A Finished Barn!

Lunch break for some of our employees while they finish the interior of the barn.

Looking down the ally where the cows will be notice the fans and the overhead garage door to keep the cows cool in the summer and shelter from the wind in the winter.

Well after nearly six months of building, from start to finish, the barn is complete.  We are happy to say that the cows took to it like it was the Grand Hotel.  They love the openess and act very pleased with their new surroundings.  How do we know this?  Well, we look at the contentment of them, they walk slow and steady and are not hesitant or jumpy.  They eat well, drink lots of water and chew their cud showing us signs of satisfaction!  All in all, it is mission accomplished.  Having healthy, happy cows only strenghtens our commitment to agriculture.

This shows where the cows will lay down to rest.  They are bedded with a smooth soft sand, it's like having a day at the beach for them.  It is comfortable and cool.

Notice the outside wall of the barn.  There really isn't one.  To keep the cows cool in the summer the sides are left open for air flow.  In the winter we have material "curtains" that roll down to keep out the wind and snow. 

The cows are in!  They are happy and eating a well balanced diet.  Water is available 24 hours a day.

Until next time, 
Drink milk and have a healthy diet.

Progress....

In July I can usually be found at my blueberry patch down the road.  I had a usually busy season and just didn't find the time to go to the buidling site to take photos.  I have one from my patch around the corner:

AUGUST 2010

Let's take a look at what progress is:







Things are looking great, but we still have a lot of work to do.

 

When the roof of the barn gets on, we still have plenty to do inside to make a comfortable home for the cows.  With the latest in building technology to provide a safe and secure environment for the cows, come back to see whats goin on inside...

Until next time...

"The Barn" Begins...

Well, I have not been very good at keeping up with this blog.  I have to apologize-writing is essentially more difficult than I ever imagined! I have to admit that talking is so much easier!!  I can carry on a conversation with the best of them, but sitting down at the computer and trying to turn my thoughts into a meaningful array of words, well, has me second guessing what I am really trying to say!!  Holy Cow!  But let's move forward and I will attempt to make some sense of my thoughts and please feel free to comment on anything that I may not make very clear.  Okay, moooving forward...

The Barn.  Since the last time I posted here, we have made the decision to moove forward and build, basically for the next generation.  As my husband and I are in our mid-40's, we are already thinking of ways to help the next generation transition, easier, into owning their own, and continuing our, family-business.  Our oldest son is back at the farm and working full time.  Our youngest son is contemplating Vet School, which his parents are thrilled about, but may decide to work with his older brother in the family business.  That's up in the air right now, but at any rate, we have made the decision.  The Barn.

So let's take a look at where it all started...

The new barn will have a walkway for the cows to enter the old barn.

This is the base for the new barn.

These heifers heading down their "new lane" to go to pasture.

This is the "old lane" the heifers used before.  The new barn will sit over this lane.

Keep checking back as I will have updated pics for you to look at.  This whole process started in May 2010.  We hope to be complete by October 2010.  That sounds like a long time, trust me, it is!!

Until next time...

To Build or Not to Build!

Happy Spring!!
Spring you say? Well maybe that's wishful thinking, but today the weather was 44 degrees...that sure feels like Spring to us after many, many cold days of winter.  And when Spring arrives, it brings lots of joy and hapiness with it.  The sunshine glowing early in the morning and the moon rising on those clear and cold nights.
The Spring fever cleaning bug aways hits me hard, it didn't when I was young because my Mother was the Queen of Clean-ing (so I guess I didn't have to do the cleaning?) Our house and our farm were clean...all the time.  Well, maybe not all the time! Oh, and yes I did have to do the cleaning too!
This Spring brings us to other issues on the farm.  For a few months now, the cows have been a little over-crowded. This causes may issues, one of which is cow comfort. Now we pride ourselves on cow comfort.  Comfortable cows are happy cows!
So for the last few months we have been discussing how to eliminate the over-crowding issue.  We have two choices, sell cows or build a new barn.  After the year of 2009, which brought us the lowest milk prices in 30 years, we are a bit cautious about selling cows. So we are pursuing the option of building a barn.  Barns are not cheap, but we have another generation coming into the farm and we need to think about that.
My husband and son have been traveling around looking at different types of barns to give us an idea of some of the new improvements that have been made since the last time we built a cow barn.  We need to think about air flow, and cow flow.  Where to install waterers and where and how many freestalls to put in.  The freestalls are the stalls that the cows lay in.  They are "free" because they allow any cow to enter and exit at any time.  We need to decide whether to lay out the barn East to West or North to South.  We are currently laid out North to South.
With the addition of a new barn also comes the challenges of the overall farm lay-out. We need to really make some decisions on where the new barn should go and if in the future the next generation decides to increase in size, that this pre-planning will help with some of those decisions. We will continue to discuss these issues and more that will probably come up as we move forward. 
So look for news to come this Spring and hopefully some pictures as the project progresses, as long as the decision is made to build!  I'll keep you posted.

Until next time...
Wish us luck!!