We've been very busy on the farm lately, and that's going to continue on into this week.
Our maternity pasture has been very active these past two weeks. In fact, we've had 26 cows and heifers freshen in the last 17 days, 15 of those in the last week alone. While the calving frequency is going to slow down a little bit, I still expect to have several calves born this week.
For the first time in quite a while, our milking herd is increasing in size. This is because we are having more cows calve and rejoin the herd than we are "drying off" and removing from the herd. And not only are our numbers increasing, but our milk production per cow is also improving. And so is the milk price...just not enough to suit us!
Now that our silage harvest is over, we've turned our attention to planting our cool season crops. We will be planting just over 200 acres of rye, ryegrass, and wheat over the next few weeks. We will graze our milk cows on the acreage closest to our milking barn, and we will harvest the rest next spring as silage or baleage. After our poor total yield on this year's sorghum, we desperately need a good spring crop! We did have a good harvest this past spring, so we're hoping for more of the same in 2010.
Don't forget you can also keep up with what's happening on our farm by following my Twitter account, becoming a fan of our farm's Facebook page, or watching the videos we post to our YouTube channel.
Y'all have a dairy good day!
Our maternity pasture has been very active these past two weeks. In fact, we've had 26 cows and heifers freshen in the last 17 days, 15 of those in the last week alone. While the calving frequency is going to slow down a little bit, I still expect to have several calves born this week.
For the first time in quite a while, our milking herd is increasing in size. This is because we are having more cows calve and rejoin the herd than we are "drying off" and removing from the herd. And not only are our numbers increasing, but our milk production per cow is also improving. And so is the milk price...just not enough to suit us!
Now that our silage harvest is over, we've turned our attention to planting our cool season crops. We will be planting just over 200 acres of rye, ryegrass, and wheat over the next few weeks. We will graze our milk cows on the acreage closest to our milking barn, and we will harvest the rest next spring as silage or baleage. After our poor total yield on this year's sorghum, we desperately need a good spring crop! We did have a good harvest this past spring, so we're hoping for more of the same in 2010.
Don't forget you can also keep up with what's happening on our farm by following my Twitter account, becoming a fan of our farm's Facebook page, or watching the videos we post to our YouTube channel.
Y'all have a dairy good day!
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