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!
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