The Bovine Bugle

Which cow ordered the 44 bales to go?

Today was a busy day for trucks here at Howmars Farm. The fuel truck from McCuin's was coming to put kero in our new fuel tank for the barn, the grain truck was coming from Morrison's with our two-week supply of grain, the milk truck was due to pick up the milk in the bulk tank, and two tractor-trailer loads of round bales were being brought in from Hardwick, VT, a town about 65 miles from Franklin. And at one point, three of the trucks were here at the same time!!

We had the round bales of hay trucked in because our supplier here in town was going to be about 50 bales shy of what we needed to make it to the start of the grazing season. My dad, Howard, keeps track of what Dennis, our feed supplier, makes for hay each summer and then records the number of bales we use during the fall, winter, and early spring. Knowing we were going to be short, I called a person in Hardwick who had advertised his round bales in the Agriview, a publication put out by the Agency of Agriculture in Montpelier, Vermont. His feed was going fast, but we managed to secure two loads, 88 bales, that would take us into the spring.

The seller of the hay, David, lined up a trucker, and today was delivery day. The first trailer load of 44 bales arrived around 11:30 a.m. As soon as the trucker had some of the straps undone, I started taking the bales off the truck. In about half an hour he was unloaded, and headed back to Hardwick for load number two.

The second load came in around 5:15 p.m. We had thought he might not be back until 6, so he had made great time. With sunset happening a little later these days, we managed to have the unloading all done before darkness fell. With the pile of round bales beside the barn suddenly swelling in size, it gave me a secure feeling like you get with a big pile of dry firewood at the start of winter or with a freezer and pantry full of the summer and fall harvest. Now for the real test--how will the cows like the hay? We'll find out tomorrow.

P.S. The pictures were taken by my son, Justin. He did a great job!

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

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Haying done--time to go to the beach!

Putting up this much hay....

...requires the entire family. Below, a brother and two nieces join Jonathan Gates' boys as they strive to cut and store the season's hay.

We finished putting in the second cut square bales today. The bulk of it we put in yesterday, but because of mechanical problems we unloaded the last two loads today. Altogether we put in 1900 35-pound bales. The quality was excellent, and we are done a month earlier than we were last year. It has been just a great summer here in northwest Vermont for the grass to grow. With all this heat and sun the nutritional value of the feed should be great. As usual, mowing away the hay was a family affair. Karen, Ben, my brother, Steve, and his wife, Jill, our nephew, Jason, and even the kids were up in the hay mow working hard in the sweltering heat.

With that job done, we are taking a couple of days off to go to the beach in Maine. We have all the livestock on fresh pasture so that they will be happy until we get back. Ben even towed out a bigger house for the turkeys so that no one will have to move them while we are gone. You could say its the turkey's vacation house.

Mom and Dad will take care of the milkings, and move the fences for the milk cows after every milking.

We are so thankful and so lucky to be working with our parents so that we can take off for a couple of days with the boys. From putting in hay, to taking care of the farm when some of us are taking a few days off, this is truly a family farm.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Hauling hay for the young stock still in the barn

Justin, Noah, and I headed over to Dennis' farm this afternoon to pick up some square bales. We had finished feeding the bales we had stored last summer, so we have been going to get a truck load about once a week to feed the young heifers and steers inside the young stock barn.

We backed up to the barn as close as we could. Justin climbed into the haymow to get the bales and throw them out to me, and I stacked them into the back of the pickup. It took us about twenty minutes to load 40 bales and tie them in with Noah's lariat. We've repeated this ritual for the last six or seven weeks. Once we get back to the barn, the bales get unloaded behind the feedbunk just outside a door leading into the young stock barn.

Before we left the farm with our load of hay, Dennis showed up. He said he hopes to start doing second cutting next week if the weather cooperates. The grass is growing really well, with enough rain and sunshine to make it a good crop. If we do get started next week it will be about 6 weeks ahead of when the second cutting was done last year. The quality should be great, and the better the quality of the forage the more we can save on our grain bill. And it would mean no more end of the day trips to Dennis' farm to get hay for the animals.

Got a question about hauling hay, 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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Migration of the humpback bales

Ben has been very busy clipping the pastures the past few weeks, often for hours in the hot, humid, sunny 90 degree weather. He started strapping our beach umbrella to the back of the tractor seat to have a little shade. Some of the pasture clippings were very thick, so Ben raked the clippings into windrows and we borrowed a baler to bale up the clippings.

While Ben baled, my brother-in-law, Marty, and I picked up the bales with the tractor and wagon. We took turns loading the wagon and driving the tractor. Kind of interesting that the 16-year old was running the baler, while the two forty-something guys loaded the odd shaped bales. But I must admit that Ben really struggled with the baler, having to stop and do repairs several times.

The bales of clippings, which we will use primarily to mix with manure for composting, were oddly shaped and hard to handle and stack. This was mostly due to the baler we were using. The baler was a "kicker" baler which means as the compacted bale comes out of the baler it is usually "kicked" up into a wagon being pulled behind the baler. We didn't have the right type of wagon to use, so the bales were shot out onto the ground causing them to contort into odd shapes. As we ran the bales up the hay conveyor into the barn, I thought of the phrase "humpback bales" as the bales rode the bumpy "migration" path from the wagon to the hay platform. I even took a picture of a pod of humpback bales on the platform. As hard as the bales were to handle, Marty and I managed to get almost all of them up the conveyor and into the barn.

Got a question about hay baling, 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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Sun's shining--better make hay

This hot, sunny weather that has been hanging around for the past week has been great for getting in the first cutting of hay. My feed supplier, Dennis, finished his haying a couple of days ago. He normally puts all the first cutting into baleage, the plastic wrapped round bales. The weather can be kind of fickle in late May/early June making it hard to dry the grass enough to make dry hay.

Most farmers around here, including Dennis, had their first cutting in much earlier than last year. This means the grass was not too mature and the feed will have a much higher nutritional value and taste better to the cows. This translates into higher milk production from the cows and less wasted feed since the cows will more of the hay.

In about a month I will have my grain salesman take some core samples from the round bales to see how the feed tests. Based on the protein and energy levels of the forage, we will be able to formulate our grain ration to get the best milk production for the least cost. And, hopefully, when the hayfields are mowed again for the second cuttting, Dennis will truck down all the first cut round bales. This way the bales will have finished the fermentation process and be more stable for transporting, and with the fields mowed we won't trample down the uncut hay getting to the bales.

Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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