Back with a Theme - 30 Days of COWS!

Ok, so since Ainsley got tall enuf to reach the keyboard & mouse; blogging (or anything computer related) came to pretty much a screeching halt, but we are back with a theme to join in on the 30 days of blogging in November.
What else would we talk about besides.....COWS!


Their quirks, interesting stories, all the things that make them individuals and let us identify them from the "business" end.  I once read an editorial about a new dairy that was being built in a neighboring county.  It was a "factory farm" according to the writers and the cows were nothing but "robots with interchangeable parts".  I've used this statement many times to tell consumers that if they are robots with interchangeable parts, I would LOVE to know where the parts store is, as I would be a frequent customer (for some reason rear feet seem to be the issue of the week).  If I could just replace the cows, it would be easy, it would make it easy to just go to bed and not haul feed and water to Jelly who survived a bout of milk fever last week to be in the barn again for her 4th lactation or Lucke who seems to have a catastrophe every time she calves, but somehow, with a lot of TLC comes out of it.  But, we can't just go out and replace them.  It takes a lot of time, money, and blood, sweat & tears to get these cows in to the milking herd.  It takes years of genetics and decisions and work to get them to this point.  The farmers in South Dakota are realizing that you can't just go out & buy cows to replace ones lost in the Atlas Blizzard, and it is the same with our herd.  And there are cows without names, just #'s, and they are no less important to our farm.  In fact, they are usually the ones that make the milk that pays the bills, and just go about their business without all the fuss.  Our farm has 98 cows on it right now, along with about that many heifers and calves.  I'm going to profile 30 of them - their full name, what we call them, their age and # of calves, info on how much milk they give, and anything interesting about them.  If our farm had 3,000 cows, I'd be able to profile cows for 365 days without thinking too hard.  I made my list up in the parlor tonite, and since it is still November 1 - this counts for starting.
Meet the herd @ Po-Cop Dairy!

Day 1:  The Highest Scored Cow - Lucke
Day 2:  The Oldest Cow - #864


Join in with other bloggers on My Generation

Hurry Up & Wait....

And then run like mad.....

And then wait again.  And then, try to run, but breakdown, and then run like mad, get "just bout done", get soaking wet, and then wait again.  This has been the story of our Memorial Day weekend/week.

The alfalfa is planted (this should have been done way back in early April, but didn't get done until mid-May due to the late spring).
The corn & beans are planted.  This went fairly smoothly, and most are out of the ground already.

Now, its time to do hay, but the weather is not cooperating.  Haylage (anything with "-lage" just virtually means chopped up, so in this case chopped up hay) makes up almost 40% of our ration that we feed to our cows, so it is pretty important to get this done in a timely fashion.  Luckily, we still have haylage from last year, so our cows have plenty to eat, but everyday we wait to get the new crop in, the poorer quality it is.  You see, hay is not just hay.  We test our haylage frequently throughout the year to see what nutrients are available for the cows.  Brent and our nutritionist run this info through a computer program to tell us what nutrients we are missing, and then our feed company makes a custom supplement that we add to the total mixed feed ration (TMR) to make sure our cows have all the necessary nutrients.  If our haylage is better quality, containing more nutrients, we need less of, and less expensive supplement.  This is good for us financially, and good for the cows in that they get to eat the "real thing" instead of synthetic.  There has been lots of research done on the optimal time to harvest alfalfa, and that is when the the quality, which deteriorates as the crop grows, meets the quantity necessary to make it worthwhile to harvest and regrow another crop.  This is usually just as/before the plant starts to bud.
   Chopping alfalfa for haylage is a process that requires 2-3 days of dry weather.  We thought we had this necessary break last Friday thru Sunday.  So, we mowed the hay Friday morning, but alas, Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday turned out to be cool, and while not exactly wet, not exactly dry either.  Some light rain came & answered the question for sure Sunday night that we wouldn't be chopping on Monday.  And, so the hay sat, and sat, and sat.  This isn't good for the hay itself, which is sitting outside losing nutrients, nor is it good for the next crop of hay where the pile of hay is laying on top of it in the field, waiting to dry.
  Some wind and heat came along Tues & Wed.  Wednesday at noon I got a text from Brent, "We are chopping today".  WHAT!  Shocked, I scrambled home early.  Gail & I milked cows, while Warren & Brent chopped.  Then Grandma sat with Ainsley while I helped haul in.  Around 10 pm, we called it quits,

 Brent finishes packing the last load with the skidloader in the dark

but with a 70% chance of rain that night, we made sure to cover the bunker with plastic to prevent it getting wet. 
If you ever want it to rain - bait it - mow hay, leave feed bin lids open (this was done a LOT last summer in hopes of rain).  If you don't want it to rain - prepare - cover piles of hay, etc.  So, of course, we awoke to no rain on Thursday morning - while we were glad, we were a little annoyed that we went to the extra work of covering things, just to uncover it again the next morning. 
Brent & Warren finished chopping the 1st field, raked and started on the 2nd.  I came home at 1, changed, and was about to jump on the tractor when I noticed there were too many tractors in the barnyard.  The chopper tractor was backed up to the shop; uh-oh.  What was thought to be a simple fix was not, and required a trip for parts, and didn't get back up & going until milking time.  So again, Gail & I milked cows while Warren & Brent chopped.  As we watched the storm that missed us the night before get closer & closer, we all went fast & faster.  3 loads of hay were still in the wagons as the skies opened up and started to pour.  The bunker got covered as fast as we could, so hopefully, we saved as many nutrients as possible for our cows for the next year.  There are still another 25 acres of hay to go yet just for 1st crop, so let's hope we can get a real 3 days of dry weather in succession in order to finish this up, with a little less waiting and wondering - it's rains havoc on scheduling. 

And, while we are thinking about - please be careful with equipment on the road!

What's For Dinner...I Say Beeeeeeef

Brent uses this (a lot) to entertain Ainsley, and that's been necessary as we have all been spending nights out in the barn milking.  Thank goodness for a solid week of good weather, allowing us to get almost everything planted.  However, it's left us pretty tuckered out, and not a lot of time to make supper.  Enter in one of the kitchen's most wonderful inventions - the crockpot.
I was asked to write about different cuts of meat, and how they are getting a new labeling system for Illinois Farm Families.  Overall, if its from the loin - grill it; if it's from the shoulder or rump - low & slow, and these short ribs also fall into "low & slow", as they have lots of bone and some fat on them.  It's a pretty easy meal to come back to at the end of a long day and get an actual meal to keep you going during these long weeks.
 
Korean-Style Short Ribs
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. light brown sugar
2 T sesame oil
2 T rice vinegar
2 T fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (I only use a pinch)
5# beef short ribs
1 1/2 c. shredded carrots
For garnish:  sesame seeds & green onions
Serve over rice

Blend 1st 7 ingredients to make sauce.  Place ribs in slow cooker, and pour sauce over.  Cook on high for 6 hours or low for 9 hours, or until meat will start to fall off the bones.  Skim & discard any fat from the sauce, and pour the liquid into a saucepan.  Add 3 T cornstarch & 3 T water, and bring to boil for 2 minutes to thicken  Stir in carrots.  Serve over rice, add ribs, cover with sauce & garnish as desired.

We enjoy it!

Da-Licious Pork Goodness

I spent the last two Saturdays in the Chicagoland area, helping promote ground pork to customers at Dominick's stores.  Many people gave me a "A What?  What's a "porkburger"?.  I've never heard of ground pork.  When you grow up on a hog farm, you never think of something like that.  Of course there is always ground pork in the freezer....seriously, you've never even heard of it?

It typically only finds its way into recipes like Ham Balls or meatloaf, but ground pork is a very versatile meat that can be used in most any recipe in the place of ground beef (or, something I have never tried, but I saw a lot of in shopping carts, ground chicken or turkey).  In honor of two weekends spent mastering the interstate tollways (which on a Saturday morning were really not that bad, or I'm just finally getting used to it), here is another great ground pork recipe.
Go to Da-Burger.com to get your $1 off coupon!

Teriyaki Pork Sliders
4 oz. mushrooms, sliced
2 scallions, cut-up
2 t. ginger
1 lb. ground pork
1/4 c. teriyaki sauce
1/4 c. bread crumbs
1/4 c. mayo
1/4 t. sugar
1 t. teriyaki sauce
1 pkg. Hawaiian rolls

Directions:  Combine 1st 6 ingredients & form into sliders.  Cook using broiler, saute pan, or grill.  Heat rolls.  Make seasoned mayo by combining sugar, mayo & 1 t. teriyaki sauce.  Garnish sliders with seasoned mayo & additional scallions.

Ground Pork is sold in most stores today.  If you don't see it, ask for it!

Sorry, I haven't made them in awhile (hmmm...inspiration), so you'll have to make do with the pic from the recipe, but they really do turn out looking this good too!

Another thing that struck me is that I am truly blessed to have access to all the protein I might want.  I came to realize after about the fourth person who told me their "freezer was full", that probably all most people have is the top of the frig type freezer, and not an entire deep freeze full of beef & pork in the garage.  While inspiration may not always come to me, there is always protein in the freezer to make a healthy, delicious supper for my family....speaking of which......

Tag - You're It!

Recently, we feel like we are playing a big game of tag, especially on the weekends.  My roommates in college and I used to have a saying, "Ready, Set....NAP!", as we were 4 pretty busy people, and so when we got a chance (say from 12:30-12:40 after lunch and before we had to leave for a 1 o'clock class) to get a quick power nap in, we took it.  We'd set the egg timer, turn the lights off, and curl up on different corners of the bunk beds. 
At our house, we're finally getting some kind of a schedule; a reliable 8+ hours of sleep, and usually a decent afternoon nap.  We measure naptime not necessarily in hours, but in how many cows' feet can we get fixed, or how many heifers we can get rearranged.  We've learned that if there is something to be done, you need to be semi-organized and ready to hit the door as soon as she goes down, so that you have maximum time outside to accomplish tasks. 
Last weekend felt like a big game of tag as Gail was gone with the Holstein juniors for their Spring Thing event.  Gail has been coaching dairy bowl for a LONG time, which is to say that she has forgotten more random Holstein dairy facts than many of us will ever know (trust me, her son is absolutely brimming with these little tidbits)!  So, this is the weekend that the local kids actually got to compete against kids from around the state.  That also meant, the calf caretaker was gone, and we had to fill in.  Brent & I seemed to go back and forth from the house to take turns with Ainsley and get the chores done in between.  By Sunday morning I finally felt like I had a system down (and had remembered how to get up early enough so that I could get everything done before somebody woke up).  

 But, she's always SO happy when she wakes up!

I really have lots of good posts saved up, so you'll get a few when the year's meetings come to a close, and I quit going to bed with stories of pig closeouts in my head!  Here's hoping that the white Shorthorn heifer that Brent has been promising me arrives soon (but really not tonite - I'm not sure what equipment I'd have to dig out from the snow to get her moved).

In the meantime, let's think spring!

A Great Valentine's Day

No suprises, no fancy supper, no jewelry or flowers.  We've never been that type, and that's just fine by me.  I'm perfectly happy that when I found a newborn heifer calf late at night, that you would climb out of bed, put on your Carhartt's, and meet me in the barn for drying off, bedding in, vaccinating, and getting colostrum to a newborn calf.

Lots of things are different from when we were in college:

-I never thought in a million years that I would own my own pair of white jeans.
-I never knew Brent could be such a good pig snarer.

And, many things haven't:
- We can be ready to leave the house in 10 minutes
- Farming, and specifically livestock, is who we are & what we do

 And, a Valentine's gift of helping save a calf, is a perfect gift!

Traditions

So, 30 days of blogging in November wore me out, and December was filled with some pretty serious colds for all of us (thankfully, Ainsley's was minimal & short-lived).  However, back to a New Year with new stuff on the farm & in life.
As I slowly work to take down the Christmas decorations, I am reminded all of the traditions & history that go with some of the decorations.  Two, in particular, are special to me in our house. 

 This is my generational stocking.  Grandma made one from each grandchild, and it incorporates things from multiple generations.  Mine is made out of a velveteen vest that my mom wore, and is decorated with trimmings and lace from a great-great aunt?  (I even called Grandma to confirm this tonite, and I think I'm off a great or two yet-oh, well - It's the thought that counts).  My brother's is made out of the jacket from my grandmother's wedding dress, and has pieces of lace from my mom's wedding dress.  Ainsley's is still a work in progress, but thus far is made out of my mom's blue pigskin jacket, trimmed with material from my 4-H sewing project, and several other objects, some yet to be determined.  I've got a LONG ways to go before I have to make these, but I even looked at my old high school letter jacket in the closet when I was home, and went "hmm....."

Another favorite in my house is the "Moving the Bear" on the Christmas countdown calendar.  This was something my brother & I fought over whose turn it was to move the bear, and I swiped it from my parent's house a few years ago so I could have it here.  Brent learned in no uncertain terms that he was not allowed to move the bear.  This year, Ainsley & I moved the bear everyday when we got home from the sitters, and hopefully she'll enjoy moving it over the years.

Traditions are important....traditions are the stuff memories are made of.  Cows don't always cooperate with traditions.  I was able to go to Christmas Eve service for the first time in close to 10 years (4:30 & 11 pm services don't exactly jive with a milking schedule at 5 PM & 6 AM) this year, and thoroughly enjoyed it; though I did forego the candle lighting.....holding a squirmy 3 month old & hot wax don't mix!  When we were supposed to leave for a family Christmas; Brent went out to feed cows.  He came in about an hour later with a "I have no idea when we'll be able to leave - the chain broke on the silo unloader, and we have to deal with it now so the silage doesn't freeze in the hole & prevent us from feeding cows till it thaws".  (Thankfully, Warren & Brent got the hole cleared in good time)
Some traditions I could live without.....