All in the Family

For quite a while we’ve been tossing around the idea of registering some of our cows.  Some breeders venture into the world of registered Holsteins by purchasing heifers or cows that are already registered.  We’ve talked about that, but for now, that’s not something we’re too interested in.  Instead, we hope to register some of our best.  We’ve always been a purebred Holstein dairy, and we already use registered bulls for our AI breeding program, so not much will change in our genetics except now there will be an official record.

We haven’t registered anything yet, but we did take the first step in the process by joining the Holstein Association and reserving our prefix.  Registered cattle all have names.  Their names each start with their breeders’ prefix.  We took the obvious route when naming our dairy (Heim Dairy Farm), so our choice of prefix may surprise you.  Each breeder must have a unique prefix, so we were relieved to find that Stellamaris was available – we already had our hearts set on it. 

A couple of heifers strolling along the shore of Lake Stellamaris this winter.

Those of you who know us personally likely know that David’s family owns a fishing lake (roughly 60 acres).  The lake was built by his grandpa and great uncle in 1960, and the property borders the farm we live on, which was then owned by his grandparents. The lake is commonly referred to as “Heim Lake”; however, the official name is Lake Stellamaris.  David’s great grandma (the builders’ mother) was named Stella, and we aren’t sure where the “maris” came from, but a quick Google search tells me that “Stella Maris” is an ancient title for the Virgin Mary.  Given the family’s Catholic faith, this is likely related. Regardless, the lake is important to our family and has traditionally been the site of family events (including our second wedding reception because we were married in Illinois). Stellamaris also happens to sound nice at the front of a cow’s name – when considering a prefix, it seemed like an obvious choice. 

In the last few weeks we’ve also taken a little bit of time to examine our herd records and identify specific cows we would like to register.  We were looking not only for a great cow, but a great cow with great daughters who could form our first cow family, and hopefully be a great foundation to continue to build our herd upon.  As we looked through our records, that family became clear.  In fact, a few members of this family have already graced this blog.

According to David, one of the best cows we have from the original herd is number 929.  Amazingly, 929 has also had 5 heifer calves, and we still have three of these daughters.  One, number 1108, had her first calf this spring and is one of our favorite 1st lactation cows.  She is a Geneva daughter, and her calf is a heifer by Boliver (number 1205).  You may have seen this pair in this post & video about a calve’s first few hours. We were excited to discover that 1147, who is breeding age now, is also a Geneva x 929, and we now have pretty high hopes for her.  And last fall, 929 had her fifth calf and fifth heifer: number 1194 by Abraham.

Cow number 1108 the morning she freshened, with her heifer calf, number 1205.

We haven’t figured out the exact registration process, but we’ve determined that we’d like this to be our first registered cow family.  As we work through this process, we’ll be sure to keep you updated on our progress and the official names of our animals.

AI Breeding Goals

If you know me well, or follow me on twitter, you probably know that I put a lot into our breeding program.  I spend a lot of time selecting bulls to purchase semen from and carefully mating each cow and heifer to the best bull for her.  If you want to know more about AI, Ryan Goodman wrote a great post including an explanation of the process.

Breeding is important, but it really doesn’t matter what you breed a cow to if she doesn’t get pregnant. Last spring, we started using blood tests to confirm pregnancies. Since then we’ve tweaked our protocol to best suit our herd’s needs.  Our milk hauler picks up our blood samples, and I am usually home on Sundays to draw blood, so every other Sunday, when our milk will be picked up on a Monday morning, I take blood samples from cows and heifers that were bred between 8 and 10 weeks prior who have not shown a heat since.  The test can indicate pregnancy at 28 days, but we were observing a lot of heats just shortly after testing, and about a month after testing, when we were testing earlier.  We’ve been on the every-other week at 8 weeks bred schedule for 3 or 4 months now, and have had very few come back in heat after being confirmed pregnant.

This little gal (who is not this little any more) is from one of the cows I personally bred, which is a very cool feeling. She’s out of the bull Boliver, who happens to be one of the few proven bulls we were using last year.

Several weeks ago we wrapped up pregnancy confirmations on all our cows and heifers that were bred in 2012. We tallied everything up, and here’s what we learned:

Conception

We started out the year with great conception – about 60%. Then we had two unexplainably terrible months in March and April. Summer brought normal lulls due to heat, but was still better than March or April. After the heat subsided and the herd adjusted, we finished the year with solid conception and a lot of pregnancies, including several cows who were on their final attempts. Next fall may be busier than this one was.

Sire Selection

We used a lot of bulls – 34 total. Of many of these, we only used one or two straws as we were finishing a cane (the typical semen storage vessel, each holding 10 straws) as the year started or starting one as it ended.  But, we were also only purchasing 10 units of most bulls. This wasn’t exactly unintentional. We were using mostly genomic bulls (the numbers come from DNA testing rather than daughter-proven performance), and since the technology is new, we like to balance our risk by using a variety. However, on paper, it was a little shocking,.  We also hadn’t realized how few daughter-proven bulls we included in the mix.

Lessons Learned

The excitement of genomics apparently went to our heads. We used 10 units of a sire named G W Atwood who has the show-rings buzzing with his fancy daughters, but in hindsight, that’s one of the worst investments we made.  Don’t get me wrong, Atwood daughters are beautiful cows, but many are too tall for our stalls and less efficient from an feed intake vs milk production standpoint than daughters of other available bulls. That’s not what we’re looking for.  Thankfully (I guess?), from the 10 units we only have two pregnancies, and they’re both short stocky old cows that should be complemented by Atwood’s dairy type, and their smaller stature will hopefully influence the stature of their potential daughters.

We also learned that conception is important. We knew this, but after the terrible time we had last spring, it really has started to hit home. One of my favorite bulls we used last year isn’t very fancy.  His production isn’t off the charts.  He’s just a decent bull, but he does his job – he gets cows bred.  We purchased Shyster for two primary reasons – 1) his pedigree is an outcross on almost everything we have (he’s not a cousin or brother to many of our cows) and 2) he was listed as a high conception bull.  I’m not sure what his overall conception rate is in our herd now, but I know he was 3 for 3 on his first three breedings including a cow and a heifer who we had already given more chances to get pregnant than most farms would.  Shyster gets cows bred, and that’s what breeding is really all about!

Moving Forward

Our biggest take-away from all the data was the need to focus on our specific goals moving forward. Our plan for 2013 is to use more units of a few carefully selected proven bulls while still mixing in a variety of genomic bulls who best fit our goals, based on both numbers and pedigree.  These steps will hopefully help us achieve the focus we feel we are lacking.

So – what are we looking for?

Our ideal cows are moderate in size, convert feed efficiently into milk, and are durable and healthy to hopefully stick around for the long haul.  In addition, we have started looking more closely at components (fat and protein), which are the portion of the milk we are actually paid for. Thankfully, components also happen to be very “heritable”, meaning that in just a few generations, they can be greatly improved.  And if the cows look gorgeous while producing gobs of milk, that’s great, too.

This calf is over a year old now, and we confirmed her bred today. She’s out of the bull Planet, who is still near the top of the proven lists, and is bred to sexed Grafeeti. We are milking two Planet cows currently, and we really like them.

And I’ll say it again, conception matters.  The best bull in the world does us no good if we don’t get cows bred.  Conception is affected by a lot of things – the cow’s feed and environment play a role along with our breeding techniques, but the semen plays a role, too.  For most bulls there is conception data of some sort available, and we intend to take advantage of it. Semen that doesn’t get cows bred is money down the drain.

Every bull doesn’t have to meet all of these criteria; we look at more than numbers.  And we do carefully mate, so we know the cow’s strengths play a role, too.  That being said, I am very picky when I select bulls. I think I should be.  These are our girls, and we have to do what’s best for them and their future daughters.  Anything less would be selling our herd, our milk check, and ourselves short.

Related articles

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It’s a Heifer! And a Bull?

Wednesday evening cow number 976 had a calf. It was a heifer. The calf was pretty small, which is generally a good thing because its easier on the cow. But this time it had us puzzled; 976 was 5 days overdue, and it’s unusual for an overdue calf to be that small. The cow was up and had cleaned the calf off, so we moved her to a hut, fed her colostrum and covered her in straw to help her keep warm. Fifteen minutes later I walked by the barn, and 976 had delivered a second calf. This one was a bull.

We were disappointed for several reasons. We never like for a cow to have twin calves because it’s tough on her. On top of that, when the twin calves are different genders, often the heifer is a freemartin. This means she has received testosterone through a shared blood stream and is infertile. A freemartin heifer appears to have the reproductive parts of a female, but she grows and behaves more like a steer (castrated bull). Not all mixed twin heifers are freemartins, though. It depends on when the embryo divides. Since we couldn’t see that, we needed another way to assess the situation.

We were aware that there were indicators that could predict if the heifer was fertile, but in the past we had just raised them and waited to find out. This is where the awesomeness that is twitter comes in. We asked a couple of friends who we thought might have experience with this, and within minutes we had a free and easy check to try. The explanation that follows isn’t dinner-table conversation for most people (it is here..), but I think it’s worth sharing.

A blood test tube we normally use for pregnancy tests.

If the heifer is a freemartin it’s likely that the length of her reproductive parts would be reduced, so we used a small blood test tube (blunt with rounded edges, so it won’t puncture or tear anything) with AI lube on it and inserted into her vulva and applied gentle pressure to see how far it would go. The tube stopped at about 2 1/4″. Based on the guidance we were given, anything over 2″ means it’s worth raising her and trying to breed her. If the tube had stopped only an inch or so in, the odds of her breeding would be very low, and we would most likely sell her as a calf. Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about that.

The twins, bull on the left, heifer on the right.

We had a beef farmer stop earlier that evening looking for a bull calf to put on a cow who had lost her calf. We didn’t have one at the time, but he was still interested a few hours later. After we fed the bull it’s colostrum that night and in the morning, we sold him to that farmer. The heifer is a lot smaller than another calf born the same day, but hopefully she’ll start catching up soon. We’ll find out for sure if she’s fertile in 12-14 months.

Related articles

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• A Calf Is Born
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Snow Day!

Last Thursday morning when we woke up there was no snow on the ground. The weather reports all said it was coming, though. Around 7 am, it started. Our employee Aaron arrived early and got the cows in and stayed to help with chores.  Between the three of us we finished all of the outdoor chores by about 11:30.  In the meantime, 8 or 10 inches of snow had piled up. This storm was no joke.

We sent Aaron home after chores, and David and I sat down to lunch around noon. The snowfall slowed, but it continued lightly for most of the afternoon. Our preparations had paid off and allowed us to get our outdoor work done early.  We had plenty of things planned to do indoors during the afternoon. Funny thing about plans, though.

About halfway through lunch David’s mom called: there were 4 Holsteins in her front yard. We thought we might take a trailer over, but thankfully, we decided to check out the roads with just a truck first. The road in front of our house was ok, but the first turn put us on a road that had been plowed and then badly drifted. The county hadn’t made it to the road his parents live on yet, and there was a big drift in front of their driveway. We made it, but we quickly realized that no trailer could make that trip, and really, we didn’t want to risk it in the truck again either. The safest option was to walk with the heifers back to our farm. So our adventure began.

The heifers darted into the woods at the first opportunity. There is a road just off to the left.

We hiked roughly 2 miles in a foot of fresh snow, through the woods, along the lake, in and out of creek beds (still dry from the drought) until we finally reached the pasture where the heifers belong. The whole way we had to guide the girls, who were clearly lost – they didn’t recognize the way back until we were very close. It was about a 2.5 hour trip. Also, I owe a huge thanks to David for taking them through the pasture to the other cows while I walked the more direct route along a dirt road back to the farm.

We took the scenic route along the lake.

The heifers weren’t sure which way to go to get home.

When he got back to the farm I was still trying to get the 4 wheeler through the drift behind it to go pick him up. We still don’t know where or why these heifers got out; they had plenty of hay where they belonged.  It was quite a journey, but we survived. And so did the heifers. An hour later we pried our tired selves off the living room floor and milked the cows and did evening chores. And neither of us accomplished any indoor work.

David and the heifers head the long way through the pasture to find the other cows.

I talked about our normal winter routine a few weeks ago, but a winter storm requires extra preparation, and even small problems can turn into big adventures. Today we prepared for another incoming winter storm. Hopefully this one will be less eventful.

Did you have a snow day this week? How did you spend it?

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Playing Favorites

You may remember my favorite cow, Sparky, from “What’s In A Name”. What makes her my favorite? Sparky is the first calf-turned-cow that I had an emotional connection to. She’s the first of many, but Sparky will always be really special to me.

Sparky (aka “The Sparkster”) hanging out in the milk lot.

Three years ago, when Sparky was about 4 months old, she got really sick with respiratory problems. We had a cold & wet winter, and a lot of calves had coughs. We treated her just like we did the others, but she continued to cough and grew thinner and weaker.

David caught her to treat her again, this time with a stronger dose, and he asked me to give the shot while he held her still. I gave the shot in her back leg just like he had shown me. She was so thin that there wasn’t much muscle, and I apparently hit a nerve. Sparky immediately stopped bearing weight on that leg, and we had to help her to a good spot to lay down. I cried. David pretended to be optimistic, but we both expected the worst.

The next morning, when David took grain to Sparky’s pen, she walked up to eat bearing weight on all four legs. We were both amazed, and she never looked back. Because of her setback we grouped her with some younger calves to give her an advantage while she recovered, and she thrived. She was ornery (she liked to knock gates open), but she was strong and healthy.

Fast-forward to Fall 2011 when Sparky had her first calf. It was a heifer out of the bull, Trigger (also one of my favorites). We named the calf Firecracker, and she’s doing great. Unfortunately, though, Sparky got a uterus infection and was really sick, and I was really worried. It was like she was 4 months old all over again. But, after treating her infection, she started putting on weight and giving milk, and a few months later she came into heat and was bred again.

This past weekend, Sparky had her second calf – another heifer! This time the calf was sired by the bull Ryker, who happens to be a half-brother to Trigger…hmm…this is starting to feel a little like a soap opera.

Anyway – obviously this calf is really special to me. And she needs a name! I’d like to name her something along the thematic lines of Sparky and Firecracker. Most dairy farmers use the same first letter for names within a family, but we already screwed that up, so give us whatever you’ve got!

Oh, and here she is:

What should we name this heifer?

Winter Workload

This week the temperature started off with a high of 75 degrees on Monday. Once it started cooling off, it apparently forgot to stop. Friday morning the temperature was right around zero.  We’re used to getting cold weather; we’ve had a couple of days with single digit lows already this year.  It’s winter, so it’s okay.

The item of note isn’t the weather, but rather, the work the weather creates.  I’ve heard it said that farmers don’t work in the winter.  Clearly, those saying such a thing aren’t referring to dairy farmers since the cows still have to be milked twice a day every day, just like they do during the other seasons.

It’s true that in the spring, summer and fall there are additional activities like planting, putting up hay, and harvesting to fill the “free time” we aren’t spending milking or doing chores.  In the winter, though, there are still other additional activities to fill our time, especially when the weather turns wet and/or cold like it did this week.

Keeping Everything Warm and Healthy

We use straw for bedding for our cows and calves, and when it’s wet or cold, we have to freshen that bedding every few days to keep everybody warm and dry. We also have to spend extra time feeding and watering.  Young calves in particular need extra attention to ensure that the weather isn’t causing any illnesses like pneumonia. Keeping things consistent for our animals is important, but unfortunately the weather is out of our control and isn’t always consistent. We give the calves a little extra to eat during cold weather, and we don’t do anything drastic like weaning them (stop feeding them milk) right before a cold snap.

This picture is actually from 2011, but this mama was well-behaved and had her calf in a nice dry spot. Interestingly, that calf is now bred and in the same pasture she was born in.

Feeding Hay

The calf groups that aren’t on pasture get hay year-round, and the cows get their forages in their TMR. However, we keep dry cows, bred heifers and a couple of heifer groups on pasture.  During the warmer months (as long as it rains) they have grass to snack on.  Once the frost kills that grass, we supplement that part of their diet by delivering hay to their pastures.

Thawing Waters

We also spend a notable amount of time watering everything in the winter.  The milk herd and dry cows along with a couple of heifer groups have frost-free waters that make this process easy.  In extreme cold we do need to make sure the floats don’t freeze, but we haven’t had trouble with that this year. The rest of the calves have water sources that can and do freeze.  Our youngest groups have tubs filled with water and one group in a rented pasture has a small pond.  All of these water sources need to have the ice broken on them at least once a day every day in cold weather.

Maintaining Equipment

Equipment doesn’t like the cold either. Our milking and feeding equipment can all struggle in the cold.  During our first cold snap this winter, the heater in our milk barn wasn’t working.  We used a smaller heater to help ease the chill, but we still had to use warm water to thaw out the units before every milking.  We also have to use engine block heaters on tractors and our skid loader to make sure that they start.

Protecting Against the Elements

It seems like every daily task takes longer when the temperature drops.  Getting dressed in the morning takes longer with all of the layers required to stay warm.  Lugging around all of those layers also makes tasks slower and more tiresome.  And when it’s really cold, the farmers need breaks to warm up inside or near the exhaust of the skid loader.  The days are also shorter. We work both before and after dark, but some tasks can only be done, or are much more easily done, with daylight, and we have that much less time each day to complete those tasks.

So if you’ve ever wondered how we fill the time we don’t spend in the field during the winter, now you know.  We’re working hard to keep our animals and ourselves warm and healthy.

What’s In A Name

One of the first questions I get from many people when they find out I have cows is: “do all the cows have names?” The short answer is “No. They have numbers.”

If you read this blog regularly, though, you know that some of them have names; we’ve even asked for your help in selecting some names. When I first visited the farm, only one cow had a name: Cupcake. She is a story for another day, though.

As I started helping with calves, several of them started picking up names. The timing is probably coincidental. One of the first was Sparky, number 1062. She was a really active calf, and it just came out one day as she was attempting to eat the hose I was using to give her group water. Another calf born about the same time was number 1068, Buttercup. When moving her to a pen she tried bucking and running. David said something like “whoa there Buttercup”, and it stuck, kind of. She went by Buttercup for several months, but now, as a milk cow, she’s just “1068″. Sparky, on the other hand is still just “Sparky”.

This is Sparky. You can’t read her ear tag, but we know who she is.

Many of the calves that got names were favorites, but that’s certainly not to say that a cow or calf without a name is not a favorite. Number 1099 is due to calve next week. When she was 2 days old she tried to take me (as in ran at me with the intention of trampling me). It was adorable, and she’s been one of my favorites ever since. She never got a name, though.

All of the Kuckelcows have names, and we’ve continued to give their daughters names. However, I call HD 100 (the first Kuckelcalf born here, named Zorba) “100″. We actually have two number 27s. One was born here, and one was purchased. They go by “27″ and “big 27″. “Big 27 is a purchased Kuckelcow, so she also has a name. It’s Unicorn, but I had to look that up. Although all 38 Kuckelcows came with names, I only know four or five off the top of my head, and we only regularly refer to three by their names.

This post really does have a point, and I’m finally getting to it. I think the people who ask me about the cows names think that a name gives the cows identity and personality. Really, though, what makes a name? Does it have to be a word? Can’t it be a number? When we refer to “1099″ an individual animal comes to mind the same way that a different animal comes to mind when we refer to “Sparky”. If we refer to “Buttercup” I think something like “that’s 1068 – right?”

I think the question people are really asking is: “Do you know your cows?” And to that, the answer is yes, absolutely yes. We know them, and we care about them a great deal.

End of an Era

Sometimes change occurs in unexpected ways. And sometimes, unexpected circumstances are the only way to change.

Despite knowing that it was not ideal for our cows’ diet, we had been feeding grain during milking. This wasn’t done with ill-will toward the cows. On the contrary, the cows were rather partial to this twice-daily treat.

Several years ago, David quit feeding in the barn, and the disgruntled cows simply refused to come in to be milked. He gave in and resumed feeding. We made some improvements to this feeding last winter, but all the pertinent research shows that it is best to feed dairy cows a TMR (total mixed ration), in which all the components of their ration are blended together.

Several months ago, a few of our feeders quit working. By the beginning of December, one whole side was basically useless. Inconsistency can cause problems, and each cow might eat a little different ration day-to-day depending on the milking order. In addition, the cows were very difficult to run in on the side without working feeders.

Finally, we quit using the feeders altogether. The cows were pretty ticked at first, but over a few weeks they adjusted, and things started going more smoothly. Now with a more consistent diet, and a true TMR, they’ve picked up on milk a little. It has been decided – the feeders won’t be fixed! We are officially done feeding in the barn!

This is extremely exciting for two reasons. First, fixing the feeders was an unfinished task that had been hanging over our heads for a month, and second, we’re doing the best thing for our cows, even if it wasn’t what they thought they wanted. I suspect this is how parents feel when they get their kids to eat their veggies.

Sexed Success

This spring I wrote about a not-so-new technology we were going to try for the first time: sexed semen. We bought 10 units of sexed Chase from ABS. We knew the conception rate was reduced by the process they use to alter the semen, but we were still a little disappointed with our results. To date, we have used 6 of the 10 straws and only achieved one pregnancy. With conventional semen we average about 60% conception, so this is big drop.

The semen wasn’t the only problem, though. Every once in a while we will have a few weeks or a month where conception rates are low. Unfortunately we used several straws of Chase during one of these times. We never determined if it was something in our ration, the stage of the moon or the weather, but for about a month in late winter/early spring we didn’t get much bred.

We did, however, get one pregnancy. In fact, it was one of only two pregnancies achieved during that month. Even better, the pregnant heifer was Snowball: one of our favorites, sired by Aftershock. Snowball’s due date was December 21st. Thankfully the world didn’t end, but on December 22nd as we packed our bags to visit my family in Illinois before Christmas, Snowball stood around chewing her cud and showing no interest in calving.

The next morning while we enjoyed our coffee in Illinois, David and I were mentioned in a tweet (from one of our employees) that contained a picture of a pretty little heifer calf. Sexed semen offers a 90% chance at a heifer, so with only one pregnancy, a bull would have been pretty poor luck. This year, though, it seems like we’ve had plenty of that! We were relieved to come home to a nice fresh cow and baby heifer calf, who is the spitting image of her mama. This little gal is special, so she probably needs a name. Suggestions are welcome in the comments!

Snowball’s calf – what should we name her??

While we were very frustrated with our initial conception results, we still have two straws to use and plan on purchasing some more sexed semen from a different bull or two. Ten units of one bull doesn’t seem like a fair test of a technology that many farmers have been using for years. In the meantime, we’re glad our first try resulted in at least one success story.

FFA Dairy Judging Practice

Saturday morning the Pleasant Ridge FFA dairy judging team visited the farm for a practice before their first competition. Aaron, one of our milkers, is on the team. He and our other milker, Tyler, selected four classes of cows and calves for the team to judge.

FFA stands for Future Farmers of America. The organization teaches high school students about agriculture through judging and showing competitions. Of the kids who visited our farm, some had a livestock background, but many did not, and I don’t think any had a dairy background.  In high school David was very involved in FFA, and his coach Mr. Silvers is still leading the program at PR. 

I don’t know the specific rules of dairy judging, but I’ll share what I do know. At the competition, the students will look at some number of classes that each include four animals of similar age. Each animal is marked 1, 2, 3, or 4 for identification purposes. They judge and place these animals based on their body structure. For some of the classes at the competition, the students will have to give reasons explaining their placements.  Mr. Silvers has been teaching them about good and bad qualities to look for, mostly using slides.  Seeing real animals before competition is where we fit in. 

For practice, we started with a class of calves just under a year old. The team had several minutes to inspect the calves before placing them.  After they were finished, Mr. Silvers “talked” the class presenting his placing and reasons. It was interesting that the calf he placed last is the one we expect to make the best cow, but we have the advantage of knowing her genetics and that she was the youngest in the class (and also the smallest). He explained to the kids that judging calves can be difficult and that often a young class will place very differently after the animals have matured.  For those interested, a Trigger calf was first, and a Planet calf was fourth.

The students stepping back to take a different look at the class at their coach’s suggestion.

The second class was breeding age heifers 1 to 2 years old. In this class, three were sired by Sholten and displayed similar qualities making it a pretty difficult class. The process was basically the same as the first class. Mr. Silvers suggested that the students look from 20′ in addition to 5′ because different things might stand out.  The only non-Sholten, an Aftershock, took second. She was the oldest in the class and isn’t bred yet despite several attempts, but she does look good. The first place Sholten heifer was confirmed bred to Boliver last month.

The third class was 3-year-old cows. This class was easiest to place from the view shown below. If you’d like to give it a try, place the class in the comments section.  Do keep in mind this was only a couple of hours after milking.  First place was sired by Pippen and is one of the best looking fresh heifers we’ve had.  The fourth cow cracked David’s ribs while he was breeding her and didn’t stick. She’s destined for a trailer ride when her production drops.

The third class: three year old cows. If you’d like to try, place the class in the comments.

The fourth and final class was aged cows. For this class, Mr. Silvers asked the kids to place them and take good notes. He didn’t talk the class so he could have the kids give their reasons in class on Monday. We had a little excitement when one of the aged cows decided to try to jump the gate. She got hung up, but we got her over and she seems perfectly fine. The top rail of the gate didn’t fare as well.

The boys threw in a little bit of a curve ball for this class: a very nice 3-quartered cow. She probably would have been #2 in the class otherwise, but with one dry quarter, she automatically falls to fourth. This cow milks better than many four-quartered cows, but that doesn’t matter in livestock competitions.  Some of the students noticed, and others learned a valuable lesson. 

We really enjoyed having the students visit the farm.  We were able to answer some general dairy questions, and they got to see real milk cows before their first competition.  Placing classes isn’t an approach we often take to evaluating our animals, and it was actually really interesting to see how they stacked up.  Looking at their eartag numbers on paper, I would have placed the classes very differently than I did looking at the animals isolated side-by-side. 

Thanks to the team for coming out, and good luck at the district competition!