The Bovine Bugle

One organic dairy farmer's sentiments

Sign on the door to the milking barn at Jonathan Gates' Howmars Farm, Franklin, Vermont.

Learn about other organic dairy farmers and the Organic Valley family of farms.

The turkeys take a trip (ahem) on the truck

Jonathan moves the pen that allows the turkeys to graze in the paddocks. When the turkeys move to new grass, they purr and coo with pleasure.

Today was turkey day here at the farm. A good day for us, not so good for the turkeys. Dave Adams, owner of Adams Turkey Farm where our turkeys get processed, had called me about a week ago to let us know that he and his wife, Judy, had scheduled us in for the following Friday. All week we were looking forward to the last time we would have to lug water and grain down the the turkeys. But even that last day, we enjoyed watching the turkeys eagerly gobble up the fresh grass and clover as we moved their shelter to a fresh spot.

The turkeys were loaded on to the truck around 6 a.m. and I headed down the road to Westford. Things were just getting started at Adams' when I pulled in around 7:45. Dave, coffee cup in hand, greeted me and helped me get my birds unloaded into the holding pen. He said be back around 4 p.m. to pick up the packaged birds, and with that I headed back to Franklin to finish the morning chores I had left undone.

I arrived back at Dave and Judy's right at 4 p.m. Another customer was just leaving with their processed birds, and they had come all the way from Connecticut!! That made my 50 minute drive one-way seem pretty short. The turkeys had turned out great, with the average weight just over 16 pounds. Since we started the chicks later than usual in July, and the fact that they were all hens, the average weight was excellent. By 5:30 I was home and all 30 turkeys in the freezer. Another summer of turkey raising done!

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Animal Rescue down at the farm

This morning we were getting towards the end of milking and I went out into the holding area to make sure all the cows had come up from the grazing paddock. I counted a few times and decided that we were one short. I told Dad, and then I took the four-wheeler down to the paddock to check it out. I found the cow just where I was afraid she would be, stuck in the main waterway running through the pastures. There is no "bottom" to the waterway due to the type of soil making up this bottomland on the farm. When a cow or heifer happens to end up in the water, they just can't get out without help.

Usually once a summer we have to pull an animal out of the waterway. Usually it is a heifer that we have put in with the cows to acclimate her to the herd and the barn before calving, and the heifer ignores the fence, goes into the water, and gets stuck. Today it was a 5-year-old cow, Janice, and I can't tell if she was just trying to get to the water for a drink or if several cows were fooling around and she got bumped in.

In about ten minutes we had the loader tractor down there, the heavy tow rope tied around her head like a halter, and in 5 seconds we had her out of the muck and on dry ground. Cows are such amazing animals. In a few seconds, Janice was standing up and immediately started eating grass.

While Dad drove the tractor back to the barn, I followed along behind Janice bringing her back to the barn and putting her in a pen to warm up and dry off. After being milked at the afternoon milking, she was turned back out with her herdmates and was doing fine.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

The switch to round hay bales signals the coming of winter

Today we started feeding round bales to the milking herd for the first time since May. The amount of forage out in the grazing paddocks is dwindling, and we want to start feeding stored forage before we see a drop in production from the cows. It also makes a better transition from grass to stored feed if we start feeding one bale of hay per day while there is still grass to graze out in the paddocks. In a couple of weeks we will build up to feeding 3 round bales per day to the milking herd which will meet all their forage needs.

We have had a great fall for grazing with the warm, sunny weather we enjoyed all through September. Normally we start feeding a round bale a day in early or mid-September but we were able to hold off until the first week of October this year. This is quite a savings since we pay $35/bale delivered to the farm. Our feed supplier, Dennis Demar, hopes to deliver at least half of the winter's supply of round bales in the next few weeks. We normally use about 700 round bales each winter to feed the dairy herd and the older heifers and steers wintering outside in the pole barn.

It's a little humbling when we start feeding the round bales. This signals the coming end of grazing season, an end to lush, green grass, to cows lazily chewing their cuds out in the sunny pasture, an end to an easier time on the farm in regards to feeding and caring for the animals. It reminds us winter, with all its challenges and extra chores, is just around the corner. Bring it on!

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Barndance II a big success!

Above left: Some harvest time decor after tha dance; Above right: the scene of Barndance II.

What a great time everyone had Saturday night at Barndance II. (See the Sept. 21 entry for more about this event!) All the hardwork that went into getting ready for it was definitely worth it. Through the day sister Patty oversaw the final decorating and setup while Karen and I snuck away to son Ben's X-C meet in East Montpelier. We arrived back at the farm around 3:30 to find everything looking great, and the afternoon chores well underway. Chores were done and everyone was getting cleaned up when the band arrived.

The band, Ten Rod Road, arrived in two Volvo and one Subaru stationwagons. Welcoming smiles, handshakes,and hugs were shared and the band went right to work setting up their gear. Mom made sure the band was fed, taking orders for turkey sandwiches made with Howmars Farm turkey. With a final tune-up and sound check they were ready to go. Shortly after 7 o'clock the band started to play and the people began to arrive.

Relatives and friends arrived with food to share, chairs to sit in to rest after a twirl on the dance floor, and stories, jokes, and news to tell to everyone they met. Toddlers, grade-schoolers, teen-agers, and teen-agers at heart all took a turn dancing to the rock-and-roll buzzing from the band. And when the band took a break, the food table was quickly swarmed, the coolers were slowly emptied, and marshmallows were toasted on the bonfire blazing in the fire pit that Aunt Patty and her nieces and nephews had made a few days before. One of Karen's cousins, around the age of 40 or so, actually had his first S'more that night!

By midnight the band was packed up and headed to a nearby hotel for the night. The dancers that were left slowly packed up their things, piled them into their vehicles, shouted their thanks, and headed down the dirt road to bed. Two campers set up on our lawn, on belonging to Karen's brother Kris and the other belonging to Patty's good friends Ray and Denise, were filled will sleeping party-goers. Five hearty souls--Patty, Ben, Kris, Karen, and myself--sat chatting around the dying fire, reliving the evening's events and just sharing some time under the beautiful 3/4 full moon that shone down brightly from the clear night sky. We finally called it quits about quarter to 2. Boy, morning chores were going to come awfully early!

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Below, kids and cousins in attendance show off their t-shirts autographed by the band members.

A curious cow in the pasture

On a recent visit to Howmars Farm in Franklin, Vermont (nearly at the Canadian border) I waded into the pasture to meet Jonathan's heifers. Most of them were a bit stand-offish, but not Onyx. She sidled right up to me and to the camera with all the air of a curious cat, then proceeded to lick my leg with a very strong, warm tongue! I took that as a good sign.

Look for more notes about a city kid's trip to the farm, coming soon in The Bovine Bugle.

--Chris, Chief Blogger

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Now those are carrots! A plentful fall harvest at Howmars Farm

Noah was having a hankering for beef stew, so Karen had taken a package of our stew beef out to thaw last night. This morning she told Noah he needed to pull a few carrots out of the garden to put in the stew. The carrots are so big this year we probably only needed one to go into the stew. Along with the beef and the carrots, potatoes and green beans from our garden also went into the crock pot. When we sit down to supper and a meal like this we call it a "Howmars Farm" supper because everything we are having at the meal came right from our farm. We are so fortunate to be able to do this.

The garden is almost done producing for the season. The cucumbers are still going, and there is some corn and carrots still to be harvested. And the pumpkins and squash, of course. The potatoes are in the potato bin in the cool, stone-walled cellar, pickled cucumbers and beets are in jars lining the storage cupboard shelves, and bags of green (string) beans are frozen in the freezer waiting to be used. The garden produced very well for us despite the very wet conditions and cool temperatures early on in the growing season. It is very gratifying to eat and enjoy all the good things we produce here at the farm.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont