The Bovine Bugle

Fighting the cold to keep the girls fed

Son Ben and his grandmother work to feed the younger
members of the herd on an extremely cold January day.

Another cold morning. So cold that my dog, Yukon, who usually goes out for a few minutes before I go to the barn around 4:30 AM, just stuck his nose out the door and quickly turned around and curled back up on his bed. The temperature was 26 below, but everything was fine and working in the barn. As soon as Dad came in to relieve me from milking, I went and started the loader tractor we use to bring in round bales. While I brought in the round bales, Ben and Grandma cleaned free stalls and fed and watered the younger stock.

The cows eat about 3 bales a day. We feed two bales of first-cut in the bale rings in the barnyard everyday, and every four days or so we put 4 bales of second-cut inside the barn behind the feed bunk. The bales in the bale rings are easy to feed. We just remove the plastic wrap and the net wrap that is underneath the plastic, and place the bales in side the rings. The cows do the rest.

Left: the round bales are delivered to the yard. Right: Jonathan works with a chainsaw to loosen up the frozen, packed hey in the bales.

The bales inside the barn take a little more work. After placing the bales in the barn, we cut and peel back the plastic and net wrap. Then, using one of our chainsaws, we cut the bales down to the center of the bale. The bales then unfold, and we feed them with a pitch fork. On a cold morning like this, with fingers freezing and hydraulic hoses so stiff you can hardly get them connected, it makes me wish we were still feeding just the old-fashioned square bales.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at January 21, 2005 06:54 PM