Red

Kris' dad brought over bulls today to put in with the heifers - because nine months from now it'll be calving time all over again! (Can you believe it?)

One of them was a red and white Holstein.

I was excited. I like when new calves have recessive traits - due to the history of our cattle, sometimes calves show up looking a little Guernsey, some a little Jersey.

But a red and white Holstein! I couldn't remember having a bull like this, or ... really, seeing them around.

I asked Kris about them and why black and white are more popular than red and white. He said that black and white was just sort of the preference, even though they're the same breed of cattle. He said, "Just like all redheads - persecuted!"

He was joking, but there is quite a history with red and whites and their popularity or lack thereof.

I immediately thought of my good friend Julie:



She has beautiful red hair. People always notice it and comment on it.

So hopefully next year, some of our calves will be red and white. And we'll be welcoming and complimenting them. Especially when Julie comes to visit.

Calf & Heifer Resource Center

Megan Pierce wrote an article about our new barn in the Calf & Heifer Resource Center for Dairy Herd Network. It's titled Combo Barn Makes Sense.

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It rained 1 3/4 inches last night! The corn already looks better. They're predicting some more rain tonight, too.

This morning my son asked me, "Did you see the thunder and hear the lightning last night?" I said no. He couldn't believe I missed it ... until I told him he had it backward.

Wild

Kris called me to tell me there was a heifer having a calf really close to the road. I loaded up the kids and drove down there ... and she'd already had it. I was disappointed. He told me I'd have many years to see calves born.

Later at lunch, Kris said, "I don't know if this will make you happy or not ... but that heifer had twins. She had two heifers. Our last heifer of the year to give birth had two more!"

It didn't make me happy. I should have stuck around, hoping for another one to come out.

So all the heifers have calved. After about 270 calves born this year, there are 26 more cows to have calves. Unfortunately, they have them even faster than heifers. But here's to hoping! I have a few more chances to see a calf being born this year.

Kris suggested I take the binoculars and sit out on the porch, checking. It probably would work ... but my own little bull pen here would get pretty restless if that's how I spent my time.

On the way home from my unsucessful trip, I did get to see the blue heron, and it even stayed still for a picture. We watched it for a long time. Since when are wild animals so compliant? They need to talk to the cows.

Technology

The other day a cow had a calf. She'd lost her ear tag, and dad wanted Kris to know which one she was. So he took a picture of her from both sides with his iPhone.

My mom talked about it later and said, "Remember when I used to have to draw all the cows?"

We used to have registered Guernsey cows. Part of their registration papers included a blank cow picture and my mom would draw their markings on. Both sides and the front of their faces. It seemed like it always took a long time to sketch all those cows and get their markings! It worked, regardless.

Other farmers register their cattle, and of course they take digital pictures for their papers. It's just another one of those things I'll tell my grandchildren about. We used to have phones that hooked to the walls, and we had a party line! We used card catalogs in libraries! The internet didn't exist when I was born! And ... grandma used to draw the cattle's markings to identify them!

They won't know what I'm talking about, of course. They'll be too busy on their iPhone 7000.

Milkers

Today, Kris was supposed to meet me at a funeral of a family friend. I was genuinely surprised when he didn't. My phone was in the car, but I knew that something had gone wrong on the farm. Sure enough, when I left, I read his text telling me that the milkers weren't working and he had to go help. It's one of those things you can't put off. The cows had to get milked.

He called the people who fix them, and eventually they were able to get them working again. Good thing, since we were hosting a party with my entire family (coming from out-of-state) and Kris' family (coming from out-of-town).

It was our annual Anderson Olympics, which we've held for many years. We play different (silly) games and award points.

Kris was a little late, the milking got done later than usual, I'm glad people work on things like this on Sundays, and ... we have a new Anderson Olympics champion.

The final game had us moving an Oreo from our foreheads to our mouths without using our hands. Another surprise - we didn't eat them with milk.


Mike Wardin, Kris' dad, 2011 Anderson Olympics Winner

Moving day

All the calves are in the new barn! Josh and Kris moved all the calves from the old barn to the new barn today. They took trailer-loads of calves over in groups of eight. We went down to see the big excitement ... they all walked around and checked out the straw, their food, their water, each other. They kicked in the air and ran around. It seems so much better than their old barn, especially in this warm weather.

When I went down there later just before dark, they were all lying down and it was silent.

It'll be strange to not have calves right next door. We've been able to walk over there to see them for years - as long as I can remember. It's a new era. Improved conditions for them and for the people feeding them.

A nice finish to the day, not a surprise after the start. This was the first thing I saw this morning - a hint of a rainbow.

But it's a humid heat ...

It says it's 95 degrees outside. Yesterday and today have been blazing hot. It hurts to stand on the cement, the grass is prickly, and the cattle are hot.

They stand under trees for shade and go in the barn, and they pant. Milk production always goes down when it's hot because they don't eat and drink as much. We're hoping the weather breaks for their sake, since their preferred temperature is 50 degrees. My swimming lesson students, on the other hand, are really enjoying it.

Chance of rain tomorrow, which would be great for the corn, as well as everything else. (It's impossible to not talk about the weather when you're a farmer.)

Also ... we moved the seven week old calves into groups in the new barn today! We removed the dividers between their pens and made up two groups of eight. Kris said they jumped around, excitedly checking out their new pen, and tried to suck on each other's ears.

Kris said that the new barn is so well-ventilated that it's about 15 degrees cooler in there. He suggested we all sleep in there tonight. So far the box fan is doing the job - what, you thought a house with bees in the walls also had air conditioning? Nah. Imagine what critter we'd have living in that! - but if I find him gone, I'll know just where to look for him.