Numbers

There are about 50,000 dairy farms in America. Not that many, right?

The good part: I can tell my friends how lucky they are to know me. Haha.

The bad part: There’s not a lot of competition amongst companies vying for our money.

As a result – how much do you think this costs?



This is a plastic sprayer, much like a hose nozzle. It’s used to spray teat dip on the cows. Did you guess $100? Yes!

It’s not as if there’s no competition, it’s just limited. It’s not like going into a grocery store and seeing 20 different kinds of sponges. You have a few choices, and you pay for what you get. Even though we don’t have tons of variety among companies … at least politicians try to cater to farmers!

And on another positive note, one of our employees bought the tractor! For almost the same amount … we can buy another sprayer.

Postcard

It snowed about four inches last night. We were going ice skating at a friend's pond but Kris told us to go without him - the skid steer had another hydraulic leak from a different hose. We went, he fixed it.

I hate to keep listing things that keep breaking, (do you hear me, Caterpillar? Love you, but sad about the hydraulic hoses!) but it's really just part of working with machinery. In the winter.

Here's what I saw from my window this morning - pretty snow covered trees.

Sights like this make it easy to appreciate the best parts of winter. Snow, skating, hot chocolate, and ample hydraulic fluid.

What a deal

What do you do with a dead tractor?

Right on the way to school is a place I call the tractor graveyard. It’s just rows and rows of dead tractors and combines and such. None of them work – they just sell the parts off of them.

So Kris called them and asked if they wanted our dead (well, dying) tractor. They said they got two of them last year and they’re not “parting out well.” Which means they don’t want another one, because they already have two that they’re not selling parts off of.

So he asked about scrapping it. It is possible to take the entire thing to the scrap yard. You know, after you drain all the lines, remove the tires, and do whatever else you have to do to make it only metal.

Or … does anyone want a (dying) tractor? I’ll throw in a broken treadmill for free!

Drive-by

I was in college when I noticed that - other than color - you can tell cars apart. I simply had never paid attention before. (To the extreme. A friend told me he bought a Mustang and I said, "Cool! What's it look like?")

So I don't claim to be any expert on cars or other vehicles.

But today, when I was walking into the house, carrying a crying child and four bags of groceries, I peered through the snow to see an unfamiliar tractor driving by.

I smiled and sort of nodded my head at the driver I couldn't see. I didn't think much about it, but after Kris came home, he told me ... yes, he bought the tractor.

"Does it have a little cover on the top?" I asked.

"A canopy? Yes," Kris said.

"I saw Mike drive by!" I said.

So even though I can't identify vehicles or people driving I've known my entire life, I do know a strange tractor when I see one. Neighborhood watch, I'm ready.

Out with the old, in with the old

Time to buy! Fun things! If you consider buying a tractor fun!

Kris went to look at an old tractor today. You can't say new tractor, because it was made in the early 1990s. And is very used.

He's replacing the tractor that's used to scrape the manure out of the barn every day. The one we were using was also an old tractor, and they stopped using it before it died. (It was doing something called 'knocking.' Maybe as in on death's door.)

Why use an old tractor? We only use it two hours a day. Our part-time employees can drive it, because it drives a lot more like a car than a skid steer. Some people use skid steers to scrape manure because they're easy to maneuver around in tight spaces (like a barn.) But a skid steer is more like heavy equipment. Plus, you can do a lot more (accidental) damage with a bucket.

But it was trapped with a bunch of equipment around it, so the seller's going to call Kris when he can take it out for a test drive.

A little different than buying a new car? Yes. But you don't have to leave your license with the seller. They know they'll be able to catch up with you. Probably at a brisk walk.

Vitamins, minerals, and ... soy hulls

The nutritionist came over to talk with Kris today.

Most dairy farms have a nutritionist. Our nutritionist works for the feed company where we buy our feed, though there are also independent ones who do it as a paid service. They all went to school for it – like majored in animal science. (Did you know any nutritionists in school? I only knew the people kind.)

A nutritionist helps balance the feed ration by taking samples of the silages, analyzing them, and recommending additional supplements – like vitamins, minerals, additional sources of protein like soybean meal or fiber like soy hulls - to maximize milk production. Soy hulls! Sounds delicious.

There’s a whole science and field of study that spells out the ideal levels of digestibility, energy, and protein for optimum cattle performance. They work with the numbers on the feedstuffs, plug it into a computer program, and determine the best diet that balances cost and milk production.

They talked mainly about putting together a ration for the dry cows. (Dry cows means they’re not being milked. This means that for about a month and a half before they have a calf, we don’t milk them, so their bodies can concentrate on having a calf.)

Kris wants to make sure they’re getting the best nutrition for when they’re not being milked. If you feed them too much corn silage when they’re not giving milk, then all the extra energy and fiber goes to make them too fat. So you want to give them enough to nourish them and the growing calf, but not so much that they get too big. (Hence the insult fat cow?)

There’s a game called ‘Would You Rather’. One time we were playing and it asked would you rather have your own free personal chef, massage therapist, or chauffer. Everyone chose personal chef, and we all went on and on about how great it would be to have someone in the kitchen serving you up exactly what you wanted.

I hope the cows see it the same way. More like a professional chef, less like pregnant Weight Watchers.

Evergreen Dairy

Farms have names, because they're businesses. A lot of them use the family's last name. Some of them describe the surrounding geography. Some of them mesh the guy and girl's names together - like when my grandparents combined Caroline and Dale and called it CarDale. (My dad changed it, but we still got mail for CarDale Farms all the time. We still do. When just the 'Car' is peeking out I always think it's a super exciting letter for me.)

Kris thought of the name of our farm. He wanted the word 'dairy' in it, because as he pointed out, a 'farm' could be many things. A dairy is more specific.

'Evergreen' also meant a lot of things to us ... pasture-based, as in green grass. Green as in MSU Spartans. There's a huge evergreen tree in our yard. Kris used to live on Evergreen Avenue at MSU. And green as in profit! (I may have added that one later.)

Kris designed a logo this year and had graphic designer Carol Stewart finalize it. It incorporates the grass, the water from irrigation, and of course, the all-important cow.



Yes, that's it on a gray shirt. Not green. That might have been overkill.