The Bovine Bugle

Calves are coming as fast as sap is running

Two more calves were born yesterday, bringing the total to four calves is two days. Two heifers and two bulls. The second calf was born last night just before I got back from my school board meeting. When I arrived at the barn around 10:30 I found Josie out in the freestalls with her new heifer calf. The maternity pens were full, so I had to turn out Raven, a cow that had calved earlier in the day. Just to make sure she would do fine after being put out I gave her a 500 ml bottle of calcium gluconate under the skin.

I brought Josie and her daughter into the now empty pen, and gave her some fresh water and hay. The cow in the other pen, Bess, had been treated earlier in the day for milk fever, a calcium deficiency. To make sure she was okay till morning I also gave her a bottle of calcium gluconate subcutaneousl (under the skin). The new moms and calves were set for the night, anyone who needed medical attention had gotten it, so I headed to the house to hopefully turn in by midnight.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Got a question about maple sugaring or the calving season? Drop Jonathan a line here, using the comment box below. He'll be sure to answer, between maternity ward duty and gathering sap buckets!

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Calving season has begun on the farm

Besides checking the sap buckets regularly the past few days, we have been checking some expectant mother cows quite often, too. We had six cows due to calve in the next few days, and today the first two calves were born! The first calf born since "Sostice" in December was, unfortunately, a bull calf. We'll have to decide whether to sell him right away or keep him to raise as a steer for the next couple of years.

The second calf born today was a heifer from a cow named Irma. I found Irma with her calf out in the freestall barn when I went down to check on the girls around 9:30 PM. The calf was a little dirty so I brought her into the milkhouse and hosed her off with some nice warm water and then dried her with a few towels. Once I had the calf placed in a nice clean pen in the maternity room, I herded her mother, Irma, through the milking parlor and into the pen. She went right to her calf and started licking it to clean it up.

I brought pails of water and leaves of hay to both cows in the maternity pens, and after checking the rest of the expectant mothers I headed to the house to shower and then to bed.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Sap to Syrup--the sugaring has begun!

One of 425 buckets full of sap, just waiting to be boiled down to syrup.

After tapping the trees over the weekend, a couple of cool nights and warm days gave us our first good run of sap. The gathering tub was on the wagon ready to go this morning after all the chores were done. Unfortunately it was a weekday, so the big crew from the weekend was gone.

Karen, my brother, Steve, and I were the gathering crew. It didn't take us long to have a couple of tubs gathered and emptied into the 800-gallon storage tank. The gathering tub holds 150 gallons. Once Dad had some sap stored up he lit the fire in the arch and soon steam was rising out of the sugarhouse.

It took us about 4 hours to gather all 425 buckets. We ended up with about 700 gallons of sap which yielded 13 gallons of fancy syrup. The yield from the first boiling is always low since it takes about 150 gallons of sap just to fill up the pans of the sugar rig.

Dad was done boiling about 8 o'clock and was beat after watching the sugar rig and stoking the fire in the arch for the last 7 hours. He thought he would wait and can the syrup tomorrow. So the sugar season is off to a good start, and hopefully the sweet stuff will flow for a few more weeks.

Left: Dad keeps stoking the fire under the boiler, a process that took 7 hours for this first gathering. Right: The Sugaring Shack from the outside, with sweet smelling steam announcing that sugaring season has begun.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Hanging buckets for sap is a family affair

Setting out sap buckets and tapping trees is an extended family affair at Howmars Farm.
The weather conditions were perfect this past weekend for tapping the sugarbush (our stand of maple trees which supply us with sap). And, being the weekend, it meant we would have plenty of help. Ben finished getting the wagon ready, and then we loaded it with buckets, covers, a bucket of spouts, and snowshoes. On hand to help were my sister, Patty; my brother, Steve, and his wife, Jill; Emily, Hanna, Zach, and Maddy--my nieces and nephews; and my wife Karen and our boys. Patty's husband, Marty, was the tractor driver and he did an excellent job in the deep snow. Must be the good luck lick from one of the Jersey steers helped him drive so well.

We ended up putting out 425 buckets, about the same as last year. The snowshoes really helped in the woods, and hopefully the trails we made from tree to tree will harden and be easy to travel on when we gather. The kids were tuckered out by lunch time, so they stayed with Grandma and then with Aunt Patty while we finished tapping.

The biggest challenge was keeping enough battery packs charged to run the 19.2 volt battery powered drill we use to tap the trees. We would get about 50 taps out of one pack before it needed charging again, but with 4 packs and two chargers we kept going at a pretty steady pace.

It was great to stop once in a while and just listen to the ping-ping of the drops of sap hitting the bottom of the sap buckets. Music to a sugarmakers ears. Now we just need to get the sugar rig in the sugarhouse ready, and when there is sap to gather we'll be ready to make some syrup.

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Preparing to set out the maple sugaring buckets

Breaking a truck trail through the stand of maple trees, for gathering sap buckets later.

After getting Noah off to kindergarten and eating a quick lunch, I hopped on the loader tractor and headed to the woods to break roads for sugaring. We use a tractor and wagon to put out the buckets, and to gather the sap. There are many sugarmakers in the state that still use horses to do this work, but that is one pleasure I have not had. My dad tells stories of gathering with horses that knew the woods roads so well that they knew where to go and where to stop without being told. It would be nice not to climb on and off the tractor over and over while gathering the sap.

One long icicle of maple sap!

I had a fairly easy time breaking the roads. The snow has settled quite a bit with the warm weather this week, with the depth in the woods ranging from 18 to 24 inches. I managed to do all the roads for every different loop through the woods. Whether we tap the maples along all these loops or not will be decided by how many buckets we want to put out this year. We will hang from 400 to 600 buckets. If we put out fewer buckets, we may pass by a section of maples to let them rest this year.

Unfortunately, in breaking the roads I had to mess up some of our ski trails we have been enjoying for the last few weeks. We have plenty of places to ski, but I will miss the trail that goes under the maple tree that has the big "sapcicle" hanging from it every day. I must have broken the tip of the branch the first time I went through to make the ski trail. Now, as the temperatures drop through the evening, the dripping sap from the broken spot slowly makes a 6-8 inch long sapcicle. YUM!

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Sugaring season looks like it's finally here

One curious cow wonders, from the outside, what all the
fuss is about inside the Sugaring Shack,
where sap will be boiled during the upcoming
maple sugaring season on the Gates farm.

Today looks like another sunny, fairly mild day. Every day this week has been fairly sunny with temperatures into the upper thirties. Things are getting thawed out, and we are getting geared up for the maple sugaring season--which requires the warmer days of late winter.

Most of the large maple syrup producers around here, who have pipeline operations, have had their trees tapped for several weeks now. They haven't really made any syrup yet, since the temperatures have been so cold. We have a small operation, and we still use buckets, rather than pipelines, so we haven't been in a rush to get going. But the weather forecast looks good, and we will tap trees and hang buckets this weekend, when plenty of help will be around.

On the agenda for today is washing the pans of the sugar rig to get it ready for boiling the sap. We also are repairing the wagon that we use to put out the buckets and to haul the tub in which we gather the sap.

Left: Noah and his grandmother work on giving the evaporator bins a good cleaning. These bins will be where raw sap is boiled down into maple syrup as soon as the sap starts running in a few weeks.

The 4' X 8' back pan of the sugar rig needs the most scrubbing. That is where most of the water is evaporated out of the sap. With some good hot water, a strong acid detergent, and a good brush, the stainless steel will be sparkling in no time. I picked up 2X 8's, a sheet of 5/8" plywood, and some ceramic screws yesterday to repair the wagon body (below). Once the new deck is on the wagon body, I can put the sides back on and the wagon will be ready to load up with buckets, covers, spouts, and hammers. And kids.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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The cows love music, but not this "wrap"

I had to do a little vet work today on Sunflower, the last animal to calve in December. She had started with a slight limp the other day, and today it was much worse. After milking, my Dad put her in one of the pens in the maternity room so that I could have a look at her. I hoped it wasn't anything serious.

The sore foot was her right rear foot. I had suspected hoof rot, a fungal infection that causes soreness in the foot, but I found a cut in the hoof that was causing the problem. I used the same treatment I would have used if it had been hoof rot. I washed the foot, dried it, and then applied a dressing with a big goop of icthamol, a drawing salve. I then wrapped the foot with hoof wrap, a wrap that sticks to itself as you put it around the foot. The hoof wrap comes in a rainbow of colors--but the cows have never really let me know which one they like the best.

I'll leave the wrap on for three days, then remove it to check the progress. If the foot looks good, I'll leave it alone. If not, I'll rewrap the foot for another three days. As I said, this treatment always works for hoof rot. Before becoming an organic farmer, I would always give the cow a shot of penicillin for the infection. Now I see that it really wasn't necessary. Too often with cows, antibiotcs are overused for things that could be taken care of in a much simpler way.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Left: Sunflower shows off her jazzy new hoof wrap.

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A good way to spend a wild, windy,chilly day--indoors

What a miserable day it was outside today. I think it was the worst day of the winter, and it should almost be spring!! The wind was terrible, driving snow into my face and taking my breath away as I plowed snow and fed round bales. I wondered if the cows would even venture out of the barn to eat the bales in the barnyard, being content to eat the hay we feed inside in the feed bunk.

Luckily I spent the time between milkings at a livestock workshop held at a nearby restaurant. What a nice place to be on a day like today. The workshop was put on by Crystal Creek, Inc. and was co-sponsored by St. Albans Cooperative Creamery & Store. Crystal Creek markets health products for livestock, with many of their products being allowed for use on organic farms. Crystal Creek's president, Dan Leiterman, a livestock nutritionist, and Dr. Guy Jodarski, their staff veterinarian and director of research, were the featured speakers. They covered a wide variety of health topics, including internal parasite control, immune system support, mastitis treatment and prevention, respiratory problems, and calf health.

Over twenty farmers were in attendance. Most of the farmers were organic dairy producers, but there were several sheep farmers and a couple of conventional dairy producers in the audience as well. Dan Leiterman did state that 60% of their business is with non-organic clients. Many Crystal Creek products are made from botanicals, whey extracts, and colostrum. These products have none of the harmful effects or witholding times that antibiotics do when used to treat milking animals. More information on their products can be found on their website, www.crystalcreeknatural.com.

As with any farmer meeting, it was nice to get out and renew old aquaintences and hear what other farmers are up to. I brought home some good information, and some good ideas on how to treat some of the health problems that my cows challenge me with once in a while.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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A sad day as two animals leave the farm

It was a sad day today. Two animals left the farm today, each under very different circumstances, and each one left a sad feeling in our hearts. Louella, a 7-year old cow, died over the weekend and she was picked up by a rendering service. The other animal, Manny, a 2-year old steer, was picked up by Brault's Slaughterhouse.

Louella lost a week-long battle with mastitis that became toxic and eventually killed her. I treated her for several days, with her condition holding fairly steady. But on Saturday morning I could see she had taken a turn for the worse. Dr. Peter Averill, my former college classmate, came to check her later that morning and we gave her fluids, electrolytes, and a painkiller intravenously. I was to treat her again that evening, but, sadly, she had passed away before we were done afternoon milking.

Manny, the first Jersey steer we raised for our beef business, had his number come up today. He had been a very friendly fellow, and I was sad to see him go. Noah was teary-eyed when he heard that Manny was going today. Brault's was here before the end of morning chores to pick him up. He was a good boy and went on the truck with no trouble at all. I tried to console Noah with the fact that Manny had lived to the age of 2 on our beautiful, organic farm, while most bull calves born here on the farm are sold the day after they are born. I don't think I made him feel much better.

I guess in a way I'm glad that when one of our animals leaves the farm, no matter what the circumstances, we feel a little sad. I think this means that we connect with our animals in way that farmers on very large dairies with hundereds or thousands of animals, can't. Connecting with your animals, and with the land you farm, is what organic farming is all about.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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The trouble measly mice can cause

Today I had planned to go to a seminar on how to manage the soils on your farm and how to improve soil fertility. The seminar was being put on by my cooperative, CROPP (Organic Valley), and was featuring Gary Zimmer, a nationally-recognized soil expert. But, as often happens on the farm, something came up and I had to stay home.


The source of the problem: chewed-through wires become corroded

This morning during milking four of the six grain feeders stopped working in the milking parlor. We finished milking, bringing 5-gallon pails of grain from the extra grain bin to put into the mangers for the cows. When the morning chores were all done, I collected the necessary tools, climbed the ladder up to where the grain bins are located, and started trying to figure out where the problem was under the grain-dust covered plywood floor. After removing several sections of plywood I found the problem. A wire had been chewed on by mice, the wires had corroded, and two of the three wires had broken. This had cut off power to four of the grain feeders.

Ripping up the floor to expose the wires, then putting it back together

With a new 6-foot piece of 14-2 wire, some wire nuts, and elecrical tape, I had the feeders back in working order by lunchtime and all of the plywood pieces nailed back in place. It was a job well done, even though it meant I had missed today's meeting. It isn't the first meeting to fall victim to some more important farm issue and it won't be the last. But there are two excellent farmer seminars happening next week so let's hope the cows and the farm equipment cooperate so that I can make it to one of those.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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New beds in the stalls and a drain pipe gets unstuck

It was time to bed the freestalls again. But my usual helpers were all laid up today. Noah and Justin were nursing colds and sore throats, and Ben was dealing with an infected blister from running indoor track. What a way to spend the last days of vacation! Karen and I were left to tackle the job.

The 40 bags of shavings were still in the back of the truck, so I backed it right into the barn and tossed the bags from the truck right into the stalls. Karen started opening and dumping the bags while I unloaded, and by the time the back of the truck was unloaded she had almost half of the bags emptied into the stalls. We had the stalls done in no time, and I drove the truck back out of the barn as Karen cleared the cows away from the front of the truck.

Just as we finished that job, Dad arrived back at the farm with a plumbing snake he had gone to rent to unplug the drain from the barn milkhouse. So, Karen and I dug out the end of the pipe that had been covered in snow by the town snowplow. When we had made a big enough area for me to work in, Dad unrolled the snake and I started feeding it into the end of the pipe. After 10 to 15 minutes of working the snake up into the pipe, and ramming it through the clump of material plugging the pipe, the drainwater came gurgling and rushing out of the end of the pipe. I jumped out of the way just in time to avoid getting showered with the lovely mess.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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It doesn't get much prettier than this

The boys were on vacation from school this week, so we have been doing a lot of skiing around the farm. With the recent snowfalls, we have been able to ski almost anywhere, including the swamp located in the northwest corner of the farm. It's always fun to go through the swamp to see what wildlife has crossed through since the last time we were there.

Today we found where an otter had gone in and out of the brook several times. You could see where its long, sleek body had slid over the snow. Yukon, our black Lab, sniffed and rolled where the otter had gone through the hole, back into the water. Several years ago, when we had female yellow Labs, I saw one of them wrestling in the water with an otter. My dog got a very nasty slash under one of her eyes.

An otter's tail trails through the snow, heading toward the drinking fountain.

I can't remember when the woods and fields have been more beautiful to ski through during the winter season. The snow clinging to every tree and bush, the sky just a brilliant blue, and the air so crisp and clean.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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