Feeding the Rye Grass...

Do you remember this post about baling rye grass from a few weeks ago? We've now been feeding these bales since the middle of May.

Here, Jim is putting a new bale in place, upstairs in the barn.

The first thing he does is...make sure that the barn floor is swept clean of debris, and open the big barn doors.  Next, he spears the bale with the forks on the back of the tractor, and backs the bale into the barn...

He puts it just where he wants it on the barn floor.  The hay hole is just on the other side of the bale...

He cuts off the plastic wrapping...

...unwraps the netting...

...and there you go, beautiful rye grass!  It smells wonderful...and the cows love it!

We pull the bale apart in big armfuls, and toss it down the hay hole into the feed cart.  Each cow gets an armful, several times throughout the day. We've been feeding it in place of all but one "serving" of the dry hay or balage that they would normally be eating.  For those of you who might find it interesting...it tested at 16% protein and 50% moisture.  Jim's been very pleased...and so are the cows...

munch...munch...munch...

Pellet Delivery...

Bright and early this morning we got a delivery of pellets from the mill.

Actually, that's only partially true.  It was early, but it definitely wasn't bright yet when the truck pulled in...

The back of the delivery truck is filled with the bulk pellets.

These pellets are a custom blended feed supplement that we feed to the milking cows.  They are a combination of protein, vitamins and minerals. The calves, heifers and dry cows don't get any of these.

To empty the truck, the driver tilts the bed...

...and hooks up the pipe to the bottom on the truck bed...

The flexible metal pipe sections are fastened together until they are long enough to reach from the truck to the permanent fill pipe that is attached to our feed bin...in this case, about 45 feet.  The pipe snakes through the barn, past the first two rows of cows.

We like to be around when this feed is delivered, because when the driver turns on the motor to blow the feed into our bin, it is loud. Very loud...and the cows are sometimes spooked.  We were milking while he was here this morning, so it was easy to keep an eye on those end stall cows.  You can tell by looking at her eyes, that the one closest to the camera isn't too sure about what's going on!

Just past the pipe, on the far side of the pipeline, you can see the square wooden chute that is the bottom of the feed bin, which is located (mostly) on the second floor of the barn.  This wooden chute has a sliding door at the bottom, that we pull open to fill our feed carts...

...and here are the pellets, ready to be fed to the cows.  They each get a small amount, twice per day.  The heavier they are milking, the more pellets they get.  The cows that are near "dry up", don't get any...

Other than calf feed, which is a special blend of grains, vitamins, minerals and molasses, this is the only feed that we regularly buy for our cows.  We are able to grow the rest of our forages...corn for silage, corn for the grain bank, soybeans for the grain bank, and enough hay to feed our animals all year long.  We sometimes buy some heifer hay, which doesn't need to be of as high a quality as what the milking cows are fed, and occasionally we might need to buy a load of silage if we run out before chopping in the late summer.

This three ton delivery that we got today should last us almost exactly two months.  If only I could do my grocery shopping that infrequently!

This Morning...

I've heard this question on numerous occasions..."What do you do all day?"  So...here goes...


Dark thirty am...the alarm rings.  We hit snooze.  Or rather, Jim does...I don't even hear it.

Repeat...

I am not a morning person, typically.  Not at all...just ask Jim!  But this morning, it's working for me.

Maybe, because I actually went to bed at a reasonable hour, I'm awake and able to head downstairs in good time.  Jim's already had his coffee, and is getting ready to head out to the barn.

Maybe because I feel guilty that there's no breakfast food in the house, I head downstairs and put some baked oatmeal in the oven.  The kids leave early for school, and need something wholesome to eat before they start their day!

I throw a load of towels in the washer so they will be ready to hang out when I'm done in the barn.  I used to try to have my wash hanging out before the Amish neighbors, (why??) but gave up on that a long time ago.  Although... I did notice that hers were not hanging out very early this morning!  :)

When I wander into the barn, Jim is already halfway finished milking down the first two rows...

As is our normal routine, he milks while I start feeding.  I put the feed cart underneath the hay hole, and throw balage down for the heifers first, then the cows.  They dig in...

They're much more cooperative when they've had some food.  Kind of like some people with their morning coffee!

The cats hang out next to the heifer pen every morning...

After the cows are fed balage, I feed corn, then help move the last few milkers.  As we are finishing up, and hang the milkers up on the end of the pipeline, the cats begin to head towards the milk house.  Fritz loudly lets me know that he wants some fresh, warm milk from the jar...

After milking, Jim feeds silage, and I take care of the calves.  We have two new ones on bottles.  We'll keep the heifer, and the bull will go to market later this morning.  Their bottles are warming...

The calves in the hutches get their buckets of milk.  Miss greedy over there on the left, inhales her milk and tries to eat the bucket.  She has feed, hay and water, but her favorite is milk.  She won't like it when she's weaned in a week or two...

It's a beautiful day, so the towels will dry quickly.  I love to watch wash flapping in the breeze...

After breakfast, I pick up our neighbor, Daniel, who helps us a couple of mornings a week.  Usually when he's here, I stay in the house and get other things done, but this morning, Jim wants to fork out some box pens, so I help Daniel with the morning work. We put the cows out in the barn yard, and I watch for heats and keep them from getting into trouble take recess duty while Daniel gives them fresh bedding in their stalls. Then we head over to the other farm to feed the heifers and dry cows.

Jim forks out two heifer pens, and beds them up with fresh straw when he's finished...

This is the second load that he forked out by hand this morning...

It's late morning by the time we're all finished, but there are still a few more things that happen before lunch.  The cattle truck comes for the little bull calf...

The milk truck comes...

We discover a crack in the tank washer hose, and temporarily repair it using black tape...whatever would we do without black tape and duct tape?!

A load of sawdust is delivered...

Now we'll be set for a while with fresh bedding for the cows, and a warm, soft place for the dogs to sleep!

So...this is what we did this morning!

Mornings are usually busy year round...it's the afternoons this time of year that are a little less busy, and we sometimes have some free time to do things that we want.

One thing is for certain, however...not too many days are alike.  There's always something to do, and we will never be bored!

More Beans...

Well...it's feeling a lot better out there the past few days!  After the cold snap we had over the weekend, we've been enjoying temps in the forties...and we're not complaining! 

We had a frustrating morning on Sunday, due in part to the cold, but things have thawed out again, and we're up and running.  Before we know it, spring will really be here, and we'll literally be running.  I'm kind of looking forward to it!

While we've had a bit of a break here over winter from field work, gardening, mowing, etc, some things never stop.  Just imagine if we'd tell the cows that we were taking off and they wouldn't be milked or fed.  Actually, it's not worth imagining...it would get pretty ugly...fast!  When the cows don't get fed in as timely of a manner as they think they should, we hear about it.  They complain, loudly, and we get swatted with tails and sometimes hooves in protest.  For them, it's all about food!

Some time ago, I did a post about cow capacity...how much a cow eats in a day. I showed hay, corn silage, corn, pellets and soybeans.  


Today it was time to refill our bin of soybeans.  This is the bin, upstairs in the barn, where we store the beans...

This bin holds three tons of toasted soybeans, which lasts us about three months.  Downstairs in the cow stable, the bottom of the bin...the chute...comes through the floor, and is easily accessible for refilling the feed cart...

When our soybeans are harvested in late summer/fall, we send them to be toasted and stored in a grain bank.  We fill our bin, and Jim calls to have more delivered as needed.  We go through about one ton per month.  

Not all of the cows get beans...they're used as a top dress...additional protein...for the heavy milkers.  The cows that are farther along in their lactation and aren't milking as heavy, don't get any.  They love the taste of them though, and do everything they can to steal from their neighbors!

Today we had a delivery...

The driver backs up the barn hill and gets as close as he can to our pipe, which runs from the top of the bin, down along side of the barn to near the door.  He hooks up one end of a flexible metal pipe to the permanent one...
 

...hooks the other end up to his truck, and starts the blower...
 

I didn't time him, but I'm guessing it might take about ten minutes to transfer all of the beans from his truck into our bin.  It has got to be one of the best smelling jobs a guy could have!  When the beans are freshly toasted, and even still warm, they smell wonderful!  And yes, we've tasted them...they taste just like the ones you buy to snack on, without the salt!  (I recently met the owner of the business that toasts and stores the grain at a meeting.  He told me that some people have told him that they drive out of their way to go past his place of business, just to enjoy the smell!)

Here they are, ready to be fed to a hungry cow...

Another day is done here...we're finished with milking, finished with supper, are doing homework, playing working on the computer and winding down.  

...and hopefully the cows are out there making some milk.  Especially the ones who had beans for dessert!

Cow Capacity...

What in the world is cow capacity?

Well, of course...it's how much a cow can eat in a day!

It's difficult for you to see the actual amounts from these pictures.  If I had thrown everything together into one big pile, it would be much easier to see just how much it adds up to!  But suffice it to say, it's a lot...

A lot of farms have a mixer, in which all the forages are put together and mixed, creating a TMR, or Total Mixed Ration.  We do not use a mixer...we feed each thing separately.

Before each milking, they get a large armful of balage...



Next, they get corn silage...roughly 36 pounds per day, per cow...

After the silage, they get toasted corn, pellets and toasted soybeans...

The corn is fed three times per day...roughly 15 pounds per cow (that's three of those scoops).  A heavy milker might get a bit more, and a cow near dry - up gets very little corn.   Similarly, the amount of pellets and beans varies.  A dry - up cow gets none.  (and she looks longingly at her neighbors' !)

And we certainly can't let out the dry hay!  Each cow eats approximately five cakes, or one half bale of hay per day...

Last, but certainly not least in order of importance, is water.  A cow will drink anywhere from 30-50 gallons of water per day.  That's a lot of water!

It takes a lot to keep a cow happy, and yes, we do expect them to clean up their plates!  If they don't, there must be something wrong! 

I've linked up with Farm Friend Friday...check out some other fun farm blogs!