Work is important in our family. David and I were both raised with strong work ethics, and it’s really a core value for both of us. It’s not that we don’t believe in leisure, but we really appreciate the satisfaction of a job well done, and we don’t shy away from something because it’s “too much work”. It’s important to both of us to to pass this on to our children, and that’s one of the reasons we farm.
We bought the dairy in 2012 from David’s dad and Uncle Richard who had farmed here their entire lives. They grew up in what is now our house and raised their families working here side by side. I didn’t know either of them until they were nearing retirement, and I used to joke that I should film their antics for a YouTube series with a working title of “Fun on the Farm with Richard and Jerry”. My favorite such moment was a time that they were using a truck to pull-start a tractor (because sometimes tractors that don’t want to will start if they’re already moving). I don’t remember which was in the truck and which was on the tractor, but the one on the tractor was yelling something and the one in the truck had the windows up AND was on his phone. That was just par for the course.
Holy cow! Can you believe that it’s already June?! Yeah, me neither. But I’m sure you know that June is dairy month! (I had to throw that in…check out these … Continue reading At least its not 2012
Today is National Ag Day, and this year’s theme is 365 sunrises and 7 billion mouths to feed. At our dairy we have about 100 Holstein cows to feed twice … Continue reading National Ag Day: 365 Sunrises and 100 Mouths to Feed
Why do companies with good products feel that they have to use fear and guilt as motivators in their marketing? Let me start by saying that I really like Chipotle’s … Continue reading Chipotle’s Ag Marketing circa 2013
Today is National Agriculture Day. I often write about what we do as a part of agriculture, but today I want to talk about why we do it. Michele Payn-Knoper … Continue reading National Ag Day: Why do we farm?
After our snow day a couple of weeks ago, I sent a photo of our heifers walking along the lake to my manager at my off-farm engineering job. He included it in his weekly email to our department. A week later as I was getting ready to leave my office, filling up my water bottle before I headed home, a manager of a different department passed me and said “I saw a picture of your cows”.
He took a few steps, then stopped and asked me about the cows. He told me the story of his dad who used to haul milk, back when it was stored in cans. When he was a baby, his mother would ride along to open gates, and he would go too. He finished with something like “anyway, they love to tell that story.”
I’m really glad that he took the time to stop and tell me, and for some reason it really got me thinking. This isn’t the type of conversation that I normally encounter at work, and I have a lot of time to think during my 50 mile commute. Maybe this is something that should have been obvious, but finally it hit me: Farming is nostalgic to people who aren’t farmers.
There are some who felt the much-discussed Dodge Super Bowl ad didn’t accurately portray modern farming or modern farmers. However, most farmers I know loved it. Yes, farming has changed since Paul Harvey gave that speech in 1978, but maybe farmers aren’t so different. When the speech was given, farming innovation wasn’t new.
Bulk tank storage and the milk machine were already commonplace at that time. In fact, the milk barn we use today was already standing. Farmers have been looking for ways to improve efficiency, to do more with less, since long before 1978. However, I think many of us still cling to the values of our predecessors: honesty, integrity, and hard work. Farmers are nostalgic about farming, too.
Minnesota farmer Tim Zweber recently wrote this story about an old manure spreader that sits by their shop. And an Illinois farm wife wrote this post reminiscing about an old barn. I don’t think farmers are the only ones who enjoy these stories.
When we’re looking for the link between food and farm, maybe the nostalgia is where we connect. Maybe these farm stories are our common bond with those who left their farming roots behind. Just because we’re moving forward doesn’t mean we can’t look back.
This week the temperature started off with a high of 75 degrees on Monday. Once it started cooling off, it apparently forgot to stop. Friday morning the temperature was right around zero. We’re used to getting cold weather; we’ve had a couple of days with single digit lows already this year. It’s winter, so it’s okay.
The item of note isn’t the weather, but rather, the work the weather creates. I’ve heard it said that farmers don’t work in the winter. Clearly, those saying such a thing aren’t referring to dairy farmers since the cows still have to be milked twice a day every day, just like they do during the other seasons.
It’s true that in the spring, summer and fall there are additional activities like planting, putting up hay, and harvesting to fill the “free time” we aren’t spending milking or doing chores. In the winter, though, there are still other additional activities to fill our time, especially when the weather turns wet and/or cold like it did this week.
We use straw for bedding for our cows and calves, and when it’s wet or cold, we have to freshen that bedding every few days to keep everybody warm and dry. We also have to spend extra time feeding and watering. Young calves in particular need extra attention to ensure that the weather isn’t causing any illnesses like pneumonia. Keeping things consistent for our animals is important, but unfortunately the weather is out of our control and isn’t always consistent. We give the calves a little extra to eat during cold weather, and we don’t do anything drastic like weaning them (stop feeding them milk) right before a cold snap.
The calf groups that aren’t on pasture get hay year-round, and the cows get their forages in their TMR. However, we keep dry cows, bred heifers and a couple of heifer groups on pasture. During the warmer months (as long as it rains) they have grass to snack on. Once the frost kills that grass, we supplement that part of their diet by delivering hay to their pastures.
We also spend a notable amount of time watering everything in the winter. The milk herd and dry cows along with a couple of heifer groups have frost-free waters that make this process easy. In extreme cold we do need to make sure the floats don’t freeze, but we haven’t had trouble with that this year. The rest of the calves have water sources that can and do freeze. Our youngest groups have tubs filled with water and one group in a rented pasture has a small pond. All of these water sources need to have the ice broken on them at least once a day every day in cold weather.
Equipment doesn’t like the cold either. Our milking and feeding equipment can all struggle in the cold. During our first cold snap this winter, the heater in our milk barn wasn’t working. We used a smaller heater to help ease the chill, but we still had to use warm water to thaw out the units before every milking. We also have to use engine block heaters on tractors and our skid loader to make sure that they start.
It seems like every daily task takes longer when the temperature drops. Getting dressed in the morning takes longer with all of the layers required to stay warm. Lugging around all of those layers also makes tasks slower and more tiresome. And when it’s really cold, the farmers need breaks to warm up inside or near the exhaust of the skid loader. The days are also shorter. We work both before and after dark, but some tasks can only be done, or are much more easily done, with daylight, and we have that much less time each day to complete those tasks.
So if you’ve ever wondered how we fill the time we don’t spend in the field during the winter, now you know. We’re working hard to keep our animals and ourselves warm and healthy.
HeimDairy 