First Results

As I promised, here are the results of the first show that the calves attended. It went much better than we had actually expected! We had only five calves there and the lowest placing we ended up with was fifth. My senior calf placed 5th and my intermediate calf placed 4th! Metty's senior calf placed 1st and then also became the junior reserve champion!! So that was exciting! Other than that, Metty's intermediate calf was 3rd and my older brother's summer calf was also 3rd. Overall it was very exciting especially since we had no idea how the calves might do! Well, the calves came home late Saturday night and got to rest on Sunday. On Monday we got started right away on clipping the rest of the calves that are at Leduc now and trained the calves for the last time before their next show! The animals and my older brother, sister and our exchange students left this afternoon to get our stall set up and get the calves into the bedding. I hope to head that way tomorrow afternoon to help prepare the calves for the junior show which is tomorrow night at 7:00! Feel free to drop by to check it out!
I look forward to informing you of this weeks show as well!

It's Showtime!!

It is once again that time of year when the Dairy 4-H clubs are getting ready to have their achievement day. The last week has been pretty crazy here. We have been working hard on getting the final touches done in training our calves and have begun clipping them the last two days. Our first show is tomorrow in Lethbridge. I won't be showing there myself due to not wanting to miss too much school in the next few weeks. My dad, sister and the exchange students took 5 calves down to this show. Next week, is the Leduc Dairy Congress in Leduc. My older brother and sister hope to take the calves up on Tuesday and then the Junior show is Wednesday night. I am hoping to make it to Leduc sometime after my first class on Wednesday. It gets a little difficult to be able to make it to all the shows when your still in school. But I just work it out however it can be most easily figured out! Well, Friday we will be kept nice and busy with the open show.
On Saturday we have a bit of time to rest again, but the the following week, we will be working on doing the absolute final touches with our calves of rour 4-H achievement day. We always show up in Rimbey around noon on Friday so that we can have our clipping competition that night. Everyone just camps out at and around the barn and then on Saturday we have the actual show! If you would like to come, feel free to drop by to check out how we do it!! I will let you know the actual times a little closer to the date!
Well, I guess I should probably get back to work. There are still a few calves here that need to be worked with! Let me know if you have any great training ideas or advice!!

Milking!

As most of you know, milking is a very important aspect of dairy farming. There are several different forms of milking. Lets start with the good old milking by hand. This is when you would lierally milk each cow seperately. No milking machines or parlors, all you had was your stool and pail.

Next is the Tandem, which is also known as a side opening parlor. In this set-up you are able to milk each cow and let them go as soon as they are finished. This set-up works well with slow milking cows because you will never have to hold up a whole line just because one cow takes very long. Alsom this parlor often has only one return alley.

The Herringbone, or Fishbone. In this set-up, the cows come in and stand sideways. They get milked from the side and must be let go of all at the same time. Here there is often only one return alley.

The Parallel Parlor. This is the one that we have at the moment. Here the cows come in and then stand side-by-side. You are milking them between their back legs. In our barn we milk in a double 10. We are able to let five go at a time and there are two return alleys.

Next is the Rotary Parlor. This can be either an inside or outside carousel. This is a circular platform that moves around slowly. For an inside rotary, the milker is on the inside. The cows come in and stand side-by-side with their heads towards the wall and you milk between their back legs. Then for an outside rotary, there is most often one person hanging machines and the other is making sure the cows are done before they leave.

                     INSIDE                                                     OUTSIDE

I hope I have been able to expand your knowledge on the different ways of milking! Let me know if there is anything else that you would like to know about!





When Reality Hits

As some of you may know, the National Holstein Convention took place in Halifax just last week. My parents and sister had the privilege of going there which left me to get to run the farm! This was not the first time I had to do it on my own; however, it certainly was the longest I have ever done it on my own for.  I had extra help for the week day morning milking from our friend Mrs. Monda and had help from our Dutch exchange students during the day and during the weekend.  Getting to spend five days alone on the farm definitely opened my eyes to how much there really is to do. We got lucky in not having to do too many extra things, but the day is filled quickly enough with only the everyday chores.  

I began everyday with the morning milking at 3:30. I got up at 3:10 and was able to have the cows in the holding area and the stalls scraped clean by 3:30.  After milking the cows and calves had to be fed silage and hay. On Thursday, Friday, and Monday I had to go to school but was able to come home from 10:30 until a quarter after twelve. This gave me a bit of time to be able to just check around and make sure everything was going good and that nothing was unusual. Our exchange student took care of the usual daily chores like the cleaning with the bobcat. As soon as I got out of school I had to get home to do the afternoon milking. After milking their usually wasn’t too much to do but we were definitely tired and made our evenings pretty short. The lights were out before nine almost every night.  

On Saturday things were a little different. Our morning began as usual with milking and feeding. But then we had to bed all the calves. This included the dry cows and the calves in the hutches. This took up quite a bit of the morning. Due to all the wind the bedding wasn’t quite as easy. However, we got it done!! The night milking went as usual and we were done at a descent time.

 Due to having to make an attempt at getting to school on time and wanting to make sure all the work got done there wasn’t a whole lot of time to catch up on sleep. By the time my parents got home I was pretty tired, but I now definitely have a different view on how much work it really is to run a farm. I think that what really tires you out the most is having to be up so early. Other than that, it was an unforgettable experience that I would love to have the chance to do again any time!!! Let me know if there is anything specific that you would like to know about and I would love to fill you in!

What Something So Small Can Produce

After a very long winter that almost seemed to never end, spring has finally come! Along with the wonderful change of weather also comes the extra field work for the farmers. It is now a bit later than last years, but this morning our corn was planted! When you think further about that, it is amazing how such a small seed can produce such a large corn stalk. Even though the corn was only just planted today, I am already looking forward to seeing how high it will get to be this year!



There are several different crops that farmer’s plant. We as dairy farmers grow barley, alfalfa, and corn. Some other crops that other farmers may plant are canola, and wheat.



Let us begin at the very beginning. Once all the snow has melted and the fields are dry enough to go onto, the farmer goes out and plows the field. If needed, he will also have fertilizer spread on the land. Next the seeder goes and makes even rows that are about 75 cm apart. And then it is time to wait!! For the barley and alfalfa, the first cut is usually done late June. The second cut usually takes place around mid August. Finally, the final cut is done around October and the field is empty for the winter. For corn however, the story is a little different. Once the corn is planted, it just keeps growing until October. When the fields are empty, the farmer goes out once again and harrows and plows the field. At this time the fields will also get a fresh dump of fertilizer. Now all you have to wait for is a little snow, and then for the snow to melt, and then... the cycle begins again!

Betcha you did not know all about that!!! Hope you learned more about what a farmers summer looks like.



What's In It For You?

I pledge

 my head to clearer thinking,

my heart to greater loyalty,

my hands to larger service,

and my health to better living

for my club, my community, and my country.

 

I have been involved in 4-H since I was nine years old and what I have learned since then are things that will stick with me further into the future than I can see! My older sibling who are just four years older than me helped set up the Moo's on the Moo-ve Dairy Club around Barrhead, Alberta. Since they started 4-H, our family has been very actively involved. I have two younger siblings, one who is an intermediate, and the other who was given the privelege of being a cleaver kid this year! As I learn new things from my older siblings and watch the younger ones learn new things, I just keep being so very thankful that I could be involved in 4-H.
When I talk about farming, showing, or just 4-H in general with some of my friends from town, they think I am very odd for my passion for these things. What I have learned to realize is that when you grow up with these things around you and you truly have a passion for them your passion for them grows more and more each day. In 4-H I have defianetly had my days where I have just really not wanted to be involved, but I think everyone has had that. There are those days when your heifer just won't cooperate with you and you become very frusterated. But then there are also those great days when after the meeting or workshop you can't imagine what life would be like without that extra little bit of information!
4-H gives you a wide variety of wonderful chances to do things you would never have done otherwise. Just a few weeks back I was asked to do a clipping and showmanship clinic for a fairly new club. So my sister and I went out and worked with two very enthusiastic junior members. I had never been asked to do a clinic before so it was something very new for me. Even though I had been asked to go out there and teach these younger members, I was also able to teach myself new things. Without 4-H, I would never have ended up there being able to help other members and having been able to give myself a new experience as well.
Another thing that I find is a wonderful thing that 4-H brings out is public speaking. I myself am not fond of speaking infront of crowds, but with the help of 4-H, I have been able to build up my confidence a bit to be able to do this a little more comfortably. It also gives you the chance to bring out topics that people do not really think about. Personally, I find that my speeches even help me out. I have always tried to find topics that people can think about and actually use. I have done speeches on smoking, peer pressure, and even self-confidence. All these topics have helped me out as well.

I honestly do not know what I would do without 4-H in my life. It has given me so many amazing opportunities, too many for me to tell you all about. 4-H is an amzing experience and if you are not a member of a club of any sort, you really should get on that because you are definately missing out. If you have any specific question about 4-H, feel free to ask, I am more than happy to help you out!!!



A Day in the Life of a Farmer

A farmer’s week is filled with days that have similar events happening in them; however, each day brings its own new surprises. The day begins with waking up bright and early usually between 3:00 and 5:00 depending on what time he milks and how many times a day he milks. On our farm the milk pump gets turned on at 3:30. It takes us about 21/2 hours to milk so we are finished milking and cleaning up between 6:00 and 6:30. The next chore is to make sure everything gets fed. All the calves under two months get fed 3 L of pasteurized milk during milking. All the other calves, heifers, and cows have water troughs. All the calves that are not yet at the breeding age get fed hay and for the last 4 months they get silage. All the other animals get fed silage.

Once all the animals have been fed, their pens need to be cleaned. Once every two-three days all the hutches and pens get bedded and clean shavings are brought into the barn for the milk cows. Bedding usually takes about one-two hours depending on the method used. The rest of the afternoon can be used for many other chores. This ranges from needling or breeding cows, cleaning pens (as in taking out all the manure to literally clean it), or even going out to do field work. This all depends on what season you are working in. In the winter you can often get caught up trying to fix frozen water lines or moving snow piles. In the summer however, a large part of a farmer’s day can take place in the field. All-in-all, a farmer is kept busy during the day but is able to keep the farm going!

Did You Know...

• Cows have an acute sense of smell, and can smell something up to six miles away.
• Vanilla is America's favorite ice cream flavor.
• The average cow produces enough milk each day to fill six one-gallon jugs, about 55 pounds of milk.
• It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs, because a cow's knees can't bend properly to walk back down.
• A cow chews her cud (regurgitated, partially digested food) for up to 8 hours each day.
• Cows only have teeth on the bottom.The average dairy cow produces seven gallons of milk a day.
  
• An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows.



• Your bacon and egg breakfast, glass of milk at lunch, and hamburger for supper were produced with corn.

Welcome!

Enjoy learning about the exciting adventures of the country life!