On the rise

I went to Arizona for the National Cattleman's Beef Association trade show and presented with U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance.  We are launching a free app called engAGe that aims to let farmers quickly get updates and share news on all the social channels.  (I'll share when it launches.)





The opposite of Arizona was Tuesday this week.  The snow melted and it rained for two days.  The ground was still frozen, so there was nowhere for it to go but up!  Our house and barns are on high ground, so no harm done.  The water came up over the culvert, but not over our road - but roads were closed in other places.  (Yes, the same places it rains when we desperately need it and don't get it in the summer!)  Now that it's Thursday, it's definitely down.





We still have a few cows that are calving ... the cows are doing great ... machines are breaking ... so just the regular end-of-February.  Except - there's rain in the forecast for tomorrow, so we'll see how high this creek can really get!

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

School is closed, farm is open

It's such a beautiful winter day! It's another snow day for my kids, but as always there's the normal work on the farm...milking, feeding, and driving snowy roads to pick up the milk. Thanks to all!

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelleblog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

Is there added sugar in regular milk? No.

People have asked me why sugar is in milk, because when you look at the label, there it is: Sugar 11g in whole, 2%, and skim.

Check out my Kroger milks:

Great news!

There is no added sugar in regular milk.

Sugar in unflavored milk is natural sugar called lactose.  It's like how the sugar in fruit is fructose.

It's not added in processing or anything - it's just a natural component of milk.  Some might say that lactose is what gives milk its delicious, sweet flavor.  (That's me saying it.  I love milk.)  

If you're talking about flavored milk like chocolate milk, there is added sugar.  Depending on who makes it, chocolate milk has 8-12 grams of sugar added per serving.  

The makeup of chocolate milk makes it the perfect refueling drink for athletes, because it blends carbs and proteins you need to recover.  See the science on all of it here. (Some might say it's the best thing to drink after a race.  That's me, a member of Team Chocolate Milk.  I love hearing people yell 'I love chocolate milk!' at me when I race!) 

After Chicago Marathon last year ... believe me, I needed that milk:

One serving of milk - regular or flavored - provides you with nine essential nutrients. Here they are:

Protein - THERE ARE 8 GRAMS OF PROTEIN in one serving of milk.  That's a ton.  EIGHT.

Calcium - We all know this one.  30% of your daily value in one glass!

Vitamin D - Everyone's talking about Vitamin D now. Yay, milk!  25%.

Phosphorus - Strong bones plus energy. 20% of it.

Vitamin A - Everyone loves healthy skin! And good vision! 10%.

Riboflavin - Converts food to energy - 24%.

Vitamin B12 - Build red blood cells - 13%.

Potassium - Regulates fluids, blood pressure, and needed for muscle activity.  11%.

Niacin - Used in energy metabolism. 10%.   

Some people avoid sugar, some people embrace it, but no matter what you want, the information is right there on the label.  All natural, full of good vitamins, and ... delicious.  (Okay, that's not on the label.  That's me again.)

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

2018

I didn't want to let January slip past without posting an update ...

We had such a cold, cold month.  When it's cold, everything is harder to do, but it still gets done! 

The pasture looks a little bit different in the winter, but then it was in the 50s a few times, and we saw for sure it's green under there. 



The last of the calves are still being born.  Kittens and calves ... always cute.



We have farm team training sessions, and at this one we had Domino's Pizza.  In part because it's good and there's a new one in our town, and partly because they are really into celebrating dairy!



Kris and I have also been to many meetings, because winter is meeting season on dairy farms.  Local milk co-op meetings, board meetings, and meetings in far off places!

The dairy industry has had a tough few last years, and this year isn't looking like it's going to be great either.  We have high hopes, we have a great team, and we hope everyone - especially in Michigan - is enjoying some dairy products today!

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

End of 2017

Ah, I started this blog seven years ago this month, and I've gone from writing here every day to ... writing for work!

Our farm, our family, and our lives have changed so much in the last seven years, too.  It's changed even in the last year!  So, here's to a wonderful 2018 as we look back.

Project
The biggest project this year was changing from sawdust to sand bedding.  Just saying that doesn't sound so hard, right?

Last summer we had a bad problem with mastitis.  We tried everything, and the next solution was to change to sand bedding.

However, this wasn't easy.  This would require modifying our only five-year-old barn!  We wanted to pay our builders to do it, but they wouldn't be able to schedule such a huge project until after the summer ... when the heat can exacerbate the problem.

So, nearly everyone on the farm, plus the boys and me, helped.  It required taking down the free stall dividers, breaking up the cement, pouring new curbs.  We needed to painstakingly remove the mattresses and reuse them as a base for the sand.  All of this took weeks of manual labor as well as using cement contractors.  As well as all the hard work by our team, Kris and the boys spent their free time doing it.  Finally, it was done, and even better - it really solved the problem!  Saying all of that in one little paragraph doesn't really capture the amount of work that this took, involving new drills that broke bits, buying a sand shooter, bringing truck after truck of cement, moving the cows around to accommodate the work, trying to get done before the cement people came ... ah.  I'm glad it's done!










Cow Walk
Another big project we completed was a cow walk for our cattle.  We built it for them to enter the milking parlor, so we could have even more free stall space in the barn.



This project also had great results, as it gives us more barn space!  The cows liked it too, except one that did not want to walk in the new way.  She eventually accepted that this was what was happening, and moved with the rest of the herd!

People
We are very thankful for the team we have working here.  It's not always easy to find people who want to work on a farm, and we're very grateful to these great people!  I know I say this a lot, but it affects our lives each and every day, and we're so appreciative of our wonderful team.  Also new this year is that Kris is on the Michigan Milk Producers Association Board, which means he goes to more meetings, which in turn requires replacements here!  So thank you, this year and every year, to our farm team.  A special thanks to my mom and dad, who are the best volunteer workers this world has ever known!  My mom fed calves for months and my dad does any driving or running or hands-on-things we even mention, and words can't express our thanks enough.

2018
As for me, I have the farm, three or four other jobs, and these kids I like to see.  I love sharing about the farm and appreciate you taking the time to read all these years.  Here's to a wonderful next year, full of milk drinking, cheese eating, and ice cream parties.

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

Ag Business and Katie Eisenberger!

In January of 2011, Kris, our 3-month-old Max, and I went to Atlanta for the American Farm Bureau meeting.  

While we were there, Atlanta experienced quite an ice storm.  Great footage here.  There were no flights, no restaurants or museums were open, and the hotel workers even had to stay in the hotel because no one could go home.  (In fact, on the day we were trying to take a train to the airport a car nearly slid into Max and me in the street.  SO MUCH ICE!)

As a result, we spent a lot of time with the other Farm Bureau members there and got to know them very well!  One of them was Katie Eisenberger, and we've been friends every since.  She's also the daughter of a dairy farmer, and after careers at MSU extension and as in insurance, she's now an agriscience teacher at Breckenridge High School!

Katie is one of those teachers that you absolutely just loved.  We all had them.  It was obvious from the way the students acted.  She's easy to love!

Katie asked me to talk in her Ag Business class today about how to communicate with people, how to share your story, and about blogging.  The students were great (hello all), and it was incredibly enjoyable to talk with them!

Out of the class only three of them were from a farm, and one girl whose family runs a greenhouse talked with me about how ... she knew there was a lot that went into a greenhouse, but until you're DOING IT, you have no idea.  

We discussed how each farm is different - we haven't been to a chicken farm ... she hadn't been to a dairy farm ... it's all just what's around and what kind of farmer you know.  Farmers don't know the details of other kinds of farms, let alone the general public knowing about every kind of farm.  

Just like the ice storm, when we were joking about why Atlanta had no equipment or salt - why would they?!  It almost never happens, so why have that expense for a once-in-50-years event?  You don't know everything that goes into it until you're the person responsible.

I went to the gas station by the school afterward, and the cashier said, "Are you a teacher?" 

I said, "No, I'm a dairy farmer."  

"Oh!  Well, thanks for feeding all of us!" he said cheerfully.  

And thanks to people like Katie Eisenberger, who are teaching all about it!  

Happy Thanksgiving, all!  

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.

Thanks, Mom! It's November ...

The cows used to have all of the calves in the summer, which made for some long and hard days ... like when 18 calves would be born in a day.

Kris thought that this year we would space them out a little bit more, so as a result ... we're still feeding little calves after our summer help went back to college!

My mom, the best volunteer in the land, offered to do the morning calf chores, and she's been great!  Kris and I don't know what we would do - or the calves would do - without her.





While that's been happening, we've had a lot of promotion, too.  One day the United Dairy Industry of Michigan hosted their program advisor training at the Huntington Club at Michigan State.  This is my friend Karly who was a part of it - (she looks just like a college student even though she is married and has a baby!)



I went to the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance annual meeting in Kansas City to continue our mission to positively promote agriculture ...



And as a member of Team Chocolate Milk, ran a 5K in my hometown with my kids and friends.  Cole won his age group - first time! (Yes, he has been heavily influenced by watching Olympic winners bite their medals.)



The five of us hit the national dairy meeting in California that Kris went to because he's a board member at our co-op ...



and today was our Michigan Milk Producers Association Leaders' Conference.



So you can see why my mom - and our employees that we actually pay - are such a huge part of all of this!  Thank you to all of them for taking care of things while we're not here.

Though it looks like we've been gone in November, we're actually here more than we're gone.  I just hit the highlights with these pictures.  The normal schedule for Kris is farm, farm, farm, farm, farm, farm, Michigan State football game ... but we just had the last home game!

The meeting was optimistic today, but I hope that the rest of 2017 and 2018 ... and beyond is only positive for farming!  Happy Thanksgiving - we all have a lot to be thankful for. At the very least, I'm already really looking forward to stuffing myself at dinner ... and my mom is, of course, making most of it.  Calves, kids, grandchildren ... she feeds all of us!

Want to know more about the farm?  Like the page on Facebook, on Twitter @carlashelley, or sign up to get the blog by email - the form is on the right side of the page.