Big Ten Tournament

Kris, my dad, and two friends went to the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana this past weekend to watch Michigan State University win it all!

(That exclamation point understates my excitement.  If you could have seen us watching the game ...)

Last night Kris got home to do payroll and he said that Kody had hurt his foot playing basketball and got someone to cover one of his milkings.  Then Kris saw that on Sunday, he'd started milking and had had another employee finish for him.  So his foot must really be bothering him, poor guy!

But the whole chain of events - Kody hurt, tells Kris, doesn't milk, gets someone to finish milking on his own - is great.  We have such wonderful team members here!  They're the reason Kris can leave and everything still gets done!

And since we love to travel, I could throw in quite a few more exclamation points.  !!!

* Note later in the day - Kody was sick and came to milk anyway.  He was so sick that he couldn't finish ... so Mike drove to Ryan's house to find him and ask him to finish up.  Thanks, guys!

Ag Day

Today is National Ag Day! I didn't know there was an Ag Day until this year, because I read about it on my friends' Facebook and twitter posts.  How are you celebrating?!  That might be the nicest thing about Ag Day ... no matter what you eat for your celebratory dinner, it'll be food a farmer produced. So eat up! I hope your food tomorrow is just as enjoyable ... even though the day after a holiday is always sort of a letdown.  Taking down the Ag Day decorations, the Ag Day lights ... but March 8th will be here again before we know it!

Falling

Kris is thinking of taking the haymow out of our old barn.

It would be like taking out the second story floor. Since there aren't any calves in there any more, there's no need to throw straw bales down. Since we get really big bales now - both square and round - getting rid of the second floor would allow us to store bales and stack them up high.

Our builder came over to take a look and give us some quotes.

He showed Kris that the barn is starting to bow. The main supports are starting to pull away from the sides. If we don't do anything, eventually the roof will collapse.

Instead, we're going to brace it. That means we'll put a plate on either end and run a cable through the whole thing to hold it all together. This is new to me, but Kris said he's seen it done in other barns.

There's also a tree in our yard that's dead. It's split down the middle. The road commission called me and asked me if I wanted them to cut it down. (When it falls, it's going to fall in the road.)

I reluctantly said yes. It's going to fall sometime, yes, but that could be years from now. I also don't want it to fall while some car is sitting there at the stop sign.

He came and spray painted a big orange 'X' on it today, marking it for felling. After it's gone, I'm going to immediately plant another one in the same place.

This centennial farm needs constant maintenance! But hey - no one gets to 100 without some repair work.

Signs

I saw a robin today! Later I saw a whole flock of them! (If a flock is three.) It was exciting, because it really seems like spring. It was sunny and warm - it got up to 59 degrees. Soon we'll be consumed with planting and calving. This is the calm before the storm.

I also got ... pinkeye. This is the second time in my life I've gotten it, the last time being fourteen years ago. I just wrote about pinkeye in cattle on Sunday, and I can't shake the idea that this is why I got it. I just looked too long at those pictures. Those ads are even more powerful than I originally thought.

Drink chocolate milk

Kris and I were at the MSU basketball game yesterday. Suddenly the announcer said, "... Please stay for our halftime show, which is sponsored by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan."

I immediately stood and gave a round of applause. (Yes, it was a lone ovation, but deserving.) Nice placement, UDIM!

UDIM is a non-profit that provides "dairy product promotion and nutrition education services on behalf of funding members." All Michigan dairy farmers give a portion of every milk check to them.

The halftime show was The Skyriders: High Flying Trampoline Show. It was really fun to watch, especially the last trick. Ken Kovach does what he calls a 'neck breaker'. He goes up super high and pretends like he's going to land horribly. Like his head is literally going to snap off. Like anyone who's jumped on a trampoline for any extended period of time has done or seen and never wants to do either again. Then, at the last second he tucks his head and avoids injury. There was a collective gasp from the crowd.

And they also had this!

You can see the UDIM logo on the big screen and the 'Choose chocolate milk' plug everywhere.

Combining dairy, an exciting show, MSU basketball ... and chocolate? Hard to go wrong.

Dairy ads

It's time for another look through Progressive Dairyman to see what's for sale!

This week I'm going to focus on the 'showing' part of the ad.

In few ads for human products do they show you the picture of the malady. For instance, you almost never see a real picture of toenail fungus. Instead, the commercials show a gross cartoonish character. (Which is gross enough, of course.)

But the ads here ...

They want to show you it, warts and all. Literally.

I guess that works as an educational tool as well. For instance, say you didn't know what your cows had. You browse through the magazine, and - they must have warts!

Warts on hooves are bad for cattle because it hurts them. We use a foot bath to prevent and treat warts.

The same applies to pinkeye. I've never seen a human pinkeye treatment that shows a kid with crusty, weepy eye. Maybe I don't see enough parenting magazines, but that seems out of place.

But the dairy magazines - yes! How do you know it's pinkeye if you don't know what it looks like?

Need a closer look?

A different product? And picture? Yes, please!

But it's not to say that everything about the ads is different. It's certainly not.

Take a look at this next ad. It's for Animat, a company that sells mats for cattle to lie on in barns.

So among the infected hooves and eyes you see a pretty milkmaid? It stands out. Not only does the old adage 'sex sells' apply, but she looks even better next to warts.

Quote

Andrew Breitbart died today.

He once wrote, “I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and -- famously -- I enjoy making enemies. Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I've lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I've gained hundreds, thousands -- who knows? -- of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night."

I love that quote.

Every day on the internet I read opinions with which I don’t agree. Like: GMO crops are evil. Rich people should pay all the taxes while poor people should pay none. Dairy is bad for you. Organic should be the only choice of food available. Farmers are money-hungry people-haters who want to pollute the world and your body.

I don’t believe any of those things.

Yesterday Kris went to the capitol with Farm Bureau to give support to a bill that exempts farm vehicle drivers from having to have a commercial driver’s license to drive a truck pulling a trailer. Another government regulation.

Another one that’s up – labor laws. Under a new proposal, no child under 16 on a farm can do anything on a farm, unless it’s your kid. So my nephew couldn’t run an electric screwdriver, my friends’ kids couldn’t help feed a calf a bottle … a teenager who wants a part-time job couldn’t work here. The original proposal didn’t even have the parental exemption.

Even if that’s passed, it won’t be respected or obeyed. And enforced? Come on.

What’s the best we can do? Be a part of organizations that try to affect the outcome of laws. So we try. And we do.

Unless I’m directly confronted, I don’t often voice my more controversial opinions. I save my defenses for the things that matter most to me. Laws definitely do. I’ll fight for what I believe in, and I’ll sleep well at night.