Truth or Dairy

I'm so excited to write this post ...

2013-05-20T22:24:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited to write this post, because I've been thinking about it for months. But until today, I didn't know the ending.

Many cows in a herd near Kris' dad's farm were diagnosed with bovine tuberculosis. To track down the source, the state tested every herd within a ten-mile radius of that farm. They also tested deer. They also tested farms that sold animals to that farm or were sold from that farm.

Two and a half years ago, we sold two bulls to that farm. So on April 6, we found out our herd was going to be tested.

When I first learned about this, I thought that if your herd had TB, you couldn't farm anymore, because your facilities and land would be infected. The state comes and puts lime on your fields and helps you sanitize everything, but you have to observe a waiting period. Since there's no vaccine or medication for tuberculosis, if the cattle have it, they put them down. What if you don't have enough money to build up your herd again? I was really worried, because I thought that if we had TB, then Kris would have to find a new career. I asked him repeatedly - for a worst case scenario - to tell me exactly what job he'd be doing if we weren't farming. (He gave me a different answer every time. Some of them were even sincere.)

They couldn't come and test until the end of April, because there were 66 farms within a ten-mile radius of the original farm. Yes, 66 herds to test! Kris' dad's was one of them and had no positive reactors. Hooray!

The state vets brought their own chutes, which are really a set of portable gates with a headlock. Over two days, they (with of course Kris and the guys' help) tested over 500 animals. They do the test by giving them a tiny shot at the base of their tails. They also had to give them a special ear tag. It took many hours.

Then two days later, they had to do it all over again. This time, they had to check every single one of them to see if they had a reaction to the shot.

If they have a reaction, they take blood. Then then do a blood test. If the cow doesn't pass the blood test, they put her down to look for lesions. If they don't see lesions, they check the lymph nodes under a microscope.

On the day they checked for reactors, Kris was at the barn helping ... and I was waiting anxiously to see how many had a reaction. What if our whole herd had TB? What number was he going to tell me? Whatever it was, it was going to really affect our future plans.

Finally, they were done, and we had seven reactors. It was way fewer than the percentage of reactors they were assuming we'd get. They said that this didn't mean they had TB - just some cattle are more sensitive than others. They also said that the reactions were very small - like mosquito bites, and on the affected farm the reactions were the size of bananas.

I was feeling pretty good. So, the news a week later from Kris really crushed me. Out of the seven blood tests, two of them tested positive.

The state vet assured us the blood tests aren't 100% accurate. (Thank goodness?)

It seems like they would immediately swoop in and take the two cows. But since they're doing this all over the state, it took a little longer. Two weeks after we got that call, they took away the cows to be put down. The state paid us for them, which made it a little less painful for us, but crummy for them.

My dad called it the Salem Witch Trial of TB tests.

Three days after they took them, they called and gave us the good news - no lesions. They told us we passed step one, and we'd get the microscope test results today.

So today we got the call - NO TB! TB-FREE! What an incredible relief. I've been thinking about this and worrying about it every day for 44 days.

Like I said, there's no vaccine or medicine for bovine tuberculosis. The original farm isn't at fault. You can't control disease that's passed by respiratory secretions. In Michigan, bovine TB has been found in "white-tailed deer, elk, black bear, bobcat, coyote, opossum, raccoon, and red fox." (Quit congregating, animals!)

I feel for those farmers and any farmers who have TB in their herd. Of course none of us want TB in our cattle or our people. The state and the farmers all only have the public's best interest in mind. I wish all farmers and herds clean bills of health!

Thankfully, I'm writing the ending I was hoping for all along. Looks like Kris is still going to be a farmer tomorrow.

Here it is!

2013-05-14T22:29:00.000-04:00

Today's the day!

The builders put in the posts and then started framing the new freestall barn. We watched them working and it all seemed to be going very quickly.

I don't find it easy to make permanent changes. When we first moved here and started altering the house, it was hard for me to do things that would never be the same. The morning before we had a builder make closets in our house, I was really having second thoughts - what if I didn't like it? When we had them knock down an interior wall, I really had to be all in for it ... we certainly weren't going to be undoing that one!

Kris doesn't feel this way at all. Thank goodness, because we certainly need somewhere to put these cows.

Our lunchtime conversation yesterday

2013-05-12T22:50:00.002-04:00

"There were six calves this morning, and we had to pull four of them."

"Wow."

"One of them I pulled using my belt. I learned that from your dad."

"What?! Why didn't you use the chains?"

"Your dad had my truck with the chains in it."

"Oh ... did it work?"

"Yeah, it worked great. It's a sturdy belt."

"Well! I'm glad."

"It's a little crusty now."

Now I know what to get him for Father's Day.

16 going once ... going twice ...

2013-05-10T22:10:00.001-04:00

Kris, dad, and all the guys had a long day yesterday. Sixteen calves born! It's a record for us. However, we have more cows this year than any year, so it was an easy record to break.

Happily, we also got some corn planted yesterday. We pay a custom corn planter to plant some of our fields for us. It works out quite nicely that the planting is getting done while the calves are constantly being born, getting bottle-fed, having their mothers brought in for their first milking ... you get the idea.

Kris sent me to town to get a part for the calf cart, but it wasn't the right part. Today I went back and just handed the phone to the hardware store employee. I'm sure they get that a lot. He didn't even seem phased when I abondoned him in the aisle with my phone after my son declared he had to go to the bathroom.

Today was rainy, which always means fewer calves. They like to birth them on dry days. But there were eight born - that used to seem like a lot.

My neighbor Sharon watched from her backyard - and took some fantastic pictures! This is hers:

She told me, "This just never gets old."

For us, either! This is really the best time of the year on the farm. Kris would agree with me, but he's headed to bed.

Calf explosion

2013-05-08T23:12:00.001-04:00

Lots of activity at the barn - the builders were pouring cement for the utility building and a grain bin pad today. Kris let the boys write their names in it. They both wrote in cursive, because they think cursive is awesome.

Kris pointed out a cow in the pasture that he thought was going to have a calf. He could tell because she had her tail up and her udder was really big. She looked so close to calving it was even obvious to me. After he pointed her out I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed her already. She might as well as had a sign above her blinking 'IN LABOR.'

We watched her ... some of us from a higher vantage point than others ...

and in no time, the hooves were out. She laid down, gave a few pushes, and had her calf!

I was close enough to see it happen, but not close enough for really good pictures. If you want to see close pictures of a calf being born, check out my pictures here. It looked a lot like that. Really, all the easy births do.

Eight calves today! It's 10:40 p.m. and Kris is just getting home from his last calf check. How many more will be born before midnight? Only the cows will know ... this household is going to sleep. We have to get ready for more calves and cursive tomorrow!

Parlor tricks

2013-05-05T21:32:00.000-04:00

This morning a cow got her leg caught in the parlor.

There are two bars on the parlor wall to help position the cows when they come in to be milked.

Unfortunately, somehow, a cow got her leg caught between the two bars. Then she fell down. Kris and the guys worked a long time to free her leg - trying to pry the bars apart, trying to position her ... but it wasn't working. She just kept backing up and getting it more stuck. My dad went to get the torch to cut the metal, but as he did that, she managed to kick around and free herself!

She walked out of the parlor limping, but okay! Kris was really happy she was tough and that it ended well.

Kris said my dad mentioned that they should take a picture ... but they didn't. I didn't know about it until it was all over. Can you believe they're not stopping to call me and tell me to come home from town to take a picture with my nice camera? Amazing, I know. It's like they're so busy.

First the trade show, then the calf show

2013-05-02T22:31:00.000-04:00

Today I worked in the United Dairy of Industry Michigan's trade show booth at the Michigan International Women's Show in Novi, MI. It was huge! There were tons of women there and they eagerly snapped up our recipe books, nutritional information, and Got Milk? magnet clips. (We were calling them 'chip clips' but decided 'magnet clips' was a more descriptive name.)

UDIM also hosted a cooking show, with chef Dina Tallman, where she cooked guacamole, smoothies, and parfaits with lots of dairy ingredients. I assisted her in handing out the prepared food to the attendees.

This show had everything ... people getting their teeth whitened, people using shaking machines, poison ivy removal services with HORRIBLE pictures of poison ivy rashes ... everything. It was a great show, UDIM has wonderful staff, and with all the choices of booths to visit - it was nice to hear people rave about dairy!

Meanwhile, back on the farm ...

Kris came home and said, "I need your help getting calves. You can drive."

I said, "Eh ... you can drive."

He said, "I need to open and close the fences, so you should drive. Come on - it can't be trade shows and marketing all the time, there needs to be some farming!"

We laughed, gathered up the boys, and went to collect calves.

At one point you have to throw a log on top of a wire fence, then drive straight over it. (We switched on the way back so I could get the 'log throwing' experience under my belt.)

We picked up some newborn calves:

We took them to the barn where Kris clipped their umbilical cords shorter, then dipped the cords in iodine to clean them:

I took this picture because Kris got a call right then. His phone never stops ringing, actually - salesmen, farm stuff, farm stuff, farm stuff, friends and family. Today one of his calls was from Kris' former co-worker friend who just quit his job to go back and farm with his family! So trendy!

We have six heifer calves and two bull calves in the barn right now.

They're all healthy and good looking! Some little ...

Some big ...

Some really, really loud:

Whether we're in a booth in a city or on our little farm, it's all the same deal. Thank you! We hope you're enjoying your dairy products! We're enjoying producing them.

Podcast, producing, product

2013-04-29T22:20:00.002-04:00

This weekend Kris and I were guests on Kerry Nobis' podcast - The Postmodern Farmer. His brother Mitch is the producer. Here we are in his professional sound studio!

They are funny guys and we had a good time. I'll post the episode when it's online.

Mitch, Carla, Kris, Kerry

Back on the farm ... two more calves born today. One heifer, one bull. I tried to see one being born, but I got there right after she had it. I wasn't mad, since this is the first of very, very many. I'll save my anger for later in the year when I'm marveling at how few I've seen.

And one last note - all five of us eat at least one yogurt a day. Kris and I are not fans of the bulk size yogurt containers. As a result, this is what our fridge looks like at all times, since I buy yogurt on every trip:

Good thing we have a farm. We might be our own best customers.

Milking a pretend cow

2013-04-28T22:53:00.000-04:00

It's hard bringing a real, live cow into schools. So dairy people - in this case, Debbie Kubacki - have built these nifty pretend cows so that kids can get an idea of what milking one is like.

For this event, dairy farmers Heather Wing, Evelyn Minnis, and I went to the Health and Fitness Day at Hilton Elementary School in Brighton. We taught them all about dairy - the health aspect, about dairy products, the journey from the cow to the store, and how to milk!

Alex Schnabelrauch, who works for MMPA, organized it all. We had dairy cootie catchers, cow fact sewing, free milk and Gogurts, gift bags ... one kid said it was the best day of his life. (To be fair, he has only lived six years.)

The entire school had a chance to milk the cow and ask questions. It was so much fun talking to them, as few of them had ever milked a cow or even met a farmer.

An udder made of a water tank and calf bottle tips

I told them to pretend they were machines or it was the olden days, since modern farmers don't milk by hand.

She has a map of Michigan painted into her spots too. She was wildly popular.

Questions I was asked:

- "Are all farmers fat?"

He explained that farmers are always fat in cartoons. That was good, because he asked that right after I explained that I was a farmer. This also made me laugh because a friend recently asked me, "Are all male farmers good looking?"

- "Aren't their gutters really in the middle of their stomachs?"

He meant udders - kids commonly make that switch - and he thought that because in some cartoon drawings the udders are in the center of the cow.

- "How does the milk get to be chocolate?"

The boy was staring at his drink and just really wanted to understand how it all worked. You could almost see the gears turning in his head.

- "Do other mammals give milk? Like ... people?"

Yes. Ask your parents.

First heifer calf!

2013-04-27T23:53:00.001-04:00

Our first heifer calf of the year was born today!

And she's apparently spirited, too! Kris and I were in our yard playing baseball with the boys - it was a beautiful, warm day - when a woman stopped. She told us she saw a calf in the field across from the cows. Usually they stay closer to their mothers, so this was unusual.

The five of us piled into Kris' truck to go get the calf. Right away our milker and neighbor Dave called and said he could see the calf from his house. He and his sons picked her up and met us at the barn.

Dave said, "This isn't going on the internet, is it?" I assured him it was.

We fixed her up a bed of fresh straw and told her hello.

Headed in for a nap

Max said, "Hi cow!" in the same voice he uses to talk to babies.

The welcoming committee

She'd had a long walk. She mooed very loudly, probably because she was hungry. Kris found her mother, took her into the parlor to be milked, and fed her a bottle of her mother's colostrum.

Welcome to our farm! Hopefully this year's calves are just as healthy ... and stay a little closer to home.

Cooking with bloggers

2013-04-18T22:50:00.001-04:00

United Dairy Industry of Michigan put on a great event yesterday! They invited Michigan bloggers to take part in a dairy-centered cooking class at Ann Arbor Cooks.

First while we enjoyed appetizers, the chefs demonstrated what we were going to do. So funny - this was exactly what I was going to be preparing for dinner at home! (Right.)

Notice the bloggers tweeting and taking pictures. It's nice to be around people who don't mind!

Then we got our own materials and started in ... with much joking and laughing. We were all assigned to different parts of the meal.

Spring chop salad with buttermilk ranch dressing ...

Cauliflower soup and four-cheese macaroni and cheese ...

Creamy garlic mashed potatoes and pork ...

My part involved cutting up potatoes (at which I have much practice) and preparing a pork loin (at which I have zero experience.)

We sliced off the pork loin's silver skin, which we had collectively never heard of, put bacon on it, and tied it up with string, so it would all stay together and cook evenly. (Or so it wouldn't escape.)

We hung out and talked, and then it was time to eat our beautiful meal.

And finished with a salted caramel pots de crème with whipped cream and sea salt, which was heavenly.

As we cooked and ate, we talked about dairy farming and issues in food today. Like I was asked:

Do I drink raw milk? No.

Are there antibiotics in milk? No.

Are there artificial hormones in our milk? No.

Are people trying to sneak sweeteners in milk? No.

Do you buy organic milk? No. I like to buy milk where ours is sold.

Of course our conversations were longer and chattier than that, but that's just to give you an idea of the topics of the evening.

Cooking with dairy was an enjoyable night, with interesting people, and good time overall! Thank you so much to the bloggers who took the time to come. It was fun talking shop with you!

Want more? There are lots of ways to stay connected with Michigan dairy news. You know, besides just my site.

www.michigandairynewsbureau.org

www.facebook.com/michigandairynewsbureau

www.youtube.com/user/michigandairynews

www.udim.org/content/dairy-recipes

www.pinterest.com/michigandairy

Creek over the banks

2013-04-18T08:48:00.001-04:00

I thought it was a lot of rain the other day when we had a raging river ... now, the creeks are over their banks! This is the first time I've ever seen this happen. THAT'S a lot of rain.

Expect me to update this post with more 'highest ever' declarations when the water reaches the bottom of our house. Really, I'm glad my ancestors settled on high ground.

Young Farmers in Frankenmuth

2013-04-13T23:27:00.004-04:00

Yesterday Kris and I went to the Young Cooperators Conference for Michigan Milk Producers Association in Frankenmuth, Michigan.

Could be Germany, could be pseudo-Germany!

This is my fourth time going to the conference, but this year, we helped plan and execute it! We had a great time listening to the speakers, going on the farm tour, and - best of all - socializing with all the other young farmers.

On our farm tour, we went to Rainbow Creek Dairy, a farm with four robot milkers. (For my previous post all about how robot milkers work, go here.) Basically, the cows enter the robot, which cleans and milks them without any human interaction.

They took off the side panels to show us all the inner workings of the robot.

Could be a robot milker, could be under my car's hood

The farm also uses waterbeds in their free stalls. Some farms use sawdust, some mattresses, some sand ... there are many options for cow comfort. Here they had a sample:

Kris had a waterbed when he was growing up. He said this felt the same.

And they also use automatic feed pushers. Every day in barns people have to push the feed toward the cows. (As they eat it they push it away a little. So then farmers use a skid steer or shovel or broom or some tool to push it toward them until it's all eaten.) The automatic feed pushers work like Roombas - they continually go along the feed rail and push the feed toward the cows. When its battery needs charging, it goes back to its charger.

They also gave us milk and cookies at the end of the tour. Great finish!

You can see the robot behind me through the viewing window ... and my cow-shaped cookie

After our great time at the conference, we returned home where ... it rained for the eighth day in a row. Then it snowed. Then, for about five minutes, it snowed while the wind blew 40 miles an hour. It looked like a blizzard.

Weather like this makes it a lot easier to be indoors at a meeting! I'd go even if it weren't being held in a pretend castle.

Same creek, different seasons

2013-04-11T16:10:00.001-04:00

The creek in summer:

The creek today:

It's still raining ...

Wet

2013-04-10T22:58:00.002-04:00

It's been raining for three days, all day long, and a lot of the night.

The creeks are spilling over their banks. I can't normally see the creek from my window, but it's so high that I can now. Fields all over the community look like ponds.

After the drought, rain like this is really welcome. The ground will be better prepared for the crops. I think of my Uncle Al in New Mexico and how he'd be really happy about this rain. I am grateful for it - I am! It's hard being inside ... and for Kris and the guys, doing the work in the rain ... but it's going to be worth it. (I keep telling myself this.)

It doesn't look like a barn-building forecast, but it does look like spring!

Farmer video

2013-04-04T22:01:00.000-04:00

Last month, Farm Bureau asked Kris to play a farmer in a commercial.

It was a natural fit.

Seriously, he and I keep getting texts from friends saying things like, "Am I crazy, or did I just see Kris on TV?"

First calf

2013-03-30T22:42:00.000-04:00

Our first calf was born tonight! A red and white Holstein that we purchased last year from another farm had her first calf. She had a big red and white bull.

Kris pulled it - he said he probably wouldn't have had to do it - but it was late and already dark. He didn't want to leave her in the field overnight if she had problems, and the calf's head was already out.

Our neighbor was trying to watch the birth earlier in the night but was thwarted by 1) the dark and 2) all the curious cows coming to see her, blocking her view of the laboring one.

First of over 400 births to come this spring! Or, I could say ... 1/400th done!

Welcome to your new home!

2013-03-29T20:28:00.000-04:00

Today was so exciting! We welcomed 71 new cows to our farm.

We bought them from a lovely woman we met through our milk co-op. She cares about her cows very much and said she was happy to send them to a good home. Of course, we're happy to have them!

After permits and working through the trucking contacts, we were able to do it all in one trip - two semis and one trailer.

Here's the trailer, which came first:

Then the semis came ... and the milk truck, at the same time. It was quite a coincidence that they all came at the same time. The milk truck driver, Justin, got out and greeted us all like he was a rock star and we were waiting for him. Normally he doesn't have such a crowd gathered!

But we were all ready and waiting to watch the new cows come.

So the first semi backed in ... which did not look easy to do, by the way ...

The cows were separated into different sections into the semi with gates. So we just opened the gates and they casually walked down the ramp into the barn. They were all eager to check out their new place. They immediately ate, drank, or walked around sniffing at everything.

It all went smoothly. Super cool.

Josh, Kris, Kody, and Mike - some of our happy team members ... ready to milk more cows!

The milking tonight went fine. (They were milked this morning at their old place and then have to be milked here tonight. You can't skip a milking because they would really be uncomfortable.)

I could hear them mooing when I was out in the yard. As soon as the weather allows, we'll be putting them out on pasture. Seventy-one more cows to make the view from our windows beautiful!

Big day - drying up the cows

2013-03-26T21:14:00.002-04:00

I've written about drying up the cows before, in 2011 and 2012. Drying them up means we don't milk them from now until they have a calf. It gives them a period of rest to get their bodies ready for birthing and producing milk.

This day is always a big deal around here - we plan for it way ahead of time, we look forward to it, and Kris helps in the milk parlor for both milkings. It's a long day!

Here's how it works:

First, they push on the right side of a cow's stomach to see if they can feel a calf. The cows are about seven months pregnant, give or take a few months, so they can normally feel the calf.

If she's pregnant, they give her an antibiotic shot in each teat of her udder to prevent infection. (She won't be milked again for at least a month, so the antibiotic will be out of her system long before she is milked again. For more about how antibiotics are not in your milk at all, read here.)

They finish by putting a sealant called T-HEXX on her teats, which prevents bacteria from entering them.

They mark them (Kris described it as 'coloring on them') with a cow marker on their hind quarter to separate the dry cows from the cows that are still being milked. (They'll find some that aren't pregnant or are not as far along in their pregnancies, and we'll continue to milk them.) The vet is coming to check the remaining ones tomorrow.

I was explaining this to a friend this afternoon and she asked if all farmers were doing this today. We're a seasonal dairy farm, which means that all our cows have calves at the same time. Some dairies have calves year round. So they dry up individual cows on different schedules.

But for us, today's the big day. So big, that Kris is falling asleep as I read this to him.

Let's buy some cows

2013-03-23T09:49:00.001-04:00

Since we're going to milk more cows, there has to be a way of getting those cows.

Easy, right? Just go to the cow store and get some? Exactly.

Getting cattle is a HUGE DEAL.

For instance, some farmers near us are unfortunately going out of business and selling their herd. They have good cattle - we've bought some before - so Kris wanted to go to their cattle auction to bid on some.

But before the auction there's the going to their farm to look at the cattle. And the looking at the lists of cattle. The cattle we get have to calve in the spring - they can't deliver at another time, since we have seasonal calving. We don't want any that are too old. And we want ones within our price range, of course!

And Kris couldn't even go to the auction, because he had a co-op meeting he had to attend! So he sent my dad (my brother in law went too) with a list to see what happened.

The cattle were really popular! We bought some - and we're happy for the farmers that they got a good haul for their herd.

We've also been negotiating with another farm about four hours away. There's so much to think about - vaccinations, how they walk, what their udders are like, if they have hairy heel warts - and to figure out between the seller and the buyer.

Then, after that's all figured out, there's the picking up!

I've discussed frost laws before - you can't drive heavy loads on the road when the 'frost laws are on' because it wrecks the roads. So we can't truck a heavy load of cattle ... just smaller loads.

So we're paying a guy whose entire business is trucking cattle to make two separate trips with three separate trailers to get all the cattle we want to truck to our house. (Kris pointed out that our area, due to all the farms, can support a cattle trucking company. This would not work everywhere.)

Of course, he has to go super early in the morning, because the trucker has other people he trucks for on a regular basis. (He picks up calves from farms on certain days to take to a calf raiser.)

They'll be leaving super early ... but I figure, unlike me, guys who drive trucks don't have a tendency to get lulled to sleep while driving.

So between the lists, the purchasing contracts, the auctions, the trucking ... I'll be happy when our cows and heifers are here, safe in their new home.

Spring is in the air

2013-03-19T16:16:00.000-04:00

You know when you get that feeling that spring is in the air? When you can smell the moist dirt outside ... the birds are singing ... it's humid and warm ... it felt exactly like that today.

Because I was in a climate-controlled butterfly greenhouse.

In the real world, it looks like this outside:

Anyone want to go sit on the porch swing?

It's snowing and really windy! That's where the real cold comes in. When Kris worked today he wore the same amount of clothes he's worn on the very coldest days this year.

But the work goes on ...

- The guys are still working on removing the haymow floor. (At least that's indoors.)

- We vaccinated all the heifers and cows. Just like people, we vaccinate them against disease.

- We continue to ramp up for expansion. We're acquiring equipment and discussing items with the builders.

- It's still meeting season. Kris averages 349508 meetings a week, while I hit about two.

Today is National Ag Day, tomorrow is the first day of spring, and soon it'll look like this shot from the butterfly greenhouse every day:

It's called a Common Morpho, which seems like an awful name for such a pretty thing.

Maybe around June.

Book barn

2013-03-15T15:34:00.001-04:00

Farm Bureau has a book barn available for people to take around to different schools and day cares. It's a little barn-shaped bookcase on wheels filled with accurate farming books. Kids can check them out of the bookcase and learn all about real farms and food.

I took it to my boys' classroom and read them 'Extra Cheese, Please! Mozzarella's Journey from Cow to Pizza' and 'How Did That Get In My Lunchbox? The Story of Food'. I asked each kid a question about dairy, and every right answer got them a string cheese stick.

I also brought in a bottle that calves drink from when they're first born ... because it looks just like a baby bottle, but giant, so it always makes kids laugh.

My kids go to school in a fairly rural community. (There are tons of dairies on my road - let alone my county, which is second in the state for milk production.) But out of all the kids in their class, only one of them had ever been on a dairy farm before!

So it was fun doing a little lesson about their neighbors.

***

Meanwhile back on the farm ... it's STILL muddy. So muddy, in fact, that the builders can't take equipment back to the building site. While they wait for the ground to (freeze? Thaw? Dry out? Do whatever nature does when it's almost-spring?) they're doing what they can on the ground.

The boys were impressed. Big barns are just as exciting as little barns.

Washington DC

2013-03-14T20:20:00.001-04:00

As part of our duties for the Young Cooperators Council, Kris and I attended the National Milk Producers Federation board meeting in good old Washington DC.

NMPF is a 97-year old organization that tries to advance the well-being of dairy producers and their co-ops. Basically, they try to influence politics by speaking for 32,000 dairy producers who are a part of it.

The issues they discussed were of course interesting to us, and we even hobnobbed with some politicians:

Seriously, NMPF has a young cooperator program because they want us to be involved and active. In June, the entire young cooperator council comes and we meet with our state representatives.

A lot of what I saw was this - the meeting:

But we also had time for this - the sightseeing:

And despite the state of the government now, we took some time to be thankful that we don't have to pay taxes in the currency of Yap.

Sun Country has a direct flight from Lansing to DC, and we knew we had a couple friends on the plane coming in that we were taking home ... what I didn't realize is that we would have LOTS of friends on the plane. Michigan Farm Bureau was coming to meet with legislators, and since we've been involved in that organization, we knew about ten people getting off the plane.

Everyone stayed and talked for a little bit, and after they left and we sat down a stranger said to me, "I've been in airports before where I ran into someone I knew, but how is it that you knew EVERYONE on that plane?!" I explained about Farm Bureau and she said, "Oh, I thought maybe you were rock stars."

That'll be my answer next time.

March scenes

2013-03-08T22:39:00.000-05:00

It smells like spring, but it still looks like winter.

They delivered a lot of sand to the barn pad.

It is so, so muddy here.

I love it! Everything is about to happen. In the meantime, Kris is getting ready. Endless paperwork for the bank and the cattle. (Today I even got life insurance! The bank apparently still wants you to be able to pay a loan if you kick off!) Trips to everywhere to talk to people. Work on the barn. Planning, organizing, and more ... paperwork.

And mud. Now our sledding hill ends in mud. Spring must be around the muddy corner ...

Ice cream fever

2013-03-05T19:59:00.001-05:00

I wrote a guest post on the Farm Fresh Food blog called Ice Cream Fever.

Check it out if you like 1) ice cream and 2) more ice cream.