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.

The Milk in Michigan is COLD today!!

Happy Thursday!

Today we have had our first "official" snow fall (meaning it has stuck to the ground just so you can see it.) Yep, you heard me - that dreaded 4 letter word!! SNOW. Oh Lord, I haven't even gotten all my fall work done yet. It's too early for this!! But the milk in Michigan is cold today!!

We just finished corn chopping- I will show you that later with pics-and still have to chop some sorghum sudan grass. All to feed the hungry cows!! Then it's full steam with harvesting soybeans and corn. And with the rainy weather every other day, it's been difficult to manage all this.

We will still pray for an "Indian Summer", you know when it actually warms up again! And if we're lucky, we'll get a long enough one to keep moving on the harvest and be done by Thanksgiving. That would definitely be a time for celebration!

So bear with me while I get my extra jobs done and I can move on to the next and get back to posting to keep all of you updated and informed.

Until next time,

Jennifer

Liquid Sunshine!

This week we are blessed with liquid sunshine-rain! Because we didn't get the rain earlier in the growing season for our crops, we have had to run our irrigation pivots. Pivots are like a giant sprinkler for your fields, that rotate around the field from a specific point. They are hooked up to power and some type of water resource. The larger ones have wheels and automatically rotate around the field, either partially or fully.




This is a new pivot we started using this year, on a soybean field across from our house. It moves very slowly to get the right amount of water on the beans.


Farmers use various forms of technology every day. An irrigation pivot is a tool that we use to help ensure that we will have enough of a crop to feed our cows. Too little rain, and we could have a poor crop year. Because we grow the majority of our cow feed, the weather plays a very important role in the cows diet. With enough rain this week, we might not have to run the pivot for several days-that would be good!


There's plenty to do on a rainy day. There's always something that needs fixed, so the farm shop is usually a busy place on a day like today. We are working on our chopper. This is a machine that "chops" the crops for feed. We will be chopping hay, called "haylage", in about a week. Look back for pictures on that.

My husband and I sometimes need to spend more time in the office. We have a 1930's Sears and Roebuck house that we lived in when we first got married. We had 2 children in this one bedroom house-let's just say, it was full! In December of 1991, we moved to the main farm and my husband's parents moved into a new house. That next Spring, we brought our little house to the farm and made an office out of it. With a little remodeling, it works perfect!! And remember, farming is a business too, and just like any other business, office work is always there waiting for someone to do it! That's my main job at the farm, along with many others.

So a rainy day is a perfect day to catch up on all those little things you put off doing when the sun is shining.