Finally, a small dose of what we have been needing...rain! It's not a downpour, but just a nice afternoon drizzle. A small amount of hay will get rained on, but luckily the bulk of the 1st crop cow haylage is done. Dad and Jeff worked til 11pm last night to get it off the fields, and I milked alone. What a long milking! When I'm alone I milk with 6 milkers instead of the usual 8 Jeff & I share. But, it wasnt too bad...starting at 6, I finished up around 9. Then it was calf feeding and cleaning up, and then a friend of mine came over and we worked on a nice display board for our county brunch on the farm, which is coming up June 28th.
It's been so cold this spring/summer. Right now, its early June, and only 50 degrees, if that! But, Im not really complaining. The cows love it and their production continues to climb. Our recent DHI test showed 24 cows over 100# of milk per day, for a rolling herd average of nearly 25,000#. It doesnt seem possible when my parents started with our feed nutritionist in 1984 that our production was only 15,000# per cow!
A new heifer came into the world early this morning, when I checked the maternity pen at 1:30am a nice healthy heifer calf was already licked off and nosing around. Da-Lynn-Jema Toby Zynda will join the herd in 2 years if all goes well! Her dam, Zena, emanates from my first cow, Alice, so it was pleasing to get another heifer from this family. There is now over 25 females in the herd that trace back to Alice.
Well, its nearly 4pm, time to head back out and get things set up for evening chores...
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I like the names of your cows, so creative! I'm liking what I see so far. I think it would be great to get something like this out to the non-farm public.
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