Farming is Dangerous-- And It Can Hurt.

The other night, I was going to write this but I just could not manage too. I had a horrible headache, felt dizzy, a little nauseated and just wanted to go to sleep. So I did.

Here is the real life of being a farmer. You get hurt. And it happens-- most days in some way.

Usually it is a small wound, no doctor needed and you either just ignore it or you give in to your wife/sister/daughter telling you to go inside, clean it up and bandage it. Thankfully, we have never had to many major injuries on our farm-- but there is a HUGE chance every day. I know there is a risk at every job but folks lets be honest-- I know way to many other farmers that can tell you about personal injuries or even death of a family member from working on the farm. Did you know that in 2012 there was 374 farmers/farm workers that died according to the CDC (link here). Many more injuries and accidents occur every day-- this is a serious deal.

(Here is a good article about farm accidents and how serious they are on Modern Farmer: Death on the Farm.)

Today, I am thankful that I am alive. I was very lucky to not get more seriously hurt the other night and that I walked away with just a slight concussion. I was opening the gates into the holding pen to let the cows in for the evening milking. I tapped a cow with the gate to get her to move out of the way so that I could hook it in front of the alley way-- well apparently she did NOT like that. She kicked the gate and before I knew it this heavy metal gate went straight to my head. Right above my temple. Thank the Good Lord that it did not hit any harder or any lower and I may not be here to write this blog or spend another day alive.

However, me being me, I did not go to the doctor, I iced it for a bit made sure it was not cut opened and after 15 minutes of so went back out (lucky me, my sister is a nurse and happened to be there when this happened so she checked it over) and did the whole milking and the milking the next morning before taking the night off. I still have a few minor headaches but it could be the weather. The moral of the story is-- in the matter of seconds everything could change and it is a dangerous world. I am thankful for being alive and that it was not worse. Be thankful-- for every one and every thing.

I had thought that from my morning milking that things would go ten times better that day. I had already slipped and fell, causing a huge bruise on my hip and then a cow kicked my hand up in the panel and cut it open in two places. Minor injuries to what would happen that night. Let's just say my new nickname on the farm is proving itself more and more. "Cow Boom" started because of my many small injuries and because I started a tractor on fire-- yeah that was a fun night! (no worries the tractor is fine and running still) here is too hoping nothing worse happens!

Be thankful my friends-- you never know what will happen tomorrow!



The Milkmaid 

Here is some pictures I took-- doesn't really do it
justice but still the best I could get!
And sorry for the faces-- I didn't exactly
feel the best.

Luckily for me-- it is just black and blue now
minus the headaches

The Good Ole V-Day...Bull.

By now all the Valentine’s Day candy has been ate, the flowers have died and life is back to the grind. Another holiday down and I could not be more thankful. I am not one of those big holiday people. I do not enjoy Valentine's Day at all. Even though I have one, my heart goes out to those that do not and I can remember when I was that single girl and hated the holiday even more. Luckily for me, the whole love thing grows in my heart every time a new calf is born cause who can’t resist the sweet face of a little baby calf? It just got me thinking about the change that came that first Valentine’s Day with my hubs. The one where I asked that we do not celebrate it cause shouldn’t we celebrate our love every day? Yeah. I asked him to keep it pretty simple. So we did and still do very minimal celebrating goes on for the love day but we still show it every day and take the time to go out on "dates" when we can.

Now....

This is my love. Finding a new baby calf early in the morning and showering it with love and care. Meet Miss Little Red (for now, until I think of a good name anyway) 

I found her not long after she had been born, her momma #19 did a good job and cleaned her up for the most part but had her in a bad spot. She was shivering cold and needed dried off a bit more. So for the first time in over a year (usually hubs or dad are around for this part, but it was just me this morning) I picked her up and carried her into our bulk tank room. There I placed her in front of the heater and on some used feed sacks so the concrete wouldn't be so cold. I took some towels and rubbed her down and used a hair dryer to warm her up and dry her off. She was a good calf and just laid there for me after having bawled as I carried her causing every cow to become momma cow and follow me up to the barn bawling back... Quite the chatter this morning! 

Finally she was cleaned up for the most part and by then my dad had showed up to help me with the milking. I placed a calf coat on her and went back to milking. I milked her momma to get her that nice good colostrum that every baby needs. She was a happy camper for sure and I was happy for her but had to go on and finish my chores instead of just sitting there and playing with her all morning. Work must be finished and my other R&Ws would probably get pretty jealous of me not paying attention to them. 

My dad and I were thrilled to see she was a Red and White Holstein. We purchased a R&W bull last spring and hoped we would get some out of him even though we don't have many R&W cows. Well #19 is not a R&W, she is black and white so we were beyond thrilled to see Little Red. I, however, do not like Red Bull. He is a typical Holstein bull. If you have never been warned here it is, stay clear of Holstein bulls as much as possible. I don't know why but they get pretty feisty and are not so friendly after a while. Now that is not true of all Holstein bulls, we have had bulls that we can pet and our just little sweeties. Red Bull and I have a day to day relationship. Some days he just watches me and leaves me alone to get the cows in and other days he is kicking up dirt, hollering and following me or stirring up the cows and being a pain in the bull. My dad usually gets to get the cows in on those days cause he just doesn't mess with the man in charge. Men. Hmmph. 

Unfortunately, dealing with cold calves and feisty bulls are just part of the job description. A job I wouldn't change for anything. Just sometimes you wish others could understand all that goes into being any type of farmer and how big our hearts are full of love. 

My love for my cows and job goes on twice a day every day. My cows see love every time they are milked, fed or just go out to check on them. My favorite part of the day is petting my cows Annabel and Pineapple. They are my red and whites, my prize and joy, and now this sweet little girl... Even though she looks too much like the bull! 

Until next time,

The Milkmaid

P.S. - no sweet resolution update 50 days strong! 100 more to go! 

The Scandalous Cow and The Tale of Two Calves

Boy, do I have a story for YOU.

We had quite the uproar a couple weeks ago on the farm. Before milking my dad went out to check on the cows before we brought them up into the holding pen. Well while I was finishing up washing the equipment he showed back up with some news.

He simply said, “Deanna, we may have a problem… “

Meet Three Teat.

Three Teat got her name because she only has three functioning teats. She does have all four teats but a few lactation's ago she had a bad case of Mastitis and unfortunately it took over her whole front right quarter and we could never recover it. However, we were fortunate enough to be able to keep her since it did not take over the whole udder.

Miss Three Teat had been a dry cow for the past couple months and we were keeping a close watch on her since she was due any day. And she was HUGE.  

Back to my original story here, my dad finished that statement with, “Three Teat had her calf but there are two calves out there and only Three Teat seems to have had the calf.” I am thinking to myself, “So what? We had twins, awesome!” Until he told me one was black and one was Holstein. UHHHH? WHAT?!

Now meet Deany and Jenny.

Aren't they the cutest little babies?!?

Deany and Jenny were named by my sweet little 4 year old niece for us the day they were born. The all black calf is Deany and the Holstein calf is Jenny. How lucky are you to get two calves on the same day? 

Well for us very lucky since we only have 66 cows milking right now, we do not get a calf every day like the larger dairy farms.

So, we have one cow that calved and two calves. My immediate thoughts are they must be cross bred calves no big deal. But they are NOT. The Holstein calf is a pure bred Holstein and the black calve is a Holstein/Angus cross.

How in the world did this happen?!?!?!

This was a big first on our farm. It appears that Three Teat was a bit scandalous nine months ago (283 days is the average gestation period). At the time we were running a Holstein bull and the Angus bull with our Dairy Cows. She had been bred by both bulls. You would assume whoever’s specimen got to her ovulated egg would win the race, but she had a unique pregnancy. Three Teat cycled two eggs during her ovulation period, during that time each bull successfully implanted an egg each. During the growing period, each calf grew in the opposite uterine horns. They did not share the same fluids and placentas that we could tell anyway.

Deany

Some of you may know about Free Martin Heifers. This is when you have a set of twins one is a bull and one is a heifer. This unfortunately makes the heifer infertile and given the name of a Free Martin heifer. We do not believe this is the case for our new set of twins. Since they did not share the same fluids and such the heifer should be fertile since it was as though Three Teat carried the calves separately, yet together.  A great article here about Free-Martin heifers if you would like to know more!

Jenny

We were all skeptical at first that the all black calf really was that way until we looked closely at to see if they were polled or not. Polled is a term for if they have horns or not. Jenny has some bumps on her head and is not polled, while Deany is smooth and a polled calf. We know for sure that they do not share the same father because of this simple trait because the Polled trait is the dominant trait. Therefore, if both bulls would have been polled each calf would have been too. However, the Holstein bull is not a polled bull (I wish he was though!). Crazy huh?

Even crazier, the twins were not born premature and both weighed around the normal weight for a newborn calf. I was not kidding when I said she was HUGE, when she exited the milkbarn she could barely fit through the doors.

The twins are doing well and making great progress for twin calves. Momma is doing well and back in the herd working full time again and everyone had a good time telling friends and family about our little scandal! J

It really was a once in a life time experience and I have only read one other story about it happening, somewhat like our story! 

Here is to you having an interesting day of your own!

The Milkmaid  

The Gift of Giving

Every year we like to give back to our land lords, customers, friends and family. It is important to show how much we appreciate each of them. This is what we do during the holiday season.

The last few years we have just given them some cheese and a Christmas card, but this year I took upon myself to make some goodie bags. In these little goodie bags, I put some chocolate chip cookies and candy. According to hubs, “Everyone will obviously be able to tell there is a woman working on the farm.” Next year, I am going to strive to make some candies and chocolate covered pretzels but this year I had limited time because of my parent’s trip.

Delicious Cookie Dough!

Baking in the Oven

188 cookies later...

Now, I have to tell you all about my love for baking. It all started several years ago, when my grandmother taught me all I know about baking. She was my inspiration for many things, including learning how to play the piano, milking cows and reading Amish books. We spent quite a few hours together in the milk barn when I was in middle school and high school talking about the Amish and our love for learning about them and many other things. She taught me so much about hard work and giving back to others. If you ever need pop or cookies, you can go into the house and if you are there for lunch she always has enough for everyone (including all our friends and workers that may just show up unannounced!). Well, the recipe I made is my grandma’s and I will not lie, she makes them way better than I do and they look neater. But as I was taught by her and my mother, “they were made with love” and that makes them the best.

My love for agriculture, helping feed the world and giving is the love I put into these cookies to share a little holiday spirit with our friends.

Cute little Snowman bags

Candy

Cookies (Which have taken 1st Place
at the State Fair a couple of times :) )

                  It is always important to give back 

and it is always a joy to see it spread a smile on others faces.

Hubs was nice and helped me put the goodie bags together.

My gift of giving every year is giving every day of life to agriculture. Working sun up to sun down, long hours and short hours, hot and cold, wet and dry, morning and night, healthy and sick, whatever it may be. My “love of giving” is helping others be fed, clothed and so much more that you get from agriculture, along with every other farmer. What is your love of giving?

Finished Product along with a card!

Here is to hoping you had a wonderful holiday season,

The Milkmaid

Why see the glass half empty when it is half full?

Sometimes, you just have to admit when you are just having a plain bad week.

How my week really went…

People tend to focus on the negative points in life instead of the positives. I was that way two weeks ago and tend to be a bit pessimistic.  

See, my parents went on vacation leaving the farm to the rest of us and the dairy just to me.

My dad was nice enough to send me pictures while they
were gone.. in HAWAII! 

They were gone a total of 9 days. That is 18 milkings, 9 days of feeding and cleaning alone and 216 hours of 100+ cows/calves to watch. Along with my normal household chores, holiday baking to do and cooking for a very busy weekend that was coming up. To top it all off, SNOW.

Ugh. No thank you.

Well in that time I had all these NEGATIVE things happen.

1.      It was cold

2.      Cows acted up 8 out of 9 days

3.      Snow

4.      Bedding down the barn

5.      Dead calf

6.      Pulling a calf from heifer

7.      1 broke feeder

8.      1 broke milking unit

9.      Cow manure on my face, more times than I want to admit

10.   Losing a loader bucket pin

11.   Trying to unload feed from a dump truck

12.   Staying out late to make sure everything is taken of

13.   Cows kicking me

14.   Leading to multiple bruises

15.   Hitting my head on the milking system motor

16.   Strap on coveralls broke

17.   Not being able to sleep

18.   Backaches all week

19.  Barely any time at home

20.  COLD

The list could go on and on and drag on… if I wanted to pick apart all the little things. By day 4, I wanted to cry a little. Day 7, I wanted to quit and day 9 I was thankful. THANKFUL…. Say what?

Yes, thankful.

Well in that time, really, I had all these POSITIVE things happen.

1.      It was cold- not really I had 4 days of upper 50 and lower 60’s, who can complain about that for the middle of December.

2.      Cows acted up 8 out of 9 days- they were letting me know bad weather was coming. Such smart weather ladies. (Most the time better than the actual meteorologists!)

3.      Snow- it ended up snowing later with just a little ice, we needed the moisture.

4.      Bedding down the barn- the cows need a nice warm place to lay down and they come first, plus they were out of the barn so it made it go faster and easier

5.      Dead calf- while it is never easy to lose a calf, the cow is healthy and alive 

6.      Pulling a calf from heifer- we saved the calf’s life and the cow is still alive also, we could have lost both

7.      1 broke feeder – my grandpa and brother were there to help fix it

8.      1 broke milking unit – we had a spare one and hubs came and fixed it, so I could keep milking

9.      Cow manure on my face, more times than I want to admit – it happens, part of life on the farm, easy to clean up and remember to keep extra paper towels in your pocket!

10.   Losing a loader bucket pin – ha, I really didn’t! I find out it was already missing!

11.   Trying to unload feed from a dump truck – We didn’t have to grind feed at all while my dad was gone, it was really a great thing and saved time.

12.   Staying out late to make sure everything is taken of – that is part of being a farmer. I was still able to get some sleep and wake up for another day.

13.   Cows kicking me- it is a part of the job. Not the first and last time I will ever be kicked. The cows were just warning me of the bad weather again.

14.   Leading to multiple bruises- I bruise easy, once again part of life.  

15.   Hitting my head on the milking system motor- I should probably watch what I am doing.

16.   Strap on coveralls broke- my dad made me a new clip and now no hanging strap. Thanks to baling wire.  Another thing on the farm- baling wire and duct tape fix everything!

17.   Not being able to sleep – part of life being a farmer- you can spend all night thinking of what needs to be done tomorrow or thanking of a cow, you are just watching out for your farm.

18.   Backaches all week- weather.

19.  Barely any time at home- part of working on a farm. I got to spend time with my sister, brother and husband working at the farm and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

20.  COLD- I am just not a big fan of being cold, but I have sweatshirts, overalls, and heavy duty boots—really I was warmer than most.

I learned how my dad has felt working by himself for the last 33 years. I understand better how THANKFUL he was/is for having help from his parents and children. I learned how to work the calf puller while the cow is laying down from my brother. I learned how it really feels to be a full fledge dairy farmer, not just the milkmaid and helper.

I am THANKFUL for having my grandpa there to feed the calves every morning and night. I am THANKFUL that my brother helped me pull that calf from the heifer or else it could have been ten times worse. I am THANKFUL that my brother or hubs fed the cows their silage every day for me and helped unload the feed. I am THANKFUL after a late night of spreading straw around the barn and waking up late my brother washed the jars and set up the milk system for me. I am THANKFUL for being able to spend time working on our farm website and some new blogs. I am THANKFUL I got to spend an afternoon decorating for our family Christmas with my sister that I don’t get to see very often. I am THANKFUL for having my family there always to help and I am THANKFUL that my parents were able to take a trip of a life time.

Thankful.

One simple word that has more meaning than we take the time to appreciate.

Look past all the bad and negative and see the good and positives in our lives. Life is short, we need to be living it to our fullest trying to enjoy every moment. Not counting up all those negative things that happened during the week, but rather all the good that came from the week.

This next year, I am going to focus on just that.

The Milkmaid

Beautiful Snowy Sunrise

A General Overview of the Dairy-Good Life

So, what does a milkmaid do all day? Well, this blog is dedicated just to that very thing, at least a general idea of how I spend my day, anyway.

It all begins nice and early in the morning. I try to wake up at 6 a.m. every morning, I am not going to lie, that does not always happen. Especially in the winters when it is cold and dark, no thank you! Now, this is different on all farms, I know of numerous dairy farms that are sometimes almost done milking when I am just getting up, but we are a small dairy and we have a little more room to be flexible. Plus, our milk isn’t picked up by the milkman until noonish. There are mornings when I wake up at 5 a.m. and that is Sunday or when we have somewhere we have to be in the morning.

I feel lazy compared to some dairy farmers,
but I love my sleep!

Sundays are a special day on our farm. We still believe that Sundays are a day of rest as the Bible says. We milk our cows and feed them of course, but we don’t work on tractors, no planting, no harvest… EVER. Sundays we milk early so we are done in time to attend church and spend the day thanking our Lord for the wonderful life He gave us. Yay, a few hours of free time away from the farm. (It is the only day we can classify as a day off!)

A.J. and Lucy goose hunting on a
Sunday afternoon

That is what I wish it was always like, but being the dedicated farmers we are, sometimes duty calls and we have to be with a cow going into labor or need to grind feed.

Our Holstein Themed feed bin that has to be
filled every 5-6 milkings

Once I get to the farm, I wash the jars with a sanitize solution to make sure that all the detergent, acid and any other foreign material is cleaned out of the system before milking. Then I set up the milk system, go into the parlor open the doors, move the switches on the collect jars, so the milk flows properly, and let down the feed into the feeders. Then it is milking time and I am off to get the ladies!

This shows our collection jar and bulk tank, along with the
washing sinks.

My lovely Moo Ladies!

We currently milk 64 cows (we are small, small, small compared to many!) If I milk by myself it will take me almost 2 hours but if I have help for most of the time it will only take 1 ½ hours. Sometimes it still takes 2 hours because we like to have fun in the barn. Fun to us is making jokes, listening to music or talking about more serious things going on around the farm or in life in general. Sometimes, we are lucky and have visitors so that cuts into milking time, too.  Our barn is a double-six herringbone parlor and we only have 6 units so we move side to side. (Look for a future blog of all the different types of milk barns).

This shows the right side of the barn, you can see the collection
jars, units, feeding bunk and a little of the feeders.

After milking is complete, it is clean up time and feeding time.  The jars must be cleaned with a detergent and then an acid rinse. My dad usually feeds the cows their silage and I will take a bale of hay out to them. Then it is one of my favorite times of all, cleaning the barn. Now I am not joking when I say this. It is fun to me I guess because I am a neat clean freak. I wash the milking parlor getting rid of any manure or filth that needs to be gone. Along with washing the floors, I scrub the equipment and walls. Then it is nice and shiny clean! Next, the holding pen and the barn get cleaned. We scrape those with the skid loader, believe me, it is a lot easier! The cows usually go out to the pasture during this time.

Dirty Holding Pen

Clean (well cleaner) Holding Pen

By time, all the cleaning is done and finished it is lunch time. After lunch, my afternoon usually is different every day. Sometimes, you may find me in the field spreading fertilizer, running to town for parts, swathing hay or being the taxi cab. I go wherever the guys need me to go or fill in. And then there are the really nice days… where my dad lets me stay home. I love love love those days. I usually nap, do household chores, bake or read a good book. The guys usually get pretty jealous that I get the afternoons off but they can get over it! However, sometimes those days are cut short because the cows need bedded down, calves need taken care of or a cow is having a calf. Then before I know it is 4:30 and I am back to the farm to milk again and go home for the night afterwards! Unless something breaks, a cow needs assistance or one of the guys needs me to do something. Rule No. 1- Everything to do with farming all depends on the weather!

Lovely view of the beef cattle on the Milo stalks

Have a dairy-good day!

The Milkmaid

P.S. – This is only one of my daily dairy products- yum!

Jumping In!

Well friends, I did it. I am jumping in head first with the blogging world. A big thanks to my encouragers, my husband A.J. and my brother Josh. Josh came up with the title of my blog and I loved it, so why not! A lot of my friends blog and I love reading blogs, you can learn so much from them. Anyway, enough rambling. My blog is going to be dedicated to my life as well a milkmaid. I am a sixth generation farmer along with my brother. We work with our dad and grandpa and my husband has joined in the family farm. It is a true blessing. While my brother, Josh, and A.J. handle all the crops and beef cattle herd, I work closely with our dad on the dairy side of the operations. I am not sure how often a blog post will be up cause with farming you never know what will happen that day, but when one is up it will be about what is going on around our farm and sometimes maybe a little of our life at home. I hope if you find time to read this blog, you will enjoy it and maybe even learn a little!

Until next time,

The Milkmaid

P.S. Thanks for reading! Also, here is one of my favorite pictures from this fall harvest, the guys were combining soybeans.