Questions & answers

I got a couple questions on email this week -

First, from Wayne Wencl.  He farms in Blooming Prairie, MN in partnership with his dad and brother. They milk cows and ship to organic valley.  He said, "I'd find a blog post about bull safety interesting.  I always wonder how you keep employees safe from bulls as they bring up cows for milking."

Great question.

Since we do all our breeding by bulls, (which isn't as common as artificial insemination), bull safety comes up a lot.

First, we buy bulls that are about a year old.  The younger they are, we've found, the less aggressive they are.

Also, we keep them at maximum for a year.  Basically, we buy them from different farms at a year old, we raise them for a year, and then we sell them.

We've also found that if the bulls are kept busy by breeding cows, they are not interested in messing with people.

Last, if any bull is aggressive or threatening to anyone, we sell him right away.  We don't ever want to compromise anyone's safety.

I understand the threat of bulls - my grandpa was seriously hurt by a bull.  The bull came after him, knocked the pitchfork out of his hands, and knocked him down against the feeder.  He kept butting him up against it.  Finally he managed to crawl up into the feeder to get away from the bull.  He drove himself to the barn to find his sons and had to go to the hospital - four broken ribs.

So, there are lots of pros and cons to breeding with bulls.  By doing it this way, we personally haven't had problems so far.  We just try to keep them young ... and busy!


***

Next, I had a question from my longtime friend Suzie Fromson.  Her now-husband Jared worked on the farm here when he was a teenager.

Suzie wrote, "Your latest blog post made me wonder something...   you mentioned trying to get the timing just right for planting, fertilizing, etc.  In the farming community, do you feel competition between farmers?  Like, how often would it happen where you see a nearby farmer out plowing early and you're like 'Oh shoot!  Do they know something we don't know?' and then you hurry to catch up, or you go ask them about it?"

I really loved reading this question, because it gives me the chance to explain something non-farmers don't know.

Here it is: farmers are thinking about planting, field work, and harvesting every single second of every single day of the season.

First, we have to plant in a certain time frame, but it can't be too wet or too dry.  All of the work to get the field ready has to be done.  All of the equipment has to be ready.  If you're paying someone else to plant, you have to be on their schedule.

Then when it comes to harvesting, it's the same game with the weather again - everything has to be just right.

Why?  Because our planting and harvesting is so important - we have to feed our cattle and we want the absolute best quality and quantity, so they give the most and best milk.

Are farmers watching other farmers?  Are farmers talking to other farmers?  Yes!  They think of and talk about little else.  Farmers on Facebook post about it.  Friends talk about it.  Schedules are planned around it.  Some farms go out and feed everyone on a tractor meals so they never have to stop to eat once they start.  If the weather is right, people plant and harvest day and night to get it done.

Is it competitive?  I don't think we're competing with each other - I get more the feeling that we're all in this together.  We ALL want to be in the fields and we ALL want the weather to be perfect!  We're more competing against time.

That said, it rained today.  We won't be planting until next week at the earliest.  This now affects our October vacation plans because the corn harvest will be later than usual.  Yes, it's all tied in together!

Thank you for your questions!  Now I'll go back to my kids where my questions are always the same:  "What can I eat?"  "What are we having for dinner?"  and, "Can I have two desserts?"

Any questions?  Feel free to ask!  Email me at address above, or contact me on Facebook or Twitter @carlashelley 

Bulls

We breed our cattle naturally, which means we use bulls to impregnate them.

My dad - whose 67th birthday is today, happy birthday, Dad! - visited my uncle and aunt's dairy farm in New Mexico last week. They impregnate their cattle using artificial insemination. My dad said he joked with them that bulls do the same job, and faster.

With artificial insemination you know exactly when the cow is in heat and when she gets pregnant. Using bulls is not as labor-intensive, but you don't know exactly when. Plus, you can buy bull semen from semen companies with desired characteristics.

Speaking of which, did you see the news story about redheads? Apparently there's not a huge demand for redheaded children, so the world's largest sperm bank can "afford to be picky." Just like people can pick a donor with traits they hope to pass along, people can pick bulls with traits they hope the resulting calves will have. I hope next year using a red and white Holstein will change the look of the pasture a little.

Bulls do their job and move on. We bought a bull in July. Today we sold him to a different farm. Next year, we're leasing out a bull to another farm. As long as they're doing their job, and they don't hurt themselves, they don't really go down in value. Whether they're fast, slow, or red, it doesn't much matter as long as they pass on those desireable traits. And continue to sell for (almost) as much as you bought them!

First calves!

An exciting day! The first calves were born! Kris came home right after he left in the morning - I thought something was wrong - but he was coming to get towels to dry off the little calves. (Oh, it was raining. Have I mentioned the endless rain?)

This is the way it works - at least three times a day Kris walks or drives in the pasture to see if he finds any calves. If a cow is having trouble, he helps her, but most of them just give birth unassisted.

He got a blue towel and a pink towel, I noted. They were the first ones he grabbed, but really - a heifer and a bull!


He at first thought they might be twins, because not only were they close to each other in the pasture, but he could only find one mother. This wouldn't be the best scenario, because when there are male/female twins in cattle, the heifer is infertile the majority of the time. However, he found the second mother later in the day. Hooray!

One mother was a heifer (her first calf, so now she's a cow) and one was a cow (which means she's already had a calf before.) The cow had plenty of colostrum to give, so he bottlefed them and they drank well.

So, the first two! About 298 to go, all between now and August 15. Kris' schedule for the next three months is pretty set. Ready, set, calve!

Bulls

"Where's dad?"

"He took a bull to the auction to sell it."

"Is it going to be steak now?"

"No, he actually sold it to a farmer who's going to use it to breed his cows."

"Then is it going to be steak?"

"Well, maybe. Or it might go to a different farm after that."

"THEN is it going to be steak?"

"Possibly. It'll end up as steak or hamburger eventually."

"I don't want our cows to be steak!"

"Why? You like steak."

"Yeah, I like steak. When is dad coming home? And when are we having steak?"

&&&

The employees replaced both doors to the milking parlor today. One of them was the original door - circa 1970s. I'm sure the cows will appreciate the new decor.

The builders continue through the rain and wind. There were seven trusses up by the end of the day!

The 10-day forecast shows rain almost every day, and it's thundering right now. Planting soon? Not looking likely. Maybe Kris will just have more time to grill up some steaks for the kids.

Thanks, bulls

It’s the time of the year when we don’t need bulls any more, because the cows have been bred.

We bought 16 bulls this year to breed about 300 cows and 100 heifers. This is the way we breed them: we buy them from a few different farms to get a good mix in the gene pool. (We never breed them from our farm’s bulls, because they’d be reproducing with distant family members. And we all know what happened to the royal families that did that.)

Then, we put them in the pasture with the cattle. The bulls then breed all the heifers and cows as soon as possible. Sometimes the bulls are so busy doing their job, that they don’t take time to eat and get really skinny. Last year Kris was worried when he saw a bull splayed out in the pasture, head down and all stretched out. He went to check him and he was fine . . . just exhausted. They’re very dedicated workers.

Cows gestate for nine months, so we put the bulls in with them on July 30, so they’ll start having calves about May 1. Obviously, they don’t all get pregnant the first month they’re with the bulls, but they usually get pregnant within the first few months.

This isn’t the way all farms do it. Lots of them use artificial insemination. But for our low-cost, low-maintenance herd, it works for us to let nature run its course.

After they’ve done their job, we sell them. Other people buy them to breed their cattle or to eat.

Sometimes we get the same price when we sell the bull as we paid for the bull in the first place. Pretty good deal for us. And not a bad temp job for the bull.