April Showers Bring May Flowers- Or Grass We Hope!

Ah, April.

Such a pretty month one of my favorites really. Spring is showing up, the grass is green, trees are getting their leaves and the temperature (while it goes up and down and changes every 15 minutes it seems, it is Kansas you know?) is nicer than winters but cooler than summer. Ahh. Spring. My favorite time of the year.

Spring brings new life. New life is important to any farmer. Whether it is a new baby calf, horse, sheep, goat or pig-- you choose your fancy, or seeing your wheat green and growing, corn once it is planted sprout or whatever plant you raise in the ground ready to come up and produce. It is a time for many housewives or househusbands, single ladies and gents to get their gardens started and flowers planted and to start the mowing season. Ah Spring.

Many people do not understand why agriculturists like ourselves have to burn our pastures and fields. There are many benefits to doing this for our type of work. As for many ranchers and farmers it is to keep the nutrients needed to help our animals grow and to keep weed and tree problems low.

Here are a few good posts explaining pasture burning:

• From The Pioneer Woman: Why We Burn Our Pastures
• From Rain Cow Ranch: Why Would A Grass Farmer Burn Pasture?
• From Backyard Ranch: Pasture Burning

All of these blogs describe why pasture burning is a necessity for farming operations. I understand that many are concerned for the environment and general safety of the public. But I can assure you that we work with EPA and the regulations in agriculture every day and we obtain our burn permits with our local fire stations and counties to help better your food. Plain and simple. We have to do things to help produce enough food for all of us to eat and these are just some of the ways we can effectively do just that. Every year the amount of food needing produced raises and even if you are a vegan or vegetarian, someone still has to produce your food and a lot of it. So next time you are eating whatever it may be, please do not just criticize us for how we do it and how you believe it is wrong. Take some time to find a farmer/rancher ask them questions and get the real advice from the person working every day to grow that meal for you to consume.  Many of you would be surprised to find out the #truth behind what really goes and on and why we burn pastures or use certain chemicals (that never reach you or I) in order to produce enough wholesome great tasting food for both of us to enjoy.

We have been blessed with some rain showers already and we were lucky enough to have all of our corn in the ground for that rain as well. A few of the pastures that were burned in our area are already turning green and beautiful with new fresh lush grass- and I can't wait to watch ours join them and the corn to sprout!

Sorry for all those that have those nasty allergies-- I know you hate spring, but as for me-- I'm getting my camera out and loving this time. Happy Spring!



The Milkmaid 


(P.S.- This is all from the beginning of April-- sorry for the late upload!)

March-- The Month of Prepping

Hello dear reader friends—sorry it has been a while, seems life has gotten in the way. Between being sick, busy at work, taking some me time from the Facebook, blogging, social media stuff and writer’s block, I am happy to say I am back and it is more than time to get back in the game.

It seems today’s lovely high of 65 and the beautiful sun shining all day has brighten up my day. Minus that time change this morning, which the cows and I agreed was not cool. But while I didn’t like losing an hour of sleep I am done milking and sitting here watching the sunset and enjoying the beautiful weather instead of coming home to a dark house and it being too dark to see anything. I love it and it reminded me of being thankful for everything this year.

Hello Beautiful Sun!

Now, as March has so graciously came from the middle of nowhere… hello spring! Spring is one of the two busiest seasons for us. I like to call March the prepping month because we aren’t the busiest but we are getting ready for it. We have two big things to prep for: Planting and Working Cattle.

Ah, my brother’s favorite time of the year, he is one of those who can get in the tractor at 6 (sometimes even earlier) in the morning and stay in there until 10 or later at night lost in thought and enjoying every minute. He is even crazy to skip meals, but no worries I am around for that job! J I am the go to lady—Pick them up, bring lunch (and I know to make a lunch that is a snack and dinner too… I may go a bit overboard when I feed them but they are working hard and so skinny!), drop off seed, fill the planter boxes, help unload stuff, follow them to fields, pretty much ready to jump to whatever they need when my phone rings… I am there!

So what will the next few weeks consist of?

Planting- Prepping the planter and tractors, getting seed ready and picked up, making sure we know all the fields that will need planted, checking the fields, getting fertilizer and strip tilling done before planting or after depending on the situation and many more smaller tasks. Also, my brother does plots for a company and so we have to have the field worked and ready for the plot and flagged off. Plots take a while to plant and harvest but it is worth every minute to see the data and find out the statistics of that particular variety/seed for the company, us and other farmers. (Another thing my brother loves to do!)

Cattle- one of my favorite times, the moment you really know that spring is here. As you see the cute little calves off with their mommas to pasture, it is just a precious scene! Anyway, we will be ordering vaccines, tags and various small things to prep for the upcoming transition from pens to pasture for our beef cattle. We will have to prep the horn cutters (unfortunately not all of our cattle are polled) and the branding iron is prepped and ready for the day. Along with working all the cattle to get them their yearly vaccinations and prepping to keep them healthy for pastures we will be picking up a new Angus bull that we purchased and getting him adjusted to our farm and ladies. This day is a long working day but worth every minute too. While I am more a dairy girl, I love helping work the beef cattle and seeing all the babies. Look forward to many pictures of the little cuties when the day comes. Also, we will be working our dairy heifers here in the next week or two giving them their vaccinations, tagging and dehorning.

Of course, during these weeks we will still have all of our other work to do. I will still have to milk twice a day, clean the barn and pens, feed all the cattle, grind feed, help deliver babies and take a few naps when I can sneak away. J

Happy almost spring—I sure can’t wait for the warm weather to stay!

The Milkmaid

A.J. spoiling Annabel and Little Pineapple