2017 was a really big year here at Majestic Crossing Dairy. It’s been exciting – we’re starting a new chapter on our farm and have set ourselves up for the future. 2016 was a year of planning. 2017 was a year of action.
The year began with abnormal weather in January. Instead of getting snow, we got a lot of rain. The ground thawed early and then re-froze. We had a wet spring which delayed our planting, and we had to change our mindset to get ready for a harvest that could potentially not produce as much feed as we needed for the cows. In that case, we would have had to purchase the feed to make up the difference.
Throughout the spring, we hosted several farm tours. We always appreciate having the opportunity to talk to other farmers, members of the community and different industries about what we do and why we do it.
Summer weather was good to us, and this fall we ended up having one of the best years ever for harvest. Our farm is in a pocket that somehow avoided the flooding rains and damaging hail that other areas of the state experienced.
The big activity this year was our robot project – we redesigned our freestall barns to accommodate 13 new robotic milking machines. Over the course of seven months, we worked around construction crews, making sure our cow’s care never faltered while transitioning to a new chapter in our farm’s history.
As of November, all of the robots are up and running.
It’s been a long year. There was a lot of angst, stress, happiness, joy and anxiety, and on any given day, we were sometimes feeling this entire range of emotions. There was a lot of unknown. Our day-to-day activities have changed a lot from January 1 until now, but our core principles have stayed the same.
Once again, thank you to everyone who helped us through 2017. We wouldn’t be here today without our families, friends and community.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a great start to the New Year!
