Day 2: Hay is not just for horses

I've given a lot of presentations to community groups in non-farming areas.  I once got interrupted & asked "What is hay?".  I have always said there is no such thing as a stupid question, and this one isn't so I thought I'd try to answer it.
Hay is a feedstock made from a plant of some type (typically alfalfa, but it can also be grass, oats, or other small forages).  It goes through a process that can take up to 4 days depending on how wet the crop is when cut, hence, the saying "make hay while the sun shines".
First, it is cut using a mower that cuts the alfalfa plant down to within a couple inches from the ground:

Then, if it is to be baled, it is allowed to dry for a day or two, and then raked into a pile:

Then, baled into any one of 3 different shapes - small squares (we stopped using these a couple years ago, so I don't have any pictures handy, but picture the small bales of straw - which is the subject of day 3's post - that people have outside their houses as decor right now), large squares, or round bales like this one:

Brent standing on a round bale as a kid

And, fed to animals for food.

 

We may take as many as 5 cuttings off a single field of alfalfa in any summer, about 3-4 weeks apart as the plant regrows.  Alfalfa is a perennial plant, and so we are able to repeat this for 3-4 years.  The plant will continue to grow for longer, but imagine like your yard - it eventually gets crabgrass and dandelions growing in it, and so we will cultivate the field and plant another crop (usually corn) for at least a year before returning it to alfalfa.

Check out more "30 days" blogs at My Generation.

Day 1: A Dirty Laundry Room

Ok, this is something that is found in nearly every house I'm sure, but ours is made much more so by the addition of nearly 200 washcloth-sized towels needing to be washed every day.

Every cow comes in the parlor, needing to have her udder cleaned before the milking machine is attached.  We do our best to keep the barn as clean as possible, but they are cows, and they do get dirty.  We use towels, one for each cow, each milking (hence the nearly 200 towels - 100 cows twice a day).  These towels must be washed before being used again, creating the buildup in the laundry room.  We used to use disposable paper towels (just like the brown paper towels in most school washrooms), but we found that not only do these create less trash, but they are cheaper because they last longer, and they are nicer (aka softer) for the cows.  A box of towels will last us about 5 years.  We demote old towels to rags or wrappings for injured cows' feet, so nothing goes to waste.

We work hard to make sure that the milk you drink is as clean as possible as it leaves the cow, regardless of the udder mess it makes of our laundry room.

(The brown wall color was a conscience choice for this room!)    

Check out other "30 days" bloggers by linking up with the idea women, Holly Spangler of Farm Progress's My Generation blog.

30 Days of "What's That?"

I will write about weird stuff....stuff many of you have never seen, as well as showing some of those things you may have "heard" about, but don't really understand.  There is a multitude of these things on the farm, and so I will try to explain why we have different tools (and maybe I'll throw a few recipes in to explain what cut of meat we are using).

May the interesting stuff we find around the house be of interest to you in the coming month!

May 30 Days of "What's That?" begin!

Back from Leave.....

I'm guessing you are aware of why there hasn't been a post in over a month, but I'm back from Maternity Leave from the blog, and will be trying to post more regularly as Ainsley is sleeping in my lap (she finds my blogging boring I guess!).
Some catchup:
-We finished corn silage the day before Ainsley was born. (Thank Goodness!)

-We spent 4 days in the hospital (41 hours of labor, 4 hours of pushing) awaiting her arrival and recovering from said marathon labor (I know there are those who have had worse, but believe me, it was discussed on more than one occasion how much easier this is in the animal world!).  On September 15, we were blessed with a baby girl - Ainsley Rae Pollard - 7 lbs, 14 oz.  We are adjusting pretty well, and I'm anxious to get back into the barn (anybody know of a monitor that has greater than a 2000' range?  - I can make it to the corner of the bull pen & the edge of the heifer barn, but not to the parlor or the calf barn to actually do any choring, and Ainsley thinks milking time is eating time)

-Harvest is nearly over....in fact all the crops on the farm near the dairy are gone

-My grandpa passed away (that will be another blog when I have a box of Kleenex nearby)

-There has been lots of events about agriculture in the news - here and here

I am committing myself to join in Holly Spangler's blog series for November and am debating between 30 days of Pork, Beef & Dairy Recipes (pretty self-explanatory as I experiment with new recipes since I'm actually in the house to make supper, at least when someone cooperates, or dishes that can be prepared one-handed) or What's That?, a pictorial display & explanation of various tools, equipment & "stuff" on the farm that many people do not know about, as I've been asked many questions through the years that makes me go - "Oh, Yeah.  If you didn't grow up on a farm, you probably wouldn't know the difference between hay and straw." or a multitude of other objects.

Any preferences?

The Card is Hung....

The pig people are already giggling at this reference, but if you're not a person who has hung or looked at a lot of sow cards in your life, let me explain.  You may wonder how in the world on farms with lots of animals (several of the farms I work with typically have between 2000-3000 sows (mamas) on the farm at any one time), farmers are able to keep track of which sows are due to farrow (have babies) when.  Well, that is where computers and ear tags and an organizational system come in handy.  Each sow is kept with a group within the barn, that corresponds to the week she was bred, and therefore, everyone in the group will all have babies at approximately the same time.  (Let's just say that pigs are a little more predictable than people - as I am now +5 days past my due date!)

Each sow has a card hung above her stall that records all her vital information (like the computer that it seems like 4 people log on to to ask me the same 5 questions every week for the last month at my OB appointments), and then when she gets moved to the farrowing house, she gets a new card that is ready to record all the information from the new litter of pigs:  when they were born, how many were born, were any transferred to another litter, as well as all of her past history:  how many litters has she had?  how many pigs did she have in each litter?  did she have any previous problems that those assisting need to be aware of?  It's really pretty similar to people.  Each sow is monitored every 15 minutes during farrowing to make sure that things are progressing smoothly, and they are assisted when necessary.

Sows are kept with their babies for ~3 weeks at which time the piglets are weaned from the sow and moved to another farm, where they start a diet based mainly on corn and soybean meal, as well as other vitamins & minerals.  The pig's gut changes at this time to be ready for the new diet.  This may seem early, but a pig will naturally wean itself by ~5 weeks anyway, and the ~3 week time frame is an optimum for both sow and piglets for their future health. 

My "group" is fairly large with few slots available in the "farrowing room" right now, so we continue in a holding pattern until Baby Pollard decides to make their debut!



A Different Kind of Recipe....

So, I haven't blogged in awhile, but that doesn't mean that there has been a lull in things happening on the farm.  In fact, it's been the exact opposite, and as we are down to the wire (6 days to go!), we are trying to get ahead on as much as possible.  We also finished 5th cutting hay this week, and we recently ran out of last year's corn silage, which means that Brent is "green chopping" (chopping directly from the field daily enough to feed the cows) until we start corn silage in soon.....  That means that we are working on a variety of projects, including cleaning and remodeling the calf nursery to prepare for over 20 cows due to calve in October, and the calf barn is nearly full as it is!  We just hit calf #39 for the year, and Brent predicts that we'll hit 60 before the year is out.  Therefore, there are a LOT of mamas due in this fall, and we want to make sure we are prepared for them, and any problems that may arise.  As, I am also working to reclaim the 2nd car side of our garage (there are some problem-causers around the area, so even locked vehicles outside make me nervous), these 2 goals coincide.

So, the other night I measured out sick cow meds.  These are packets of different vitamin & minerals (Mg, Na, K, Ca, Cl), along with yeast cultures, alfalfa meal, and other "goodies" that should make a sick cow feel better.  We mix it with 5 to 10 gallons of fresh warm water, and give it to cows that aren't starting off well.  If she feels better, and we can get the good bugs in her rumen off to a good start, she'll eat more, and recover from calving faster - which is better for her and for us, as she is healthier, she'll produce more milk, and be ready to calve again next year.  We worked with our veterinarian on the "recipe" we use to mix up the packets, so that they include everything that the cow would need, and this way, they are already preweighed out & ready to go, so we can deal with any problems quickly when necessary.
So, here is to several more nights of productive preparation!  We finally have a stocked frig and empty evenings, since we've only be home together at night 3 times in the past 3 weeks, so looking forward to some more rest & relaxation, but then there are always cows to take care of.....

Through a Different Lens....

http://www.watchusgrow.org/_blog/Illinois_Farm_Families_Blog/post/Through_a_different_lens/

Check out my blog on the Illinois Farm Families website, and the Bertelsen Family 1983 Christmas card, and my 2 "babysitters" when I was little!