The Bovine Bugle

Give up! We've got you surrounded!

Today we had a visitor at the farm, and everyone was curious to see who it was, especially the cows!

A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Julie Smith, Dairy Specialist with the University of Vermont Extension Service, called to see if we would host a calf management workshop at our farm. She wanted a farm that was a grazing or organic farm to host one of several workshops she was hoping to do, and several people had suggested us. It's always nice to know you are well thought of in the agriculture community.

Dr. Smith came by early this afternoon, and we gave her a tour of the farm and an overview of the history behind it. While standing in the barnyard, the nosy milk cows surrounded her and she commented on how she wished she had her camera. I then whipped out my little Nikon, and asked if it would be okay to use her visit as a topic for a blog. She thought the farm looked great, and we could use the Horsebarn, the barn dance site, as a gathering spot for the workshop. After the on-farm portion, the group will go to a local restaurant for lunch and an afternoon presentation.

This workshop will take place in April, hopefully after a great maple sugaring season and just before an early start to the grazing season. We'll be sure to report on the workshop when it has taken place.

--Jonathan (left), Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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New hay for bedding brings out the curious cows, and a snoopy steer

I needed to bring round bales into the barn this morning since last night we had finished feeding the four bales already in the barn. Actually, we had finished three of the bales because one of the bales the cows would not eat. The bale was very dry and had a lot of dead grass in it. Maybe the cows didn't like it, but the older heifers and Angus animals would love it as bedding in their pole barn.

After pulling the leftover bale out of the barn with the loader tractor, I took off the bucket attachment and put on the grabber attachment. I managed to get a good grip on the loose hay, and I drove down to the pole barn to deposit the hay inside the barn. I parked the tractor and grabbed a pitchfork to use to spread the hay around inside the 18' x36' pole barn. By the time I got down there, several of the heifers and Homer, the Red Angus steer, were already wading around in the hay. I shooed them out of the way and then pitched the bedding around until the pack had a fresh layer of hay covering its surface.

In the late spring/early summer when we take to bedded pack out of the pole barn and put it into a windrow, the material, with it's large percentage of hay, will heat up great and turn to compost in no time. I've seen conventional farms where they just dumped poor quality or spoiled round bales into a gully, but here we turn bales that are no good for animal consumption into a great product for our soils.

--Jonathan (left), Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

ABOUT THE BOVINE BUGLE
If you wish to subscribe, send an email with "Bovine Bugle" in the subject heading to chalvorson@stonyfield.com

Got a question for farmer Jonathan?
Click here and your question will be answered in an email back to you, plus it will appear on this site for all to see. You can even send your answer in by using voice mail, if your computer is appropriately equipped.

Nothing like new sand to make a cow's day

Back in early September, we finally finished filling the freestalls with sand. The last ten stalls had gone unfilled while we were busy doing other things. But the cows had knocked down the fence in the barnyard that was keeping them out of the remaining sand pile, and they were starting to make a mess of it. This got us motivated to get the rest of the sand into the stalls.

It took about an hour to bring the sand in with the tractor and then shovel it into the stalls. It makes for a good work out on a nice hot day. As soon as the stalls were done, the cows were right there checking out our handywork. In the summer we have just sand in the stalls because it keeps the cows cooler. Once we get into the fall we put sawdust on top of the sand. This helps keep sand in the stalls, helps keep the cows cleaner as their use of the stalls increases, and it helps keep the cows warmer and more comfortable. Unless the stalls are showing a need for sand by early November, we probably won't have to put in sand until next spring. With sawdust so expensive, and hard to get through the winter, keeping the stalls well sanded makes the sawdust supply on the farm go farther.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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While the farmer's on a break, learn some about Jersey cows

Dairy Farmer and Blogger Jonathan Gates is off duty, taking a much-needed family vacation to Maine after bringing in an impressive load of hay last week. In his absence, we thought we'd remind his readers of Stonyfield's "Have a Cow" program. For $3, you or someone you love can sponsor a cow and learn about life on the farm through quarterly newsletters and updates on the sponsored cow's adventures.

Here are five facts to know about Jersey cows, the type of cow which provides most of the milk used at Stonyfield Farm:

Jersey cows:
*Weigh about 900 pounds
*Produce about 4.5 gallons of milk each day
*Vary in color from light to dark brown sometimes with white spots
*Give extra creamy milk with a high percent of butterfat
*Are the second most popular breed of cows in the U.S. and have lived here since 1815.

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Cow pedicures--Ah, what price beauty?

Okay...so it's not that beautiful, but it's necessary...

We had a hoof trimmer come to the farm today to trim the hooves of about a dozen of the cows. Most of our cows never need trimming since they are out walking to and from pasture and keep their hooves worn down naturally. The few that we needed done were cows that had "toes" a little too long because of injury, because of getting a little more grain than they needed, or because it was in their family history that they were passed down poor feet.

John arrived at 7 AM, and by 7:30 we were starting on the first cow. The hoof trimming trailer he uses has a chute that the cow walks into, then the cow is secured to a tilting table as the table tilts and rises up. The whole process takes about 5-10 minutes, and doesn't bother the cow at all. Right after we let the girls out of the chute, they went right to pasture and began grazing as if nothing happened. The tools John uses are a small hand grinder equipped with a special disc to trim the hoofs and a hoof knife to trim and clean the hoof when needed.

By trimming the cow's hooves, their feet stay healthy and it keeps them from developing more serious problems that could cause lameness. We try to have a hoof trimmer come at least once a year, and we usually only have to do a small percentage of the herd since the cows are out walking and exercising a good part of the year.

On large conventional farms where the cows are kept inside on concrete year-round, hoof trimmers like John will visit the farms 2 or 3 times a year and trim all the cows. For a herd of, say, 400 cows that would be over $3600 per visit to have the hooves trimmed. Healthy feet are just another one of many benefits of having your dairy animals out grazing during the grazing season.

Got a question about cow hooves, or anything else on an organic dairy farm? Write me here and I'll answer as best I can!

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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How much milk could a milk cow milk...

After the blog on the milking parlor, I had a couple of readers with questions about how much milk our cows give and how often do we milk them each day.

Here at Howmars Farm the average production for our Jersey cows is 40-45 pounds per cow. That's about 5 gallons a day per cow. We keep track of how many pounds of milk our Jerseys produce, rather than gallons, because we get paid X number of dollars for every hundred pounds of milk that is picked up from our bulk tank. Production per cow will vary with the season, with how good the feed is, and where the cow is in her lactation. Her production will peak at 90-100 days after calving, and tail off as she nears her dry period.

We milk our cows two times a day. We start the morning milking at 5:00 AM, and the afternoon milking at 3:30 PM. Some farmers who milk twice a day like to do the milkings twelve hours apart, but we have always done our milkings at 10 and 14 hour intervals. What's most important is to milk your cows the same times every day. Cows are very much creatures of habit, and they do best when the same schedule is kept every day. On many large dairies, with high producing animals, the milking is done 3 or even 4 times per day. I have herd of farmers who milk their cows once a day. One family keeps the calves with the cows until weaning, and the calves wait outside the milking facility until their mom comes out.

No matter what farm you go to, big or small, organic or conventional, everyone has their way they like to do things on their own place. When to milk the cows, and how much they produce, will be different on every farm you visit.

Got a question about milking, or anything else on an organic dairy farm? Use the comment box below and I'll try to get you an answer here in the blog very soon.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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From cow to truck--how the milk gets to us

Above left: The milking parlor is called a "double-three herringbone"--with three cows on each side and the farmer in the middle.
Above center: Three cows stand munching grain before the milking machine is attached to their udders.
Above right: While three cows are milked, another three are brought into the parlor on the other side.

I happened to have the camera at the barn this morning, so I thought I would show you where our cows get milked and how the milk travels from the cow to the bulk tank where it is stored until the milk truck picks it up.

We milk in a double-three herringbone parlor. This means that we put three cows on each side of the "pit", and we stand in the pit while we milk the cows. "Herringbone" refers to the configuration of the stalls in the parlor that the cows stand inside while being milked. We milk with three milking machines, swinging them from one side to the other to milk the cows on either side.

The cows enter the parlor, are washed and prepped for milking as they eat their grain out of the mangers. After waiting 60-90 seconds, we attach the milking machines. As these three cows are being milked, we bring in the next three to be prepped and fed. Once the cows being milked are done, we swing the machines over to the prepped and waiting cows, and let the just-milked cows out of the parlor.

The milk travels by vacumn through the stainless steel pipeline to the glass receiver jar in the milk house. The jar fills and pumps out to the bulk tank all through milking. The milk is stored in the 800-gallon bulk tank where it is cooled down to 37 degrees F. The milk is picked up every-other-day by a tractor-trailer tank truck. From here, the milk heads down the road, eventually to Stonyfield Farm to be made into delicious yogurt.

Got a question about how all this works, or anything else about organic dairy farming? Use the comment box below and I'll try to get you an answer here in the blog very soon.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Below left: A vacuum tube sends the milk from the cow to a glass receiver jar.
Below center: The glass receiver jar fills, then sends the milk along to the bulk tank.
Below right: This 800-gallon tank cools the milk and stores it until the tanker truck comes to pick it up and deliver it.

Youngsters get first taste of freedom out on the grass

Today we turned out 12 young heifers and steers that had never been out before. It's always fun to see animals out in the pasture when they don't have a clue with what to do with their freedom. We lead them from the barn, up the road about three or four hundred feet, and put them in a special paddock for first-timers. After pushing their noses into the woven wire fence so they have some clue of what a fence is, we take the halter off and let'em go.

This group of twelve lead exceptionally well out of the barn and up the road. Usually one or two we have to practically drag all the way. As soon as the halter was off, each animal ran into the paddock, kicking up its heels. A couple ran headlong into the woven wire fence, but we have it reinforced so they didn't go through the fence. The rest of the day they spent checking out all the amenities: the bedded shelter, the grain feeder, and the stock tank full of water.

Amy, a Red Angus heifer, managed to get through the fence and into the next paddock. Yukon and I went out and drove her down to the gate separating the two paddocks, opened the gate, and she went through as if she had been doing it all summer. Sometimes an animal will just refuse to go through a gate opening no matter what you do to try and coax it through. What a joy to see more of our animals out on grass. And it makes it easier to get Justin down to the youngstock barn to do the chores since the barn is half empty now.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Cows keep careful watch on manure spreading

The heifers and steers of Howmars Farm kept a close watch on the action earlier this week as son Ben spread manure over the fields. (Check out those muddy knees!)

Below, Scooter and his mom ham it up for the cameras.

The heifers explore their new home

I lead the young heifers and steers to their new paddock this morning after chores. It's interesting watching them explore a new place. They are so much like young kids, having to stop and check out every little thing, going over rocks and through puddles instead of around them. When they finally made it to the open meadow they put up their tails and took off on the run. After a few times around they settled down. I wonder if this is where the expression "high-tailed it out of here" came from.

I headed back down to the house for the usual coffeebreak after morning chores and the young stock followed me part of the way down. After the break we moved the dry cow group into the grazing strip the milk cows had just been in. The dry cows do a good job cleaning up what the milking herd left behind and the "leftovers" are just right to meet the nutrional needs of the cows during their dry period. The cows that calve in the summer almost always have fewer problems than the cows that calve in late fall/early spring.

>--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Random statistic from the U.S. Census Bureau

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 9 million milk cows in the United States. No word on how the census takers got the cows to fill out the census forms. Watch our mascot, Gurt, sign a petition to help end global warming.

Breakout on the farm

Karen and I were just about to turn in last night when we had an unexpected surprise. I went out on the porch to cover the grill when I spotted a young heifer walking in the road in front of the barn. We quickly jumped into our boots, grabbed a flashlight, and headed outside to find out what had happened. The heifer was one of the eight young animals we had turned out about 10 days ago. We coaxed her back the pasture beside the house and immediately saw where she had gotten out. The eight youngsters had destroyed the fence corner right by the road. They broke a couple of posts and a pole brace as well. The funny thing is we never heard a thing.

We flashed the light out into the pasture and saw that the other seven animals were there. We drove the heifer escapee through the gap in the fence and I kept them in while Karen drove the pickup over to use as a floodlight while we repaired the damage. Karen took over on guard duty while I brought tools and fence posts to repair the fence corner. It took us about an hour to get things toggled up. The heifers and steers didn't help our progress by continually sticking their noses into what we were doing. We don't know what spooked them and got them running so crazily that they crashed into the fence hard enough to break through it. By the time we turned off the truck lights they were calmed down and they made it through the night without incident.

I was just glad I happened to go out on the porch at just the right time to see that heifer in front of the barn. Otherwise, who knows where those heifers and steers might have been in the morning.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

The cows get moo-ving to new quarters

It was a rainy day today--a good day to do some inside work in the heifer barn. The heifer barn is where our young stock are kept until they are old enough to go outside. We have two rows of tie stanchions in the heifer barn, one row sized for younger animals and the other row sized for older, larger animals. The heifers on the small animal side were getting too big for that side, so we moved 12 of them over to the now empty big animal side. Before moving the animals we had to fix several leaky water bowls and a couple of chain ties on the big animal side. Once that was done, we shuffled the heifers and a couple of Angus steers across the gutters and alley to their more spacious confines.

We then moved the remaining four heifers on the small animal side to the far end of that side, and then moved four calves out of the calf pens and onto the small animal side. These calves are two months old, the age we normally move them out of the calf pens. At 2 months of age, they are eating hay and grain well and are ready to be weaned off milk. With these calves out of the pens we could then clean those four pens, bed them with fresh sawdust, and move the remaining three calves in to the clean pens. This left the last three pens to be cleaned tomorrow to be ready for the two heifer calves born the other day. All together we moved 23 animals around in the heifer barn this afternoon. Whew!!!

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

A busy day in the barn maternity ward

It was a busy day on the maternity ward of the farm. When I was bringing the cows in to the holding area for milking this morning, I found a cow in the barnyard with her new calf. After corralling the rest of the cows, I went and got the wheelbarrow and brought the heifer calf, followed closely by her mom, into the maternity room. Karen and I had just given both pens a good cleaning, so we were all set for mom and her calf. It was the second calf for the cow, Bea. Farmers would refer to a cow like this as a "second-calf heifer". With Bea and her calf taken care of, I went ahead with the morning milking. We brought Bea in at the end and milked her into the fresh cow bucket. This first milk from a cow that has just given birth is colostrums, very rich in protein and in antibodies which help the newborn calf fight off infections. I fed Bea's calf 2 quarts of the warm, rich colostrum.

The second arrival of the day came in the evening. I went out to bring the last few cows into the parlor to milk when I saw a cow in labor in one of the freestalls. This cow, Keesha, wasn't due for a week, but she was definitely having her baby tonight. We put her in the other pen in the maternity room, right next to Bea and her calf. Son Noah was really hoping to see the calf being born, so the vigil began. We checked Keesha's progress a couple times an hour. Unfortunately for Noah, bedtime came before the calf did. A little after 8:30, Keesha gave birth to a heifer calf. Like all cows, Keesha promptly began licking and cleaning her calf. This both cleans the calf and stimulates its bodily functions. I made sure both new mothers had plenty of fresh hay and water and left them to take care of their newborns.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Cowback riding: Do not try this at home!

Amy had an interesting question prompted in a May 25 entry, about some of my young stock getting out and visiting the neighbors. She wondered, “Do people ever ride cows?”

Her question brought back a neat memory for me: We had a cow, Brandy, that we could ride. I don't know which one of us four kids had the idea to actually get on the cow. Brandy, who I named after a character in a John Wayne movie, was always a very friendly cow. At some point one of us decided to try getting on her back, probably my brother, Steve, who was always the one to try anything. The most memorable rider of Brandy was a relative of ours, Bill, who was from Connecticut and happened to be visiting the farm. Bill has Downs Syndrome and, boy, did he get a charge out of Steve and me helping him on to Brandy's back and giving him a ride. My mom still talks about that event every once in a while. This all happened in the early seventies when I had just become a teenager. I don't remember what my dad thought of his kids riding one of the cows.

I wonder why my boys haven't thought of trying to ride one of the cows in the present herd. I can think of one, Kelsey, who would be a good candidate. I guess I won't mention the idea to them. They get plenty of good ideas on their own.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

A cow with an upset stomach

Brault's Slaughterhouse called early this morning to say they would be at the farm around 9 to pick up animals we were shipping for our beef business. We shipped an Angus steer and a Jersey cow we wanted to cull from the herd. We cull or remove a cow from the herd when her milk production is poor or when we can't get her pregnant again.

In the afternoon, Karen noticed that one of the older bred heifers was standing off by herself and not looking very well. We brought the heifer, Oriana, into the maternity room and put her into a freshly-bedded pen. Her temperature was okay, but she seemed a little bloated and uncomfortable. Sometimes in the spring when the animals first start grazing they might eat a plant that upsets their digestive system. I thought this was probably what was happening to the heifer. We gave her aspirin and an Epsom salt drench. Epsom salts is a magnesium salt and acts as a mild laxative to help relieve digestive upsets. When I checked on Oriana before going to bed she was looking much better and had drunk some water and eaten a little hay.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Don't Fence Me In

Once grazing season begins we are repairing and replacing fence off and on for the next month. The last couple of days we had been working on replacing some worn out barbed wire behind the house with high-tensile electric fence. This was in preparation to move the older heifers and steers across the road and into their summer paddocks behind our house. I guess we weren't going fast enough for them because three of them had to go through the fence of the pasture they were in and wander down to our neighbor's house. Getting a phone call from your neighbor to say your cows are out is not fun, but these three came back pretty easily.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

VITAMINS AND MINERALS FOR A NEW MOTHER

Irma and her newborn calf are doing great! I had given Irma a homeopathic remedy, calcarea carbonica, the last few days prior to calving to help her system handle the demand for milk production. Calcarea carbonica is made from the middle layer of the oyster shell, and is used as a prophylactic remedy to prevent milk fever in fresh cows. After calving I added electrolytes to her drinking water to help her with stress of calving. The electrolytes are in granular form in an 8 ounce container. I add half a container to 5 gallons of water. The electrolytes are essential minerals the cow needs but may become deficient in during times of stress or when feed intake is reduced. The product I used contains potassium, calcium, and magnesium. I can't be sure if these pre- and post-natal therapies are the reason Irma is doing so well, but she is doing much better than the last few cows that calved. Cows calving during the winter months and older cows calving are more apt to have metabolic problems such as a lack of calcium or magnesium. The cow then loses her appetite, and her condition can worsen. By giving the cow homeopathic remedies or electrolytes we can alleviate these problems and keep the cow eating and feeling good.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

A calf arrives early

My farmer discussion group was scheduled to meet today. Our discussion group is a group of seven farmers that meet once a month to discuss issues or concerns related to our farms. We take turns hosting the meeting. The host presents the issues for discussion first and then anyone with a topic for discussion can present it to the group. The best part of the meeting is, of course, the potluck lunch we share during the meeting. This idea of discussion groups comes from New Zealand, where graziers started meeting to discuss issues affecting their farms.

I didn't get to attend the meeting because I had a turn to boil in the sap we gathered yesterday. Being the last boiling of the season, the grade of syrup was fairly dark, but the flavor was still okay. This dark syrup is excellent for cooking or for making salad dressings or barbacue sauces. I made about 10 gallons and this brought the season total to 138 gallons, an excellent year for us. I shut down the sugar rig just before three o'clock, just in time to get a cup of coffee and head to the barn for the afternoon milking.

While my Mom was bringing the cows into the holding area for milking, she found a cow that had calved out in the freestall area. This cow wasn't due for 4 or 5 days and hadn't shown any signs of getting ready to calve when we looked at her this morning. The calf, a little heifer, was a little dirty and cold, but we brought her and her mom into a pen and cleaned and dried her off. As soon as we had milked the new mom we brought a bottle of warm colostrum milk in to the new calf. We try to feed a couple of quarts of colostrum to a new calf as soon as we can. The colostrum supplies the newborn calf with antibodies to fight any bacteria or virus that may be present in the barn at that time. We also spray the navel with a 7 percent iodine solution to prevent an infection from entering at that point. We need to get our new babies off to a strong, healthy start so that, in 2 years, that little heifer will be having her first calf and will start producing milk to be used to make Stonyfield Farm yogurt.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Another cow is born

We were greeted by a flat tire on one of our tractors this morning. After morning chores, my Dad, Howard, took it into St. Albans to be repaired and to do the farm banking. Dad is the bookkeeper here on the farm. I put the repaired tire back on the tractor after he got back and finished the chores I needed the tractor to do. Dad got busy and boiled in the sap we gathered yesterday.

Irma, a cow that was due yesterday, finally had her calf this evening. She had a girl, a heifer. She had her last calf last April, 12 months ago. This would be considered by most dairy farmers as the ideal calving interval. We try to have a cow calve every 12 months. After a cow has her calf, we wait at least 60 days before we try to get her pregnant again. We use artificial insemination to breed our cows and it usually takes 1or 2 tries to get the cow pregnant. A cow’s pregnancy lasts 9 months. We stop milking the cow 50 to 60 days before her due date. This is her "dry" period and gives her mammary system a rest.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

Jonathan is a third-generation dairy farmer, whose family owns and runs Howmars certified organic dairy farm.

Preparing the maternity ward at the farm

Today I got a few things done in the barn in anticipation of being busy with sugaring the rest of the week. The freestalls were in need of bedding so I tackled that job first. We have 40 freestalls. The stalls have a tire and sand base with dry sawdust on top. I load our dump trailer with sawdust, haul it into the barn, and then shovel the sawdust into the individual stalls. We bed the stalls every 10-14 days. Our sawdust that we use, like most of the farmers in this area, comes out of Canada. This past winter there was a severe shortage of dry sawdust and we had to wait nearly two months for a bulk load. While we waited for that load we used bagged shavings and some straw. I think this summer we will purchase a load of baled straw to store above the heifer barn. Then if we have trouble getting sawdust next winter we will have an alternate bedding source to use. Plus, the straw would be great for our compost.

I also cleaned one of the pens in the "maternity" room. This is a room directly off the milking parlor that has two large pens. We use these pens for animals about to calve, hence the name "maternity" room. Since we have a cow with a due date of April 8th, I wanted to have a clean pen ready for her when she went into labor.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

RAIN MEANS PART OF THE DAY "OFF" ON THE FARM

Today promised to be a rainy day so Karen and I thought we would take a few hours and do some shopping. That's one of the advantages of running a dairy farm. You can take some time off in the middle of the day if you want to. Of course, I did work from 4:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. getting morning chores done before we left, and then from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. getting afternoon chores done once we got back. Daily chores on the farm consists of milking and feeding the cows, cleaning the milking equipment, feeding the calves and heifers, cleaning the free stall and heifer barns, and stacking the compost material. Once the grazing season starts, the amount of time spent feeding the animals and cleaning the barns is greatly reduced. We are as happy as the cows are when the grass starts growing!!

The grain truck came and delivered our bulk order while we were gone. Morrison Custom Feeds is in Barnet, VT, about 2 1/2 hours from here. We have grain delivered every two weeks. Depending on the time of year and how many cows we are milking, we will order from 7 to 10 tons of bulk grain per load. The grain is blown through pipes into bins located on the second floor of the barn. The grain is then augered down into mangers for the cows to eat while they are being milked. We also get poultry grain, calf grain, trace mineral salt, and kelp meal from Morrison's. During the winter we usually feed a ration with a 14% protein level. In the summer we drop that level down to 12% because the lush green grass is very high in protein. This saves us at least $20 per ton.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont