Always Improving

Here I am working on a research project
 to help increase growth rates of calves.

"Simply doing what the previous generation did will not keep the farm competitive in the long run." Nor will it produce enough to feed the world's growing population. To me, this quote, taken from my Farm and Ranch Management class book entitled Farm Management by Kay, Edwards, and Duffy, really speaks to todays generations, both on the farm and off.

On the farm, we sometimes like to get stuck in our ways, getting in the mindset that it has always worked so why wouldn't it keep working. But we must challenge ourselves to keep striving for better. To keep pushing the limits of what we know and the success of our farms. Agriculture as a whole has made huge improvements over the years and many farmers have taken great advantage of this. I just wanted to post this to remind us to keep striving and improving.

Off the farm, this can remind each person who eats or wears clothes, that farmers must keep improving, like the rest of our lives. Our cows can't walk out to the pasture each day like they did on my grandpa's farm, but our cows can produce 1/3 more milk per day in a comfy barn.

A Calf Story: Robert Joseph



Robert Joseph, just one day old.



This is the story of how Robert Joseph can to be in this world. It starts out the same as any story, a heifer who's just living her life to the fullest; eating, sleeping, training with her handler, and of course traveling the county going to shows, like any show heifer does. Until one day, the farmer thinks, "I bet she would make a great addition to my milking herd, I should breed her." So that night the farmer opens up her Stud Book, to pick out a very nice bull for her young star, Bobbie Jo. After looking through almost the entire book, she is about to give up, thinking that no bull is good enough for her hefier, when she stumbles across Man-O-Man. This bull has it all, the ease of calving, the high production of milk, and the looks; everything she was hoping for for her dazzling heifer. The next day, the breeder comes by with a straw of Man-O-Man for Bobbie Jo. And it must have been a match made in heaven because she took the first time, to the farmers delight.

Bobbie Jo at the county fair.

Over the next couple months, Bobbie started to put on some weight, was eating like a horse, and her udder started to form, her body was getting ready to join the milking force. Throughout the whole nine month gestation, everything was on track for Bobbie and things were looking great. But just like in humans, sometimes cows have trouble during labor, as was the case for Bobbie Jo. Lucky for Bobbie, farmers take amazing care of their cows, and the vet was called once the problems started to arise. Turns out Robert Joseph was just a little too big for his mother, but with a little help, he came out with no problem. After that, the farmer and vet noticed that Bobbie wasn't feeling well, she had an infection in her udder, called mastitis. But after a little medicine from the vet, she is feeling great and happy to be apart of the great milking team that is helping feed the nation, definitely worth giving up her crazy heifer ways.

As for Robert Joseph, he is in his own hutch, where he gets milk twice a day, and has grain and water all the time. Here he will live, until he is about a month old, then he gets to move in with others his age, like going to school. He as a very fun near future ahead of him.



Bobbie Jo at work, milking like the great cow she is!



FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: GRANDMA

At the ripe old age of 12, grandma cow just had her 10th calf, and her first heifer, and that is why she is my featured cow of the week. In her lifetime, she has produced 232,153 lbs of milk with 7,767 lbs of fat and 6,453 lbs of protein. She is the oldest cow on the farm, but doesn't show it. Her udder still is not the lowest on the farm and she moves pretty good for a cow of her age. The only thing is she moves a little slower because she knows we will let her go nice and slow.

A cow living to 12 is becoming more and more rare. But grandma cow is still doing well. Her ear tag number is 93, and we have heifers coming into the barn now after their first calf at 370s. And she still produces well, her last lactation produced 28,847 and she peaked at 117. Her average milked produced in a day is 81 pounds since she was 2 years old.

Her sire is Convincer and the sire to her newest calf is Toy Story. We were so happy when we found out that she had a heifer, having a cow with such great longevity is a fantastic grate.

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: THE BEAST

If you are active in the twitter world, you might know of the hashtag beast mode. This is a phrased used for when one is always at the top of their game, cannot be stopped, and draws the attention of everyone around them. This describes 106, "the beast," in our barn. She is a big girl and one of the oldest cows on the farm. She produces 109 pounds per day and is always in beast mode.

When this cow walks into the barn you cannot miss her; she commands the attention of everyone in the room. She has her spot, and NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, can go in her spot. If someone does manage to sneak into that spot, she will wait patiently for you to move them out, then she will saunter into the spot with grace and ease. She will get this spot no matter what and will not even think of going anywhere else. She's a big girl with an attitude and that is why she is my featured cow of the week.

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: OUR BULLS

This weeks featured cow of the week is going to be all the bulls that help out with our farm.

We usually use AI, artificial insemination, on our farm. We do this for many reasons. One is because of its convenience. All we have to do is have a tank to hold the semen straws, and then when a cow is in heat (aka ovulating) we will AI her with the bull that fits her best. Another reason is to prevent in-breeding. Because we only need to semen straw, we could breed our cows with bulls from all over the world. Where if you only have a couple bulls, you may need to worry about crossing breeding lines. A third reason is safety. Bulls are dangerous animals, especially Holstein bulls are known for their aggression. If we use AI, no bulls will be needed on the farm. One of Cindy's favorite bulls is Jeeves, from ABS.



Jeeves

We do also have a herd bull. We use him to help breed the heifers that we could not get with AI, it can be hard to get some heifers bred with AI because it is only done once and there is always room for human error. We will put her out with the herd bull and he will do the job. To help keep our farm safe, we only have a young bull, usually sell them by at least 4 years of age, we also keep the nicest one.

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: SUGAR BELL

This weeks featured cow of the week is Sugar Bell. Her story is also a unique one on the farm. She was originally a cow on Cindy and Ray's daughter's farm, but for right now, Katie gave Sugar Bell to her mom and dad. She showed up as a dry cow (a cow that is not milking because she is on her two month break between lactations,) with a bell on her neck, hence her name Sugar Bell.

Here is a close up on her bell.

Sugar Bell had a calf on June 18th, a beautiful little bull calf, who Cindy is thinking about keeping for the herd bull (a bull who we keep on the farm to breed the cows that we cannot with AI, I will go more in depth about herd bulls next week.)

I now get the opportunity to milk her everyday. She is a very nice cow, enjoys a good petting, and she even can be led on a halter. Soon you will be able to see more pictures of her because Sugar Bell will be the cow I will take a picture with for my top 12 Princess Kay of the Milky Way article in the Agrinews.

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: PATCH

Patch hanging out in the barn.

I knew Patch produced a lot of milk, but when gathering information for this blog post, I figured out just how much she produces, A TON OF MILK! Meet Patch the best producing cow on the farm. She is six years of age and this will most likely be her best lactation, but it'll be tough to beat her last one, which was 38,468, having 1,435 in fat and 1,196 in protein.

In one milking, Patch produces almost as much milk as the average cow. In one day, Patch gives 160 LBS!!! Thats 70 lbs more than the average cow. She is ranked 115 in the herd index, anything over 100 is good. Patch not only produces the most milk in the herd, she is also one of the tallest cows in the herd and has very unique 'patches' of black hair all over her mostly white body.

This week Patch is the cow of the week not because she is the friendlist cow, or a farm favorite, but because she works extremely hard every single day to give the most milk that she possibly can. She is smart about balancing her time between eating, drinking, sleeping, getting in some good exercise, and socializing with other cows. Patch is a perfect example for all of us, if we eat the right foods (especially dairy products), get enough sleep, get outside and be active and still hang out with friends and family, we can give our all at everything just like Patch does.

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: DANCE.



Dance eating with her friends outside on a beautiful day.

Dance's story is a remarkable one. When others had given up on her, she stayed strong. She kept getting pneumonia and this time she'd been down and not milking for two weeks. She wasn't the only one fighting for her life, the local vet didn't want to give up on Dance, so he gave Ray and Cindy a visit explaining Dance's situation and that besides her sickness, she was a beautiful cow. Cindy said they would gladly take her.

The first day Dance came to Ray and Cindy's farm, she gave only 5 lbs of milk. Although Dance was very ill, she never gave up and made it through. Then on April 28th, 2011, she gave birth to a beautiful heifer, named Bobby Jo. Dance now produces about 87 lbs per day. This lactation she has produced 36,370 lbs.

Bobby Jo, Dance's daughter.



Dance is a great cow. "She's always in it for the 'Dance'" Cindy likes to say. She is one tough cookie. And thanks to Cindy's hard work of making sure she is outside during the night and inside the cool barn during those hot days, she has been pneumonia free for a year now!





*If you would like to meet Bobby Jo, she will be at the beginning of the Dakota County Fair this year in August.



FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: HOT DOG

Hot Dog with Rachel Schroder after receiving Reserve Champion at the regional show when she was just a heifer.

She received 4th place at the state fair our of 40 calves, she milks about 109 pounds per day, and her name is Hot Dog. Hot Dog's registered name is CinRay Toy Story Party Girl, but as a calf she had a wiener belly and the name Hot Dog stuck. She actually responds to her name when called. Hot Dog has been milking for 49 days this lactation (one lactation is the 9 or 10 months that a cow milks, then after she has another calf she starts another lactation.) This is her third lactation and she is expected to produce 27,101 pounds!!

Hot Dog looking up from her morning snack for a picture.

Hot Dog had a heifer calf (a girl) on March 28th of this year. Her name is CinRay Armitage Adell. Adell is being apart of a Genomic Test. A hair sample was taken from her and is being tested to see her value. We rarely do this on the farm, but Adell's mother is such a good cow that Cindy and Ray decided to do it.

Adell posing for the camera.

Hot Dog also has another daughter named Velvet (CinRay Jetstream Velvet) and she is going to have her first calf soon this year. She was bred to Mayfield, a very popular bull right now.



Hot Dog is a favorite on the farm. She loves a good petting whenever anyone walks by. And you can't miss that almost heart on her forehead, making her even easier to love.

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: LEXI

Black and white, black and white, all over our barn it is just black and white cows, but then you get to one of two milking Red Holsteins, Lexi! Lexi is this weeks featured cow of the week! Her full name is Gordies Advent Lexi. Lexi lives on the farm where I milk. Her owners are Ray and Cindy Deutsch. She used to live on a neighboring farm, but they were selling their cows and Cindy couldn't let this beautiful cow go to another farm, so she bought her in August of this year. In September, Cindy bred her to Satchel, a red bull.

Lexi smiling for the camera!

On May 22, exactly a week ago, Lexi had a beautiful heifer (a young female), she was named Fireside. Her full name is CinRay Satchel Fireside. Fireside is now the fourth Red Holstein in the herd.



Lexi's baby girl Fireside.

Lexi is not just a pretty face, she works hard too! She milks about 80 pounds of milk, every single day (with a two month vacation before she has her calf.) When she is not milking, she enjoys eating TMR (total mixed ration, which has all the nutrients she needs and tastes good too,) napping in the barn at night and also outside during the day, she likes drinking lots of water and hanging out with her friends.



Cindy and Lexi

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: BESSIE

Bessie at the County Fair.

FEATURED COW OF THE WEEK: BESSIE

Bessie and I at the Minnesota State Fair.

Bessie was born on July 28th, 2010, Therefore she is almost two years of age. Her mom's herd number is 331, but her name is Sweety. Her dad is Satire. She is pregnant, due to have a calf on July 29th of this year.

Bessie spends her days eating grass in the pasture and her nights eating hay by the barn.

She is a show cow, so in the summer she and I get to work together everyday on how to walk like she's beautiful and how to stand like any proper lady should. It take lots of time and effort from her to be a good enough show cow to go to the Minnesota State Fair.

Why I love cows.

I love cows because they are beautiful, extremely efficent creatures. They work very hard each day to produce a high-quality product, milk. Their lives consist of eating and drinking as much as they want, hanging out with friends in perfect temperatures in the barn, and taking naps when they’re tired; they love their jobs, just like their farmers do. If you keep reading this blog I will go more in depth on these great animals and their owners, like myself!