Last day of June

Kris was interviewed by Nicole Heslip about the dairy outlook for the summer.

It's nice owning a business with someone who is so positive! 

Happy last day of dairy month! (July is ice cream month, so we'll keep the celebration going!)

Listen to the interview here.

Throwing wrenches, mending fences

The wonderful Sarah Zastrow has a podcast called Throwing Wrenches, Mending Fences, and she interviewed me on it  - Listen here! 

Sarah teaches people to manage stress with podcasts, coaching, and speaking. She is a delightful, positive person.

The next week I visited her and Sara Reisinger at Leaman's Green Applebarn, and my friend Hailey and I did goat yoga, led by Sarah!

It was all very adorable. I hesitate to do this with calves because 1) calves are bigger, 2) their manure is bigger. But if you want to come and do yoga in my barn after signing a waiver, you're welcome to it!

Me, Hailey, Sarah

Goat with adorable name like Sprinkle Donut or something similar

Tour with Olympian Lindsay Tarpley

 

That milk is glowing!

She loved, loved the calves.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Lindsay Tarpley came to our dairy farm today for a tour that was streamed to 3700 students! She and her kids were delightful, and thank you to United Dairy Industry of Michigan for helping share about dairy farms and nutrition!

The video is here:

https://youtu.be/QA8MyRI9xuQ

It was so much fun! Thank you to our moderator Jolene and everyone behind the scenes. There was so much planning involved - many cameras, headsets, Dan running all the mics from another city ... plus working on all the questions, coordinating everything with Lindsay ... there were five UDIM staff members alone here doing it all! (Plus, this was their second visit here - we had one to check all of the technology a month ago.)

We met Lindsay once before in 2018 when she spoke at our kids' school. That story is here. She really is a delight. She brought her kids, and they were so inquisitive and interested, and I liked them so much! It was great showing them around. Lindsay is also a fantastic speaker and advocate for dairy nutrition!

Ty and Cole left school to come to it, but Max wanted to stay, and today his class watched the video. He said they thought the calves were cute - a good review! 

I love showing people the farm, and the fact that we were able to show it to 3,700 people at the same time really makes me happy. Thanks to everyone involved!

The corn popped up!

 

The corn popped up!

My entire youth I said I would never have a job that depended on the weather, because my family spent so much time hoping it would rain or stop raining. I particularly remember sitting on the porch swing with my mom, willing the clouds to open up. So now... raindrops on the window woke me up Saturday night, and since we really, really needed rain, it was great. I definitely didn't follow through on that weather-related goal, but the risk is worth the reward!

Stalls are free, feeder is in, manure is hauled, corn is planted

What a busy, busy month on our farm.

Yesterday we were at dinner with friends and one said, "I have no idea what it's like on a modern farm."

Kris and I started to explain a little bit, and one part I wanted to emphasize that I normally don't is this:

There is continual activity here. Milk truck, feed truck, electricians, builders, vets, salesmen, plus all our regular team members. There is always someone coming and going. It's a beehive of activity and people and vehicles.

Free stalls

We added 140 free stalls overall to our barn. We had to do this to make room for the additional heifers we're keeping. To explain this, our cows have a calf every year, and about half of them are heifers. If we keep every heifer, then our herd grows, because obviously we don't cull half our cows every year. (We still have to sell heifers, but this helps.) This was a giant project that required tons of work, which was done by our building company, and it lasted from December until now.

Feeder

This was another project that lasted from December until now, due to parts and timing and everything else that happens with multiple companies working on projects! We would have put in a system like our new barn, where you just put feed on the cement in front of them, instead of this feeder system that is mechanized and can break, but we have manure pits under the barn. As a result, the floor wouldn't be able to support our tractors and wagons. So! We put in a feeder that we hope lasts the rest of our CAREER. It also speeds up the feeding process, which everyone is happy about!

Manure

We use a company to haul our manure, and now we have so many cows that we have to do it multiple times a year. They got even bigger equipment, and in two days they hauled 2.5 million gallons of manure out of our lagoon and spread it on our field. I think back to when we had one tiny manure hauler and it took weeks. Of course, we had fewer cattle then, but this is still a nice time savings, especially when the weather doesn't always cooperate.

Corn planting

The corn is halfway in as of yesterday, and the rest is going in today! It is warm but very dry, and already everyone is worried, because that's all you can do about weather. It is a universal trait about farming. Check the weather, worry about the weather, talk about the weather ... despite my vow that I would never have a job that depended on the weather ... I do! Of course, I also work from home as a writer, so that has never depended on the weather, so it partly came true. 

On to May and more and more and more activity!

https://www.facebook.com/TruthOrDairy

https://www.instagram.com/truthordairyfarm/

March on

It's construction season! We're still adding free stalls on to the barn - now the other side - fixing the driveway, and making a new feeder. These are huge changes for us. We have people in and out all the time. It's been happening through the snow, ice, mud, and rain, and now ... it's spring and it feels fantastic!

A friend sent me this post from REAL Seal Dairy of my tiny boys. They were four years old here. 

And here they are yesterday, doing calf chores! They are so helpful. I rode with Cole while he drove the 4-wheeler - also called a quad, but we always called it a 4-wheeler, and he is a good driver. 

Kris and I have been running a lot, and we even started a Run Club in St Johns that is SO FUN!

My friend Annie Link, also a dairy farmer, is holding a race at her farm on May 8. It even goes through her barns! We're excited to run it, and you can sign up here:

Dairy Discovery Road and Trail 5k and 15k

I post many more pictures (and much more frequently) on Facebook and Instagram, and you can follow both of those here:

https://www.facebook.com/TruthOrDairy

https://www.instagram.com/truthordairyfarm/

Detroit Mom and Domino's Pizza tour!

Last fall blogger Elizabeth Lewis of Detroit Mom came on a visit arranged by UDIM! 

It was a fun, two-part visit - one, go to Domino's and make our own pizzas with owner Eric Arntson and his family. We focused heavily on cheese and how it got there in the first place, since most farming boils down to food. 

Two, the bloggers, their friends, their families, and the Arntsons came to tour our farm! So we all took the entire journey from the beginning - calves, feed, raising healthy heifers, cows, milking routine - to the end, cheese on your delicious pizza. 

THINGS FROM THE TOUR

1. Eric loves showing people how to make pizza, and he and his daughter Abby were really good at it. It was so fun to go behind the counter and do it ourselves. Our kids - all of them there - really loved it, too. Kris made his own cheese bread, which he orders all the time from Domino's.

2. We are Domino's lovers already. They are the only pizza place that will deliver to our farm, and we buy a lot of it for our family and for our team. A LOT. I mean, we have the app and are frequent buyers and we all know our order by heart. Eric and his family also live in St Johns, and we're happy they're part of our community! 

3. We talked about nutrition and safety and all of the important things people should know about milk and cheese, but we also talked about the wonderful taste.

4. My boys each had their own pizza to themselves, and THAT does not happen. 

5. Domino's has a great relationship with dairy farmers! Order extra cheese!

Then on the farm ...

1. During my tour, I told them there's no party without dairy. Pizza party! Ice cream party! We're there. It's hard to party without us.

2. Elizabeth's son Nolan really jumped in and did all the things that my farm boys did. Get in the pen with the calves? Climb up the side of the barn? Run in the pasture among them? Yep. He was all in, and we loved it.

3. Christina of Socially Chrissy was there with her daughter Eden, and she really made me laugh. She also has a fierce love of dairy, and it's so great hearing that!

4. Elizabeth loves cows in a serious way, and will travel any distance to see them. It's always heartwarming to have people on the farm who feel that way about animals.

5. Katie Jones of Lansing Mom came with her kids, and she was my kids' friends' parent's student teacher! You find me a person, I'll find a connection!  

Honestly, showing people around our farm, going through the end product of the milk, talking about the ins and outs and benefits and consumer fears - it's all so wonderful, productive, and fun. You're all welcome! I'll bring the ice cream, and Eric's bringing the pizza - it's a party!

Domino's Tour with Detroit Mom

Wardin Family Farm Tour with Detroit Mom

I assure you, they ate these like someone might try to take them away.

Kris is loyal to these jalepeno cheesy breadsticks.

Welcome to our farm! And windblown hair! I need a hat.

Katie, her son, and a giant cow

Detroit Mom, Lansing Mom, St Johns mom lowercase : ) 

The whole farmy gang

Christina feeding a calf a bottle

Nolan COMPLETELY at home

Maryn, Eden, and Nolan climbing the wall in the background

Is there anything cuter? No.

We love milk and our friend Jolene!