Tag Archives: dairy

Meeting New Farmers

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Our family farm is a member/owner of Northwest Dairy Association ~ aka “Darigold”.  Our farm has been a part of this coop since the early 1960’s.  There are many benefits to belonging to our coop and one of the biggest benefits is the Young Cooperators “YC” program.  My husband and I have been participating in this program for over 12 years.  The YC meetings have taken us all over the Pacific Northwest ~ Boise, Twin Falls, Portland, Spokane, Sacramento, Tulare, and Bellingham.

The YC program is a great opportunity to meet young dairy farmers within our coop.  The cool thing is many times you meet fellow dairy farmers that are living very similar situations to yourself.  Kids in diapers?  Pregnant with Baby #?  Working through a transition of farm ownership?  Many times you meet at least one or two fellow dairy farmers experiencing the same kind of events in their life as you.

As my time in the YC program comes to an end, I will treasure the many friends and experiences that I have had over the past 12 years.  I encourage all young dairy farmers to take advantage of this amazing program.  But do not just attend.  Get involved and become a leader within the program!!  You will learn so many skills that will benefit you down the road.

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Hotel Bellwether ~ Beautiful location for the 2017 Spring Darigold YC Meeting

 

2015 Expectations

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It is hard to believe I am sitting here looking at my expectations for 2015.  My husband was remembering the last time we celebrated the New Year in Reno (a former  annual tradition).  It was the 2000 Millennium.  We watched as we marched into a new century and it is amazing that was 15 years ago.  So much in our life has changed, changes we never anticipated, changes we hope for, and changes we wanted to make.  But now as I stare at a new blank 2015 year of “365 days” (what I have seen ALL over FB posts), I am putting together my expectations for the coming year. Why expectations??  I think goals leave room for failure or an excuse for when you don’t achieve them.  To me “expectations” mean I expect to accomplish, achieve, or finish these goals.  So here are a few expectations for 2015:

1.  Let some things go.  I know this may sound cheezy but I need to let some things just “GO”.  I want to take this year and try to repair or rekindle some relationships I had in the past.  Things happen.  People say and do things.  You never know why someone does something to you, but I need to just “Let it go” and try to move on (Darn Disney movie…)

2.  Increase number of heifers calves born on our farm.  This is the way we expand internally and now with our new calf barn, this will be so much easier.  A good calf raising facility makes raising calves easier for everyone!!

Chocolate at 2 days old

Of course I want a few more of these cuties!!

3.  Learn to Artificially Inseminate Dairy Cows.  I want to learn this for a variety of reason.  A few a obvious – 1.  Help increase the number of pregnant cows in the herd.  2.  Help my husband.  3.  Because I want to be able to say “I Can Do It!!”.  This one will be a tough one to accomplish.  It involves time away from the family but if I can swing it I want to learn.

4.  Increase the visibility of the farm.  This is the year to start the publicity for the farm.  I’ve got the farm logo, now it is time to take the next steps.  It is going to be fun to see where we can take this.  Luckily I have kids that help this “techie” challenged mom and hopefully do it right!!

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So as we steam into 2015, I hope all your dreams come true.  As for me and our family, we will be hard at work trying to meet or surpass my expectations for the year!!  Lots of hard work ahead but I would definitely not have it any other way!!

Farm Tours – I love showing off our farm!!

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I love when people come to visit our farm!!  It is so easy to get focused on all the day to day things it takes to run a successful organic dairy.  Healthy calves, clean barns, accurate and up to date paperwork, and on……  It is very easy to lose sight of the fact that so many people are 2-3 generations removed from agriculture.  Many people have never seen a “live” cow.  For me, I can not imagine that.  But I must remember that it is not necessary to be acquainted with your local farmer in order to eat.  Everything you need to provide good nutritious food for your family is in the grocery store, farmer’s market, or big box store.

I love to show people what we do everyday.  If they get a 1st hand experience of where their organic milk comes from, chances are they will make the decision to buy milk, cheese, or butter on their next trip to the grocery store.  As the dairy industry struggles to find ways to increase dairy consumption, I believe opening our farms to the public can be part of the solution.  It is scary because you always worry you may end up on YouTube or whatever website is featuring the negative aspects of dairy farming.  We have a great story to tell!!  Do not be afraid!!  Open your farm to the public and help get people connected to agriculture again.  Let me know if you ever are interested in a tour!!

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Talking about the Flood of 2007 in our parlor.

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My son with his show cow.

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YoYo the Jersey.

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Calves are always the cutest part of the tour!!

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Explaining commodities.

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Looking at our 300 cow Free Stall Barn.

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Preemie “Chocolate” Update

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A few weeks ago I addressed the issue that dairy farms occasionally have premature calves.  We were lucky enough to have the cutest premature calf who had a will to live.  My kids named this adorable little guy “Chocolate”.  Since that post, I have had questions about him and his status.  It was a tough day when I realized Chocolate was starting to have problems.  Premature dairy calves face many of the same problems human babies do – Pneumonia.  Their lungs are not fully developed and this presents a huge challenge.  It was hard to watch him struggle and eventually  succumb to the effects of Pneumonia.  He was such an adorable little calf and it is always tough to lose an animal I have spent so much time caring for.

"Chocolate"

“Chocolate”

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I am sooooooo adorable!!

 

Bucket List Item #1 “Fertilizer Buggy Driver”

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As a dairy farmer, we tend to have bucket list items that include amazing vacations to amazing destinations, meeting important people in our industry, or achieving an important recognition from our peers.  I have a “Bucket List Item” I added a few years ago.

Fertilizer Applicator Buggy Driver

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Wilco Fertilizer Applicator

Look at this awesome thing!!  Who wouldn’t want to drive this cool piece of equipment for a few days.  It doesn’t get stuck, it is HUGE, and no one would mess with the woman driving it!!

So why is this amazing piece of equipment parked at the farm.  In the fall, we apply hydrated lime to our fields.  When we transitioned to organic dairy farming, it became crucial to manage our pastures as best as we could.  The traditional practice of manure application did not supply enough nutrients to encourage good grass growth.  We tried fish manure – so smelly and disgusting that I made my husband strip in the garage, wash his own clothes, and then maybe I would cook him dinner.  The spreader was lame and IT SMELLED AWFUL TOO!!!  By far the hydrated lime has work quite nicely on all of our fields.  So one day I hope to convince one of the nice Wilco guys to give me a crash driving course.  This is one bucket list item that shouldn’t cost me much and will keep me close to home!!

Calf Care – Why it is my passion

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Raising calves on an organic dairy farm in Western Washington is challenging.  We have been certified organic since 2006.  It has been a total reeducation raising calves.  We did a great job raising calves when we were conventional, but we had so many tools at our fingertips to help us care for calves who became sick.  When we transitioned to organic, we quickly realized things were different. We quickly learned that prevention is the “Key”!!  You know that product “Airborne”??  The commercials recommend taking it before a trip on a plane because it will help you to prevent getting sick.  Well, we needed to adopt that similar philosophy but on a daily basis.  The keys to raising healthy organic dairy calves are simple.

1.  Environment – clean and dry bedding and good ventilation

2.  Vaccinations – Vaccinations help to prevent disease so get a good schedule and stick to it!!

3.  Colostrum – The first 2 feedings should be 2 bottles of good quality Colostrum.  No questions, no excuses.

It is pretty simple but like everyone, I get busy and short cut steps.  When this does happen, I quickly begin to experience problems.  But if I get back to these simple steps, I get quickly back on track.  I am so excited to raise my calves in my new calf barn we have been busy building of the last year.  Check out the amazing pictures.  The amazing Calf Tel pens, group pens, flush system, and curtains.  It is going to be a great place to raise organic dairy calves in the future.

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Group Pens – Each pen has 5-6 calves

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20 Calf Tel Pens

The doors we uses to move in and out with tractors.

The curtains move up and down. It allows control of the air flow through the barn.

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The doors roll up and allow our large loader tractors in and out easily.

Why I Love Dairy Cows

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“Let’s go cow tipping” or “Chocolate Milk comes from Brown Cows” or “Strawberry Milk comes from Red Cows”.  We have all heard these funny ideas people have about dairy cows.  I am sure you have seen a t-shirt highlighting one of these “myths” or “urban legends” about cows.  As of today, I have been married to my dairy farmer husband for over 16 years.  In all of those years, I have never witnessed a “cow tipping” event.  What I have seen is the love and dedication dairy farmers have for their animals.  From the newborn calf struggling to take its first breath, an older cow having a tough time getting up from her stall, or a new cow in the milking parlor that refuses to go in and get milked for the first time (FYI – the first time is always the toughest) most dairy farmers have a level of compassion that is unbelievable.  I wish more people could see this and understand this is the norm and not the exception.  With that said, my children’s 4-H animals are like members of our family.  We are lucky that we can keep them in a barn where we can interact, play, pet, and talk with them every day.  If you ever have a chance to watch a 4-H dairy show at your local fair, please take the time to watch.  You will be amazed at the amount of love and dedication these kids have for their animals.  Remember, you may not ever be able to “tip” a cow, but you never know when you could ride one like a horse 🙂

2014-07-02 09.31.18Brownie – My daughter’s show heifer who was quietly enjoying a day in the sun.

Show Season

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One of the many blessings of entering the spring season on a dairy is the realization that “show” season is right around the corner.  Luckily in our part of the country, we have several youth fairs and other shows available for dairy kids to participate in.  In our local youth fair, dairy is the largest show with over 95 kids participating.  The joy of helping your son or daughter help lead a young calf becomes part of the daily schedule.  Our family is 6 years into participating in 4-h and I must admit, we have more and more fun every year.  So when I wonder if we are ever going to get the kids ready for the shows as well as get their homework done I remember one important thing. 

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What does $5000 buy??

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Right now, we are in the process of building a new calf barn.  Many times it is easier to just keep doing things on dairy the way they have always been done.  A calf is born, fed milk for 2-3 months, weaned, and then finally enters the milking herd at about 24 months.  It has been happening this way for a long time on our dairy.  But, the time has come to innovate and build a more efficient barn to care for our calves.  We plan to use curtains for ventilation, Calf-Tel for our individual calf pens, group pens of 5 animals, and finally a flush system for cleaning.  We are incorporating many new and efficient features for this new calf barn.  But, at the end of the day it still comes down to the basics:  1 – Clean pens, 2 – Preventing illness, and 3 – Good quality colostrom.

ImageImage$5000 only buys this piece of concrete.  We have a ways to go but it will definitely be worth it.  Stay Tuned!!