Mixing It Up

This week we bought a new-to-us TMR wagon. The TMR wagon is what we use to mix feed (TMR) for our cows. I’ve written before about some of the different components of our cows feed, and since we stopped feeding grain in the barn, the cows have been exclusively eating a TMR ration.

The new TMR wagon made it home!

This purchase is more than a change in equipment, though; it’s also a change in the way we feed our cows. Our old mixer didn’t have a conveyor for unloading feed into bunks or tires that would work off of concrete. This meant that we had to unload the feed where we mixed it, and then use other means to put it in the feed bunk. We had a bunk right next to our silo (where we mix) that we would scoop the feed into using a skid loader. The main problem with this was that the silo isn’t close to the free stall or lean-to that our cows like to hang out in, so they were eating and then going to lay down, with too much travel in between. It’s better for them to be able to eat and lay down as they wish throughout the day. The long walk meant they did one and then the other instead of eating a little, letting it digest, then eating a little more.

For a couple of months we did try loading the feed into a different wagon that did have a conveyor and adequate tires (but that couldn’t do the mixing) to be able to feed closer to the free stall and lean-to. It should have been better for the cows, but the process took a significant amount of extra time, required an additional tractor, and we saw no change in milk production to justify the extra effort. It became clear that if we were going to feed near the barns, we needed a wagon that could both mix and unload the feed.

The conveyor unloading the TMR into the fence line bunk.

We spent some time looking for such a wagon, but every one we found was out of our price-range. We really had quit looking; we were getting by with what we had. Then last week David’s dad was at an auction and noticed they had a wagon just like what we had been looking for. Knowing we had stopped looking, he didn’t bid. The wagon was auctioned and “sold”, but we have enough experience with auctions to know that “sold” doesn’t always mean a piece of equipment has gone to a buyer. The price they stopped at seemed reasonable, so the next day they called the auction company to see if the wagon was still available and it was.

On Friday, David and his dad went down to take a look at the wagon, and for the same price the auctioneer pronounced the wagon “sold” for, they pulled it home that afternoon. David mixed with it that evening and fed the cows in two big steel tubs and a concrete bunk along the fence line, right next to the freestall and lean-to. The cows were a little confused at first, as they stood by the gate to the silo while their feed was unloaded back by their beds, but they’ve caught on now. Our cows aren’t the type to miss a meal.

Some cows enjoying their dinner at the fence line bunk.

We hope this time around the cows’ production will increase, but if not the wagon is a good investment for the time it saves. The old process used to take an hour and 20 minutes twice day, but today mixing and feeding took a total of about 45 minutes. The new wagon has two augers to mix instead of one, so it mixes a bit faster, and the old process to unload and scoop the feed was cumbersome and time consuming. By giving David an extra hour every day, the new-to-us TMR wagon should help our overall dairy operation run a lot more smoothly!

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.

How We Feed Soybeans

Harvest 2012 concluded a few weeks ago. We chopped all of our corn, so soybeans were the only crop left to combine. We don’t plant very many soybeans because we can’t feed them. In fact, they’re the only crop we sell. It’s too hard on the soil to plant corn in every field every year. The two fields that were planted with soybeans this year were planted in corn for the previous two years.

One of the fields also had rye on it in between that we chopped this spring. Soybeans are a good choice for double cropping after a winter crop (like wheat or rye) because their growing season is shorter than corn, and they use different nutrients, so they give the soil a break without requiring any fertilizer.

Because we were short on corn, at times we wondered if we should have planted a crop like milo that we could feed to the cows or calves. The beans did reasonably well for a severe drought, though, and the income from selling them will be used to buy dairy quality alfalfa hay to feed the cows over the next several months. I guess indirectly all of our acres, even the soybeans, were used for feed.

Our first load of dairy quality alfalfa from Western Kansas.

Playing Catch-Up

It’s been a long, hot summer. We haven’t had much rain, and we haven’t had many calves. 

We also hadn’t seen my family for a little too long.  My parents came to visit in May, but we haven’t been to Illinois since Christmas.  Unfortunately, we still can’t make it to Illinois, but my parents brought my grandma to visit for the holiday weekend.  We had a great time and hopefully they did, too, even if the farm kept David and I pretty busy.

Monday really was just the beginning of the fresh cows. We had five more by Friday. Then it got busy: three Saturday, three more Sunday, one Monday and two Tuesday. Of all those calves, 6 were heifers and 9 were bulls, but most importantly we have 15 fresh cows that we’ll be able to introduce into the milk herd over the next few days.

As if baby calves aren’t exciting enough…In the last two weeks, we’ve had over 3″ of rain! That’s a lot for two weeks, especially in a drought. David and I spent much of Sunday morning walking through a pasture and hay field looking for a cow that needed to come home to have her calf (she had it Monday). We found her, but you wouldn’t believe what else we found: GREEN GRASS!!  There is actually quite a bit of grass growing in the pastures, and the lawn needs mowed. Tuesday morning, after almost an inch of rain overnight, there were even puddles in dry ponds.

Grass in our yard – it hasn’t been mowed since June and it finally needs it again!

The rain really couldn’t have come at a better time, either. Well, at least not better than much earlier this summer might have been.  The moisture should help our soybeans fill in their pods, and last week we planted oats and rye in between rains.  We plan to harvest the oats this fall and the rye next spring; both will be used for feed.  Hopefully, the rain was just what they needed to get started growing.

Thank you to my family for coming to visit.  It was an exciting weekend catching up on the things we’ve been lacking this summer.  September is off to a great start!

Drought 2012

Everyone knows we’re in a drought. It seems like it’s all you hear about, especially if you know any farmers. Everyone also knows that a drought means its dry.  Maybe you’ve heard that we’re 10″ behind average precipitation, but maybe you don’t know why it matters for us and our dairy.

Pastures

Last Sunday we moved some heifers home from a nearby pasture that we rent. The pasture has two water sources – a creek and a pond. The creek has been dry for months (usually is in the summer), and the pond had been dwindling. That Sunday, it was gone. It was 105 degrees, and the calves had no water. There wasn’t much green left for them to eat anyway, so now they’re at the dairy where the cows and calves have access to the same water we drink.

A couple of weeks ago we repaired fence around the “Junkyard Pasture” because “Below Bud’s”, which I would call our primary pasture, was pretty bare. Thankfully the two pastures connect because the Junkyard Pasture also currently has no water, but Below Bud’s has a frost free water. The dry cows and bred heifers can graze the Junkyard Pasture and can come up to Below Bud’s for water. It’s not ideal, but it’s working okay, and so far the fence has effectively kept them in the pasture rather than the corn field.

Crops

I rambled on about our corn silage situation last week. We feel fortunate that most of our corn did put some grain on and overall has been better than we expected. Some of the corn (planted the middle of May) laid in the ground a full month until we got a rain and came up around June 15th. That corn is very short and just tasseled this week, so it’s fate is yet-to-be-determined.

David finished chopping corn silage (until the yet-to-be-determined corn is ready) Monday, and the bigger of our two pit silos was full.  It took about 40% more acreage to fill the silo than in an average year due to reduced plant size and yields.   

I discussed our soybeans’ need for rain in June. Thanks to a timely rain, they came up. However, we haven’t had much moisture since, so they fall under the “yet to be determined” category also. They’re not very tall, but are alive and starting to bloom. 

We also raised brome hay that we mowed and baled earlier this summer.  Many of our neighbors reported about half as many bales per acre compared with a typical year.  Our yield was closer to 75% of average, but it was definitely a noticeable difference.

Feed

In addtition to not being able to raise as much feed, prices for the feed we will need to buy are much higher than usual due to the drought. Both corn and soybean prices are approximately 33% higher than last year’s prices, which we considered high at the time.  We will likely need to buy some corn because we chopped all that we grew, and our commodity blend typically contains soybean meal.  Hay is hard to even find for sale locally, and we’ve been hearing of prices more than double those of an average year.

The drought also affects the quality of feed.  There have been many reports of corn crops containing aflatoxin, which could be passed to the milk if we fed corn containing it to the cows. There’s also a risk of our corn silage containing nitrates, which can be deadly to cows. Under drought conditions corn stalks can contain nitrates. If you shell the corn, it doesn’t matter, but when you chop it, it could. We will test our silage before we feed it for this reason. 

Cattle

All of these things indirectly affect our cattle, but the cows are directly affected by the drought’s partner in crime – extreme heat. Our facilities aren’t great for keeping cows cool (yet), and the cows don’t like the heat at all. It affects their appetite, production, and reproduction. Yes, it’s summer in KS, and we do expect it to get hot. However, we had a record number of days over 100 degrees in the month of July, and we started having 100 degree days in June.

As we head into August, we don’t expect the heat to subside.  It would help if it were less consistent, though.  More than the high high temperatures, the high low temperatures have hurt the cattle.  When it doesn’t get below 80 degrees at night, they have more trouble cooling off from the day’s heat.  Monday morning it was in the sixties, and I imagine the cows enjoyed it as much as I did.

So Now What?

The drought has been a major challenge, and it’s not over.  This something we never could have expected to face in our first year operating the dairy, but it’s also not a new problem.  This New York Times graphic shows how drought is and has historically affected our country.  Like many generations of farmers before us, we will do the best we can with the hand we’re dealt.  Over the next several months, we will manage our resources carefully and hope for much needed improvements in economic and environmental conditions.

Chopping Time

Silage chopping is underway! Chopping is the busiest and most important season for our dairy. I wrote about chopping rye this spring, but that task pales in comparison with this one. This time we’re chopping corn.

View from the chopper.

I’ve said before that corn silage is a big part of our cows diet. Chopping cuts up the whole corn plant – stalk, leaves, cobs (with or without grain) and all. Our silage is then packed and covered in pit silos. The end product is very efficient feed for our cows.

We only get one opportunity to chop corn silage each year, and the plants are only at the right moisture for a short time. We do stagger our planting to extend our window to finish, but it’s still a high stress time involving very long days.

Cleaning out the silo before filling it.

Typically we chop around 80% of our corn in late August or early September. Because we’re in a drought, the corn didn’t get as tall and has started to dry out faster. That means there will be less grain (quality) and less tonnage (quantity) than an average year. It also means we’re chopping in July for the first time in David’s memory, and we plan to chop 100% of our planted acres.

We ran out of corn silage about a month ago, so chopping early isn’t all bad. It was hectic trying to get the chopper, trucks, and dump box ready, though.  Also, I should note that I’m using “we” pretty loosely.  I’ve been working in Wichita and have contributed little other than moral support to the chopping effort.

Packing silage from above with the skid loader.

David’s cousin Jeff has been a huge help, running the chopper so David can get milking and chores done. Jeff also recruited his dad and other neighbors to help out driving trucks back and forth from the field to the pit silo. This also allows Dave to spend some time packing the silage – an essential part of the process.  David’s dad and our employee, Tyler, have also been logging extra hours.

Having a person to do each task (chopping, hauling, and packing) has made chopping significantly more efficient. We still have at least a week to go – we’ll keep you posted on our progress.  In the meantime, prayers for safety and sanity are appreciated!

Silo partially filled.

Supporting Cast

A lot goes into operating a dairy farm. We work hard, but we couldn’t do it without the support services of many others.  This post isn’t all-inclusive, but it highlights many of the people and businesses (in no particular order) that help our dairy function day-to-day, and especially in busy seasons.

Nutritionist

We call him the feed man, which may sound simple, but his knowledge is invaluable to our operation. I mentioned before that after switching our ration our milk production had dropped. We made assumptions regarding the quality of our rye when we started using it, and they weren’t all correct.  After the feed man got the tests back on our rye, he was able to use the information to modify the commodity blend we buy from him. After his adjustments, we saw quick and steady improvement in production.  He has the background and knowledge to make small changes that have a big impact for our cows. 

Veterinarian

We do most of our routine vet work ourselves, but we aren’t trained to handle everything. Our veterinarian gets us the medications we need to keep our cows and calves healthy. He also does our calfhood vaccinations and is on call for any health issues or injuries we don’t feel comfortable handling ourselves. Thankfully we don’t have those cases very often, but it’s great to have someone available when we do.

Dairy supply

Our dairy supplier stops by to bring us supplies like acid, teat dip and soap. They also provide liners for our milking units and other equipment parts and maintenance when needed. They keep records of our usage so they know when to expect us to run low on a product, and therefore, when to stop by to replace it.  We do keep records (and pay attention), but not needing to call every time we need soap is a major convenience.

Milk Hauler

One question I often get is: “What do you do with the milk?”. We don’t. That’s the great thing about the milk hauler. Every other day (sun, rain, sleet, snow or holiday — really, not like the post office) the milk hauler comes and picks up the milk in our bulk tank. Our coop, DFA, markets our milk and arranges all of this. They haul it to Roberts Dairy in Kansas City where most of our milk goes to liquid milk you can buy at many regional stores.

AI Companies/Reps

We work with four AI companies (each referenced here) and have different relationships with each of them.  They supply frozen straws of semen that we use to breed our cows along with breeding supplies like sleeves, sheaths and lube.  A rep also stops by and fills our semen tank with liquid nitrogen to keep our inventory frozen.  Before David started AI-ing, we had to own a bull, and genetic progress was difficult.  With the help of these companies and their reps, we’re hoping to see major genetic gains in the next few years as we transition our milking herd from mostly herd-bull-sired to AI cows.

Seed Company Rep

Our seed supplier advises us on varieties and types of crops that fit our goals.  He helps us maintain our budget by offering alternative options at different costs.  He also delivers the seed to our farm.  Basically, he makes the hectic planting season a little more efficient.

Local Agribusiness Companies

We use a few different suppliers for things like additional seed, fertilizer, spray, and fuel. They, like our primary seed supplier, advise us based on our needs.  They work with David to determine which sprays and fertilizers are right for our crops and our fields, and they deliver fuel to the farm.  We also sometimes hire them to apply some of their products, saving us time.

One thing you may notice about all of these services is convenience and efficiency are key.  The schedule of our dairy is very busy, and anything that can save us time is appreciated.  These specialized individuals and companies make us and our cows better.  Thank you to those who work hard in these areas, and many others, so that we can continue to operate – we really couldn’t do it without you.

Chop It Up

Hondo hanging out the rye about 3 weeks before chopping.

I mentioned in our planting update a couple of weeks ago that we took a break from planting corn to chop rye. Last fall we planted cereal rye for the first time, and we were really pleased with how it grew this spring. At the time we thought this would require about a three-day break from planting, but in typical fashion, it was much longer.

Jerry mowing the rye with the disc-bine.

For those of you who don’t know what a chopper is, it looks a lot like a big, backward tractor. It has different “heads”, similar to a combine, depending on the crop you are chopping. To chop the rye, we first mowed it with our disc-bine (hay mower) and then used a “pickup head” to pick the rye up off the ground and chop it.

David’s view driving the chopper over a windrow of rye.

The chopper passes the rye over a rotating drum covered with knives to cut it into small pieces then shoots it out the back through the snoot into a dump box, wagon, or truck.

The dumpbox after it fell forward onto the chopper.

We started out using the better of two dump boxes. The first afternoon of chopping, the dump box broke, while dumping. It fell forward onto the chopper. Thankfully, the damage to the chopper was mainly cosmetic. The back end was dented and the snoot was bent, but there was no mechanical damage. If it had smashed the radiator or caused some other more severe problem, it would have cost us days or weeks. In the interest of time, instead of trying to repair the other old dump box, we first borrowed a wagon from David’s cousin Jeff.

View out the back of the chopper of rye-lage filling the wagon.

The wagon was smaller, though, so they were having to stop and dump more often than with the dump box. The rye was also wet, thick and heavy, and the field was rocky. Every time a rock passed through the chopper, they had to stop and straighten the knives. In short, it was slow going.

After a few days, the guys ended up repairing the other dump box, and they finished chopping more quickly by dumping into a truck to haul to the silo while the chopper kept running.

David driving the 4440 with duals over the silage pile to pack the silage.

About half of the ryelage was put in a pile on the ground, and the other half was put in a pit silo, or bunker that has a concrete floor and walls.  We used a tractor and skid loader to pack both the pile and bunker.  After packing, the silage is then covered with a plastic tarp.

After the silage was packed, our nutritionist came to the farm and took a sample of the ryelage for testing.  He and David then worked together to adjust our cows’ ration based on the feed we now had available.  We are hoping to see a jump in milk production because of the ration adjustments, however, initially we’ve seen production drop, so we will be tweaking it further.

#Plant12 Progress Report

Sorry for no post last week and a late one this week. Things have maybe been even busier than usual, apparently. What have we been doing?  Well, we’ve been doing lots of planting!

Crops

About a month ago we borrowed a drill with a seeder from our neighbor to plant oats and seed alfalfa simultaneously. We plan to mow and chop the oats and then hopefully get 2 or 3 cuttings off the alfalfa this year. Also, the alfalfa will come back and should provide good feed for the cows for two more years. We’re really pleased with how it’s growing so far.

The taller, grassy stuff is the oats, and the small round leaves are the alfalfa.

The plan (I should know better by now…) was to start planting corn immediately after we finished the oats, but first we had to get the planter going again. It was ready before the fire disintegrated the monitor and ruined the wiring. We replaced the wiring harness and monitor, hooked it up to a different tractor, and got started planting a couple of weeks ago. We finished about 70% of our corn planting before stopping to chop the cereal rye that we planted last fall.

David’s view from the tractor while planting corn

We haven’t finished the rye yet, but when we do we’ll continue planting corn. Many grain farmers have finished their corn planting, but it actually helps us to have our corn crop spaced out a little bit to give us some time to chop corn silage later this summer. If all of the corn is ready at the same time, and we can’t keep up, it could hurt our feed for next year. We also have a few acres of beans to plant before we officially finish the planting season. 

Garden

A few weeks ago, my parents came to visit and help us with some things around the house. While my dad tilled the garden (thanks, Dad!), my mom and I went plant shopping.  We actually went looking for some bushes and annuals, but I also bought most of the veggies for our garden. It took me nearly a week to find time to plant them, but one night after work when we were expecting a rain, I decided I had to get them in the ground. I planted various tomatoes and peppers along with cucumbers, squash and a watermelon plant. I finished just as it was getting dark and had to have David help me water everything while I held a flashlight.

This past weekend I got around to planting the seeds I had bought – onions, radishes and green beans. In a few weeks we will plant more radishes and green beans, in order to stagger our harvest somewhat, and also intend to expand the garden or start a new one to make room for sweet corn. It seems like it takes forever for the plants to start producing, but thankfully, last year we planted strawberries.  They come back each year, and we have really been enjoying them so far this spring. I can’t wait to have more fresh fruits and veggies to enjoy!

The strawberry patch, in the daylight.

Flowers

I mentioned that when my mom and I went plant shopping, our primary objective was to buy flowers and bushes. We bought snap dragons and dahlias to fill in and add summer color to the big flower bed that is home to all of our perennials. We also got a variety of annuals (portulaca, geraniums, angelonia, osteopermum, and several more) to fill in three pots and three other, much smaller, flower beds. We also found a eunonymous bush to replace an azalea that the pets destroyed and a hydrangea to replace a rhododendron that just never thrived and eventually bit the dust. 

My mom helped me plant the bushes and many of the flowers. When we finished, we also put fresh mulch down.  Everything looks great freshly mulched and watered.  Now’s the fun part – sitting back and watching everything grow!!

Corn starting to come up.