For most of us, as farmers and animal caretakers, taking care of cows is just what we innately do. But over the years we have realized that our commitment to our cows isn’t always as obvious to those outside of agriculture and now we need to do a better job sharing...
Keeping our cows cozy. Winter goes pretty quickly even though Mother Nature challenges us with extreme cold and snow. Any measurable snow makes it difficult to keep the farmyards clean for our team to get in and out. We own our own snowplows on the front of pickup...
In addition to the robotic milkers we put into the freestall barns, we also added automatic cow brushes. The cow brushes are exactly what they sound like — they’re big, round brushes and give the cows a good back scratch when they are near them. Who doesn’t like to...
A while back I wrote about what a cow’s typical day looks like on our farm. Now, for about 800 of those cows, the days look a little bit different. With the addition of the robotic milkers, our cows have a much more leisurely lifestyle. The main change in our cows’...
Now that we’ve added the robotic milking machines, a lot of people think we don’t need people around the barns because the machines take care of all the milking. Even with thirteen robotic milkers on the farm, we still need people outside in the barns pretty...
One of my favorite things about farming is that it really is a team effort. You must have good relationships with not only your employees who are working on the farm on a daily basis, but also with the consultants you work with on a regular basis. We’ve been really...
