, we live our job 365 days a year. There's usually no vacations or weekends off and away. It's in our blood, our bones our very souls.

It's a very special calling. One that is definitely not for everyone. It's hard, SO hard some days. You go to bed with it, you wake up with it, there's really no escape. When there's a bad day, when it all goes to heck and back you can't just leave it on the desk and come back to it tomorrow.

There's days when no matter how hard you work, how much effort, sweat, blood and tears you put into it, you still fail. When you try to battle the elements, guess mother natures moves and loose everything in the blink of an eye. There's times, seasons, years where you make no profit at all. When it can all hang in the balance of the market of a foreign country, the weather for growing hay two states away, and product prices that you have no control over. One tiny tip of that scale in the wrong direction and you can forget about breaking even or even being able to pay all the bills.

There's a driving force, a passion, a fire in our very core,(maybe just call it stupidity) that makes this lifestyle not a choice at all. It's something most of us could never imagine leaving. This lifestyle provides countless blessings, wealth that isn't measured in money and precious moments that make it all worth it.It's in seeing a beautiful sunrise, welcoming a newborn calf, celebrating a great cow's production, working beside our family and children that we face this reality daily.

We get up every single day and provide the very best care we are capable of for our Ladies, not because it's our job, but because it's our life!

       

Northwest Farmers Fighting Hunger

Today is not a Wordless Wednesday! Lately all the posts and conversations I have seen about food, seem to be GMO related. That topic can get everyone on every side very riled up and passionate. I am not advocating for either side, but simply asking you to put that passion somewhere it can be put to good use. I love that in our safe and vast selection of food we have the choice to consume the products we want. But for many families right here at home, they don't even know when or where their next meal will be coming from.

Hunger Doesn't Take a Summer Vacation

The biggest population faced with this dilemma is children; 1 in 5 kids in the Northwest faces hunger. Especially during the summer months when school is no longer in session they lose access to meals that would otherwise be covered.

Milk and dairy foods are the #1 requested item by food box recipients.

 This June, Dairy Month our farm along with all the other Dairy Farmers of Oregon challenge you to donate $10 to the Oregon Food Bank.  For every $10 donated, your local food bank can distribute enough food to provide 35 meals. That $10 goes a long ways to helping many families in need! So skip your next two coffees and put that money to use right here in our own community!! Because no one should be hungry!

To donate simply visit Northwest Farmer's Fighting Hunger. And help us #fightsummerhunger!

 Help Oregon raise more money then Washington in this competition that is for a great cause. Use the hashtag above and visit our farm facebook page for shareable content.

I got Washington Dairy Farmer: The Farmer's Wifee on board with spreading the news about this great fundraiser. Be sure to follow her blog and facebook page!

Did I forget Mother's Day?

No posts about Mother's Day were found here on Sunday, I was busy enjoying my little farmers as well as caring for the other Mothers that call our herd home. I had to chuckle as my newsfeed overflowed with the breakfasts in bed, spa days and  flowers.

You see every day is Mother's Day here. 

Ahhh, this is how a cow enjoys a relaxing day!

My entire livelihood and the whole dairy industry is reliant on the bovine mothers that help to foster the human race. In order to make milk, like virtually all mammals including humans, a cow must first have a calf.  So we celebrate birth, and cows becoming Mothers every day. Our cows are spoiled with the best treatment we can provide every day.  Every gallon of milk or dairy product (have any ice cream today? Yum!) that you consume is thanks to a mother cow! 

 So join us in celebrating Mothers Day, everyday! All the moms out there deserve more then one day right?!

 We did have a bit of an extra special celebration as we welcomed this beautiful little heifer to first time Mama Spiffy on Mother's Day! Welcome sweet baby and congratulations new Mom!

So hard to get a non blurry picture of a bouncing baby!

What is in a Dairy Farmer's Day?

I often get asked: "Well what do you do all day? ". So I thought it was over due that I laid out what HAS to be done EVERYDAY on our farm. Dairy Farming is a 365 day a year job, we don't get to take sick days or vacations and some jobs have to be done everyday. So here is a look at what our day really looks like.

4:00 am: The alarm clock goes off and the two people doing morning chores are getting ready to head out to the barn. Usually a quick breakfast and throw on some clothes through blurry eyes! 

4:30 am: While one person is rinsing the milker and getting the parlor set up, the other is "waking" up the cows and getting them into the holding pen. 

4:45 am: Milking Starts. While all the cows are in the holding pen all the alleys are scraped clean. 

5:00 am: After scraping, all the feeding for the cows is done; alfalfa hay at the stanchions and corn silage from the silo pack. Feeding is also done at the special care pen and the bedded area is also cleaned for that pen. 

5:30 am: The springers get fed and their bedded area is also cleaned. Also take a few minutes just to observe everyone for calving. 

5:45 am: Whoever was feeding and doing the outside chores is usually done by now and joins whoever is milking in the parlor. We milk in a double three side open. So each cow comes in and leaves individually. They each are thoroughly cleaned, the milker is attached and it takes on average about 6 minutes each. While they are milking we ration a custom mix grain for each cow. Once the milker comes off they are dipped with a post dip to protect their teats during the day and let out for breakfast. We are milking at about our maximum capacity of over 95 cows and milking alone is taking a solid 3 hours.

7:45 am: Milking is finished up. The machines are rinsed and hung up to wash. While one person is washing the milker the other shuts up the parlor and pitches the hay back into the cows . Then goes to feed the calves. Milk to the youngest babies in bottles and buckets to the older ones on milk. Grain and hay is fed to the older calves in the calf barn, up to about 14 months old. **I had to update this because somehow I forgot my "favorite" chore. Washing calf buckets, pretty much doing the dishes for over a dozen people every day, twice a day. Ugh, yea it's my excuse for the dirty dishes in my sink!** The horses, chickens and cats are also fed. 

8:15 am: The parlor is picked up and scooped out, 95 cows make quite a mess in 3 hours with manure and grain. Then we wash the whole parlor with a pressure washer so it's ready for milking in the afternoon. 

8:45 am: After the parlor is clean and most of the cows seem to be done with their breakfast they are let out to the pasture. We are completely done with morning chores and back in the house for second breakfast. The towels we use to clean the cows during milking have to go into the washing machine. 

So by 9 am we've put in a solid 4 hours (at least) of work and most people are just starting their day! So the first shift is done and usually whoever milked in the morning can sneak in a little nap, but not always. So from 9am to 3:30pm we have to feed the heifers and dry cows, rotate fences for grazing, manage the manure, catch any cows to breed and finish washing the milk towels.  This is also "free time",  where we work on weekly projects and things that have to be done at least once a week: completely cleaning the calf barns, striping out the springer pen, deep cleaning the parlor. Of course we have no problem filling this time; there's always repairs to be made, cows or heifers that get out, cows that need assistance calving or doctored. Which of course any of that can occurred during chore time as well! 

12:30 pm: We sneak in time for lunch together as a family. Usually the only time of the day we are all in one spot at the same time. 

After lunch it's back to our "free time" work. 

3:30 pm: We try to finish whatever we were working on and grab a little break, for a quick snack and refuel. 

4:00 pm: at least two, but usually all four of us (or at least three, I am usually a little slower out with the little farmers) are headed back out to the barn for evening chores. The cows are brought into the holding pen to wait their turn to be milked. The milker is rinsed and the parlor is again set up for milking. 

4:15pm: While the cows are in the holding pen the alleys are scraped again and the free stalls are bedded with sawdust. The special care pen is cleaned and bedded with fresh sawdust. The springers are fed, their bedded area is pitched clean and bedded with fresh straw. 

4:30 pm: Milking has begun. And we are again feeding alfalfa and corn silage. This also seems to be the time we try to finish anything that didn't get done during the day. 

5:00 pm: By now we've usually finished on the Ladies side and head to take care of the calves. They get fed milk, grain and hay according to their age. We calve year round, so the number varies but there is usually about 60 calves to care for in this age range. With about 6-10 on milk. The littlest ones in the nursery get a fresh bed of straw.

6:00 pm: We are usually finished with all the "extra" chores and milking is all that is left to complete. Two people usually finish, but some nights, like Wednesday when the guys have fire drill, one of us finishes. 

7:30 pm: We are done milking. The machines are again rinsed and hung up to wash. The parlor is closed up and tidied up. Feed is pushed back in to the cows and the springer barn is double checked for any action. The milker is then washed and turned off. 

8:00 pm: The drive way gate is closed in case of any late night escapees. And we take our short commute (walk) back home. 

So with morning and evening chores and what has to be done during the day there is a solid 9 hours of work that HAS to be done everyday. The cows don't take a day off from milking and everybody has to be fed. As a family farm we have no employees, so all the day's work is accomplished by the four of us. It can and has been done by one when situations arise, because it HAS to get done. So that's a look at our typical day. 

So what did you do today?