Bracing for the cold

Ready or not, the arctic blast is nearly upon us. We've done what we can to make sure we can keep the water troughs going over the next couple of days, and we've got a tank we can use to refill any troughs with frozen supply lines. The air is dry and the ground has firmed up somewhat since all the rain over the past few weeks, so the cows will fare much better than if it was wet. It'll without a doubt be much harder on us, and my hands are already getting numb just thinking about it. Our biggest hope is that the equipment in our milking barn doesn't freeze up. The milking units and vacuum system itself is not really that hard to defrost, but the pneumatic controls pretty much have to thaw by themselves. These controls include the automatic take-offs and rapid exit system. The next two or three days could get pretty long.

Starting a new week

After not having done much other than the "basics" since last Wednesday, it's time to get back in the swing of things. Or at least we'll try to. The weather has been pretty nasty lately...damp, cool, and windy. That's continuing this morning, though we're supposed to see a little sunshine this afternoon.

Of course, we've already milked and fed the milking herd this morning. From 7:00 'til lunchtime will probably involve moving some of our dry cows and heifers from one pasture to another. We also need to haul some hay and baleage up to the farm to grind up for our milking herd's TMR. We'll be back to milking and feeding duties at 1:00.

So, as you sit comfortably behind your desk in your climate controlled office this morning, think fondly of those of us out getting slapped around by Mother Nature while working hard to keep our nation fed.

The week ahead

The upcoming week is going to be busy, though I'm not sure exactly how much we'll get accomplished. Here's how it's shaping up:

• Today - AI about 8 cows right off the bat, and then bring a group of breeding-age heifers up to start heat watching. Cut the dead grass/weeds on the "Lynnie Place". It's too thick and rank to run our seed drill through it as is.
• Tuesday - Bale the dead grass/weeds we've already cut on the "Stella Field" and get it out of there. Oh yeah, we've got to go vote Tuesday as well (More on this in my next post).
• Wednesday - Run the hay baler at the Lynnie Place. I'll be taking off that afternoon (more on that in future post).
• Thursday - Finish running the hay baler unless we get rained out. I'll be in Montgomery all day for a State Young Farmers Committee meeting at the Alabama Farmers Federation office.
• Friday - Wrap up whatever needs wrapping up. Dad will be in Montgomery all day for a Dairy Association meeting at the Alabama Farmers Federation office. An early Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house that night (my sister's baby is due in December, and wouldn't be able to make the 3 hour drive home if we waited until the actual holiday).
  
• Saturday - Typical weekend farming schedule...just milk and feed twice a day. We'll also have a couple of birthday parties for my son. We'll do cupcakes and a hayride for his church & daycare friends that afternoon with a family pizza party at our house that evening.
• Sunday - Again, typical weekend farming schedule with church services in between.
  

Happy 4th of July

It's Independence Day, and that means we're only planning on working a "short" full day.

We've already milked the cows this morning and will go back after breakfast to feed heifers and clean the place up a little bit. I'm hoping we'll be done somewhere between 10:00-10:30. After lunch, we'll come back and milk the cows again but that should be about it. We'll probably be done about 3:30, which will give me a little time to rest before firing up the grill for tonight.

Looking forward a little bit, our rain chances over the next ten days are a little more promising. There's no promise of how much we might get, but right now there's enough chances that surely we'll get one thunderstorm to rain on us. We desperately need it, and not just for our hay and pastures. Once we get some moisture, we'll be able to plant our sorghum-sudangrass (sudex) crop.

Speaking of hay, dad finished baling our first "pure" cutting of bermudagrass late yesterday morning. We had 63 bales of Russell bermudagrass off of 13 acres and 146 bales of Tifton 44 off of 31 acres. Not bad considering how dry its been. We have another 20 acres or so of Russell that's ready to be cut as soon as the weather forecast is favorable.

Lunchtime Update

Guess what? It's another hot, dry day. While my dad and our employees were dealing with the corn harvest, I did a little electrical work in our milking barn this morning. We've got four newly installed fans that we'll use to circulate the air when our cows are being milked. We also plan on adding fine-pattern spray nozzles in front of the fans to provide a cool mist. Other than that, I moved a few cows around from one pasture to another, made a batch of cow feed for this afternoon, and took care of a few other odds and ends. This afternoon I'll be helping in the milking barn, feeding the baby calves, and hoping that none of our silage harvesting equipment breaks down.

Back on the Farm

We arrived back home from Dothan on Saturday evening, and I was back to work milking cows at 3:00 am Sunday morning. I'm not sure what all we'll get done this week, as the weather forecast is calling for at least a 40% chance of showers daily. Once it dries up enough, we'll be tearing up ground in preparation of planting a sorghum-sudangrass (sudex) crop.