Friday, March 30, 2012

365 days a year...


Pulling up t-posts to expand heifer pen (2011)
 

Weekdays:
Drive to Windy Hill on the way home after school.
Weekends/Holidays/Breaks/and all summer long:
Drive 25 miles to Windy Hill from home/25 miles back.
Chores:
Hook up east pasture hose.
Fill east pasture water.
Fill dog water.
Unhook and drain hose.
East pasture:  (Temporary:) Catch Posey/doctor

In the barn:
Fill Posey's bucket.
Fill Ayan's bucket.
Fill Juicy's bucket.
Fill Faith's bucket.
(All are custom portions and custom diets.)
Evaluate when to place next feed order.
South pen:
Pour Faith's feed.
Shake Juicy's bucket to get her attention so she doesn't go to eat Faith's feed.
Pour Juicy's feed.
Hook Juicy's halter to the chain.
Hook Faith's halter to the chain.
(Thieving nibbler prevention)
Hook up south pen hose.
Fill pen water.
Unhook and drain hose.
East pasture:
Pour Posey's feed.
Pour Ayan's feed and immediately stick bucket between Posey and Ayan to guide Ayan to her own feed.
Check creep levels for calves on nurse cow.
West pasture:
Hook up hose.
Fill water tank for landlord's heifers.
Grainery:
Fill two buckets for landlord's heifers.  Fill feed troughs.
Wait for Juicy and Faith to BOTH be finished eating before unhooking their chains.
Pick up rocks to fill in low spots in the driveway while waiting for them to finish eating.  (Battling wind/water erosion of the sandy ground.)

Add in show ring practice, extra chores, and unexpected problems/temporary chores (landlord's chores while out of town, wounds, flipped troughs, heat check, etc.) as needed.

Repeat DAILY, 365 days a year.

Down time:
Endlessly question and discuss with my breeder and parents...
Plan breeding schedule.
Order sexed semen.
Schedule artificial insemination.
Plot heat on calendar.
Make plans for a visit to a bull if necessary.
Schedule fetal sexing.
Order/pick up feed.
Re-configure pens.
Order hay.
Plot calving date on calendar.
Figure up how many entries will need to be paid for OKC and TULSA STATE FAIR and the total cost.
Figure up what days of school will be missed for County Fair, OKC, and Tulsa State Fair.  Work ahead in math and any other classes possible.  Get remainder of makeup work.
Decide names for new calves.
Check fence.
Evaluate show supplies.  Re-order when necessary.
And, and, and...



Spring Break Highlights

Things I did over Spring Break:

*movie, dinner, sightseeing with friends









*lots of tv
*spent the day at a friend's house
*tons of computer
*had a friend over
*"Words with Friends" x a billion
*took a friend to feed
(Got her to touch a heifer...She was TERRIFIED!)
*posted entries on my blog
*ordered two new bales of hay
*cut off the hay net/wraps








*cleaned out the creeper (creep feeder) but we call it the creeper like the big weird monster off Scooby Doo
*got my galoshes stuck in the mud
*smelled worse than I ever have in my entire life (sour feed from clean-out)

*fed/watered landlord's animals and got the mail while she was finishing up OYE
*delivered a load of trees to my MawMaw and GrandDad
*beaned my mom in the head with a basketball-OOPS!
*celebrated Daddy's three weeks of no smoking!  WooHoo!!!!
*fell asleep snuggling with my parents
*facial
*deep conditioning hair treatment
*picked up sticks in the yard
*talked and texted
*all my regular farm chores
*exchanged some jeans for my daddy (all by myself)
*made plans to order Brown Swiss semen
*watched video of my first premium sale
*bought feed

*bought some other feed
*unloaded in the rain
*moved 750 pounds of grain to storage containers a couple gallons at a time

*worked in the rain
*didn't have to run as much water because of the rain
*looked at Pinterest
*siliconed a split in the creeper hood
*set out rat bait in the barn
*spray foamed the holes and cracks in the barn...that we know about
*checked fence
*finished reading THE CAY
*read more of the Vampire Stalker
*watched more tv
*finished Vampire Stalker!  SO good!!!
*waited until time to do chores again!



Wednesday, March 21, 2012

My two minutes and fifty-two seconds of STARDOM!


You can't get what you want if you don't speak up.

I got my two minutes and fifty-two seconds of stardom on the seven A.M. broadcast of Fox 23-Tulsa in 2011 while at the Tulsa State Fair.
Who wants to be on tv?  I DO!!!

Reporter, Kristin Tallent, came through the barn early that morning.  The ten of us had just finished all the feeding and watering and cleaning bedding.  She and her coworker looked around the dairy barn a little while, and when they came back, she stopped and asked if anyone wanted to be on tv.  We all just kind of looked at each other, and then I threw my hand up in the air and said, "I do!"

She took me with her and explained what we would be doing.  I pulled back my messy hair, brushed the dirt off myself, and borrowed my mom's windbreaker.  It was the cleanest dirty shirt we had with us in the barn.

They were doing a segment on the opening day of the fair.  They also wanted me to have a heifer in the interview, so I had to borrow one.  My heifers were arriving on a second load not too long after the interview would have been over.

It was so exciting!  She asked me questions about all the work that I put into getting ready for the fair, and of course, the heifer decided to act up.  I was scared she was going to knock us down, but she didn't.  I also wondered how I would look on tv being all dirty and yucky from my work, but you know, I looked pretty good!  Thank goodness for that cleanest dirty shirt!

When I got back from filming, apparently my mother e-mailed the link for the re-broadcast to my homeroom teacher! Then my teacher showed it to the whole sixth grade! So when I got back from the Tulsa State Fair, everyone was calling me "Superstar".  One of my friends said, " How was your trip?" I said "Fine." He nodded and said, "I saw you on tv!"

That was one of the funnest days of my life!








Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Continual Observation

The health of my animals is extremely important.  I have to look them over every day; watch them; look for signs of anything out of the ordinary in their appearance or their behavior.

The Local Show 2012
Every time they are mixed in with other animals from outside their world or hauled to another place or have contaminated brushes or clippers used on them, they are at risk for contamination, infection, or infestation.  Respiratory infections, warts of all shapes and sizes, lice, pink-eye, and ringworm are just a few of the things that you need to guard against.
A few minutes of carelessness on my part or on the part of others causes me (and others) weeks of extra work and the added expense of sprays, pastes, vaccines, you name it.

I have to spend extra time disinfecting everything.  I have to make sure I bleach my brushes before I use them again.  (You never know...someone could pick up your brush and use it on their own animal and return it to your box, and you would never know it was contaminated.)  You have to be careful.

Weather plays an important role, too.  When it's cold and rainy, my animals can develop a cough which must be treated.

When we do shows during hot weather, we have to use sunscreen on their light haired delicate parts and all over the places that the sun hits hardest.  They will sunburn, they will turn red, and HURT, and peel if they not protected.


This little Holstein isn't one of mine, but I've had the same thing happen before.
= (

Regulating Diet

                              
You can't have a quality show animal if you let her become a "Fatty Patty" (or a "Fatty Maddie"!)  Just like I would eat a whole box of Lucky Charms cereal in a day, my heifers would eat as much grain as they could get a hold of. 

Luckily, my mom just has to tell me not to eat any more, but with my girls, I have to chain them at their own separate feeders until they have both eaten all of their grain portion.  If I let one of them loose before the other finishes, they will help themselves to an extra serving.  If I don't chain either one of them at all, they spend half their time running back and forth between their own feeder and their friend's.  What a mess.

We give custom grain types and portion sizes to maximize development and growth.  If you don't control consumption, the rest of it won't make any difference.


Hey, HAY!

I LOVE MY HAY MAN...and I'm praying for him to have a FANTASTIC cutting this year!

County Show Prep

Local 2010

5:15 A.M. alarm
Get scrubbed.
Get dressed.
Grab some supplies and head to the farm.
Catch Posey, Faith, and Juicy.  Leave Ayan.  (There are no cow classes at County.  Besides, she has to stay and fatten up those beef calves!)
Load up in the trailer.
Go to the Ag Farm.
Unload
Soak
Lather
Scrub
Rinse
Repeat until the dirt is GONE!  (Dirt dulls clipper blades!  Dirt is evil!)
Get ready to leave the wash rack and PLOP PLOP PLOP.
Repeat until the poop is gone.
Dry dry dry
Local 2011

Clip, clip, clip, clip.
Big clippers for the body
Little clippers for the little nooks and crannies
Dodge flying hooves!
Keep your eyes on your clipping and keep your eyes on both of the two legs that are closest to you.
Use your cat-like reflexes.
Do the hardest job first.  Get it over with.

Scrub the potatoes out of their ears...ALL the way down in there.  Most of them like it. I wish they were squeaky clean like this every day!



From Parsley to Posey

My God mother and God uncle were helping me set up a pen to get ready for my very first show animal, an Ayrshire heifer calf.  Her name was Parsley, and she wasn't there yet...or so I thought.

They were dragging a stock trailer and they said that it was for pigs that they needed to pick up or something. When we were done setting up the pen, she said," So do you think you're ready for her?" I said , "I think so..." and she said, "Posey's in the trailer!"

I was so happy. We got her out of the trailer and we got her into the pen and I fed her and bonded with her for 3 months at my house. Then we moved her to my God mother's farm. We set up a long pen in the barn. And when she was 4 months old I fed her, I led her, and then once I was done with my chores I turned off the. Barn light and before I left I said," Love you!" then left.

One day, I went to my mom's classroom after school and she was congested. She wasn't before school... I said," What's wrong?" she said, "Nothing, just congested."  When we were walking out the door, she said, "We don't have any chores today." I was happy about it, but I didn't know why I didn't have to go do my work.

When we got home, we did my homework and then mom said we needed to discuss some things. I don't remember how she said it, but the idea was, "Parsley died."  At first I thought she was joking, but when she started crying, I knew she was telling the truth. She wasn't congested.  She had been crying.  I cried for about an hour, and I didn't know what to do.   Her digestive system wasn't developed right, and she bloated and died sometime in the night.  The vet said there was nothing that anyone could have done. 

Mom told me to think about it.  Either I could quit showing altogether, or I could get another heifer and start over. 

When I cried myself out that afternoon, I told Mom I wanted to try again.  We talked about getting another Ayrshire, but we didn't know when that could happen. I knew that I wanted her name to be Posey. Two or three weeks later (which felt like months) I was watching tv in the living room with my parents, and my mom got a phone call. She left the room and came back smiling. She said," An Ayrshire heifer was born this morning and her name is Posey!" Posey was born sometime in the early morning and they found her prancing around in the snow. Funny thing about Posey is every time she walks on snow she dances and prances in it! I've had her ever since!

They loaded her up in the back seat of the pickup and drove her to our house while we scrambled around and got a pen assembled for her.  I treated her umbilical cord, and  I fed her colostrom.  I'm the only mother she's known since the day she was born.

(2011 - Just trying to keep calm before we enter the ring.)









Now, Posey is expecting her first heifer calf the first week of August!

Still haven't thought of a name that starts with a P, if you can think of any good names that start with a P, leave them as a comment please! That would really help me out!

Parsley October 2009 - February 2010
She'll live on in my heart forever!!!!

YEA! RAIN!!!

It's thundering outside, and the rain has poured down, pattered, dripped, misted, and poured again!  Keep it coming, Lord!

Monday, March 19, 2012

The things I do to promote milk...

Here I am as "Chet Youbetcha" in my Book Report News segment for English.  After I signed off, I recognized our sponsor:




(Which one is cooler:  my wig or my milk moustache?)










(Press play to watch my video.)

I also made a public service announcement that we play the last week of school each year on the four flat panel tvs in our cafeteria.



Gotta promote dairy whenever you've got a captive audience!

The Dairy Parlor


By request, here is a post about THE DAIRY PARLOR.

You may think that you can eat ice cream at a dairy parlor, but you can’t.  A dairy parlor, also known as a milking parlor, is where you milk a cow.

I don’t live on a dairy farm.  The only time I milk is when I show at the Sooner State Dairy Show and the OKC and Tulsa State Fairs.  It is a very important job.  Even if I am not showing a cow that’s in production that week, I help milk because I like to help my friends.



The trip to the dairy parlor may be a rough experience.  Cows who are ready to be milked are uncomfortable.  The worst time is right after they’ve been shown because they are shown with a completely full udder.  Sometimes, they don’t want to wait their turn to get in to get relief, so sometimes, they will run you over if you get in the way.  I’ve had my own share of lumps from that for sure.

There are several things you will need when you milk out a cow:
pan of feed
anti-bacterial spray
clean paper towels
water hose with spray nozzle
shovel
and of course, a cow

First you place the feed pan in the parlor stall.  Then you lead her in the rear gate, put her head to the feed pan, and exit through and latch the front gate.  Allowing her to eat makes her comfortable while she gets milked out.

Then you spray anti-bacterial spray on her teats and wipe them off with clean paper towels. You must thoroughly clean and dry her to keep contaminants from getting into the milk.

A Holstein with the teat cups attached to her udder.

Next, you switch on the suction and place one teat cup on each teat.  If you make a good connection, you can see the steady pulse of milk being pulled up through the clear plastic hoses.  You should keep an eye on the four streams of milk and get to work cleaning up your area.

The parlor at the Tulsa State Fair has one whole plate glass wall.  Outside the glass are small bleechers where  people can sit and watch real live cows being milked.  It’s a good place for them to sit and eat their ice cream that they bought at the dairy bar just around the corner.  This is the only milking experience that some people will ever have in their lives.

If your cow poops, you need to scoop it up with the flat blade shovel and dispose of it in the designated area immediately.  The area should be sprayed down and rinsed with water.  All paper towels need to be put in the trash.  All items that you brought in should be taken out with you.  You should leave the milking parlor in better shape than it was when you arrived.  

When your cow starts producing less milk (if one or more streams starts to taper off), massage the udder (rub and gently squish each quarter), and if that doesn’t work, you know that she is finished and ready to go.

Turn off the suction, remove the teat cups, and return them to their hook.  If you’re the only one in the milking parlor, you go to the control room and turn off the switches to the pumps.  Then you spray her teats really well with anti-bacterial spray and you can let her air dry as you lead her out of the front gate of the stall and walk her back to her bedding.  Once back at her stall, she will continue to eat and produce more milk for the next trip to the dairy parlor.






Ice cream would be a nice treat after all that hard work...I wonder if I can talk somebody into that? 



Milk 'em out

                     Sooner State Dairy Show 2011

When it's milking time, the girls want milked out and I mean NOW.  I showed Eden last year, and at the dairy where Eden lived, she was kind of special.  She was always one of the first ones in the parlor, so she ALWAYS expected it to be that way.

I was so embarrassed at Sooner State.  If there was a line to the milking parlor, Eden would charge straight through them and look for a spot.  There was no holding her back.  One time, I was foolish enough to TRY, and she crushed me against the doorway as she turned in.  We thought I had broken a rib, but I turned out to be okay.  Lesson learned:  sometimes you've just got to let go.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Frozen Hydrant : (

Boy, I'm glad that cold weather is gone for awhile!  You know what I just hate?  FROZEN HYDRANTS!!!!!  One of the worst things in the whole wide world!!!!!!! Well, maybe not in your world, but in mine it is.


It happened not too many weeks ago.  It all started when I was watering the west pasture.  I pulled up the hydrant handle and... nothing...but we fixed it! There is another hydrant up the hill, and we hooked two hoses together and I drug all two hundred feet of hose down the hill. The heifers were soooo thankful! Then I drug the hose back up the hill, and we ran it up and over one of the barn rafters and drained it. The next day it thawed, and we lived happily ever after!!!

Scary surprises

Animals are unpredictable, and no matter how gentle they are, you just never know when they are going to lose their minds or do something stupid.

One day last summer, I was spending the day with my grandmother while my mom was painting the school.  Late in the afternoon, MawMaw took me to do my chores, and we got a terrible scare.  Posey had decided to try to jump a barbed wire fence into the neighbor's pasture.  She didn't make it over.  She got high centered.
June? 2011


By the time we showed up, she had stopped struggling.  It was over 100 degrees, and who knows how long she had been there.  I was so scared.  Luckily the school is within two miles of Windy Hill, and my mom came a couple minutes after I called.  Even luckier, Corey, the yard man just happened to stop by.  He let the wire down and helped me back her off the fence.

We were worried about dehydration.  We don't know how long she had been there or how much she had had to drink before she got hung up.   I didn't know how the heat and the lack of water could hurt her.

In addition to her health, with her being a show heifer, I was obviously afraid that she would have terrible scars.  She was cut clear up on her sides...places that really show.  We broke out the NU-STOCK and packed each and every one of the ten thousand cuts with the paste, and prayed she would heal right.

We had a happy ending.  Posey healed up.  Her health was fine.  She has no visible scars today.  In fact, she had no visible injuries by show time, and she won Champion Jr. Ayrshire at the Tulsa State Fair!

God is GOOD!  He let us find her in time.  He sent help to get her off the barbed wire.  He let us find a great ointment.  We prayed real hard over her, and He heard our prayers, and He blessed her healing beyond belief.  GODBLESS DAIRY ENTERPRISES...every day.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Pee Wee Showmanship: Then and Now

Pee Wee Showmanship made a difference in my life, and continues to do so in others'.

That's me up above in 2004.  My friend Kayla let me show her heifer.  I'm holding onto my little gold trophy.

This other photo is from the local show in February.  Kaitlyn's little brother had a pretty good time showing my little Brown Swiss.

Not only is raising dairy hard physical work, but it is also a public relations job.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Prayin' for it to take

We've spent a lot of time prayin' for it to take.

Now there should be a Holstein heifer in June and an Ayrshire heifer in August!  Yea!!!

Anyone have suggestions for girl names that begin with P or F?


<--- (Sexed semen on board!)



Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The School Science Fair

It's important to expand your knowledge about your 4-H projects.  I killed two birds with one stone by using my own dairy animals as subjects in my research and observations for the school science fair.


I did a short field study on the effects of temperature on how fast a dairy heifer eats.



Then I also did some research to see what formal studies have been done on the subject.  WOW!  I found some that backed up my hypothesis!



Here's most of the formal stuff:


ABSTRACT

This experiment was performed to determine how temperature affected the rate at which a dairy heifer ate.  The hypothesis was that the hotter the temperature, the slower the animal would eat. 

Formal research has shown that when a dairy animal experiences  temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) voluntary feeding decreases (Wadsworth).  Other published research shows that when a dairy animal’s body  temperature goes up, milk production goes down (Johnson).  This same reaction to heat can be seen at livestock shows and fairs where dairy animals are on display (Jennings, A.).       

The procedure included selecting a two year old Holstein dairy heifer from the herd for observation.  She was fed two gallons of a custom mixed, high protein dairy grain daily while chained at her feed trough.  The length of time and the air temperature were recorded.  The colder the air temperature, the faster the animal ate. 



INTRODUCTION

This study “Food: Hot/Cold” focuses on the effects of temperature on the grain consumption rate of a dairy heifer.  Grain is an important part of a heifer’s daily diet.  Grain contains protein which helps the body to grow.  The custom high protein dairy mixture consists of corn, rolled oats and barley pellets, soybean meal, cottonseed hulls, limestone, and possibly molasses and trace minerals.

Like all food, this grain mixture has a certain amount of vitamins and minerals.  Healthy food helps ensure a healthy animal.  Healthy dairy animals produce healthy milk after they have calved.  Grain is an important part of a dairy animal’s diet to get them in the best condition possible to be good milk producers.  It is cheaper to take care of one cow that can make a lot of milk than to take care of two cows that produce a little milk.  

If If milk production can be speeded up by lowering the air temperature, then milk could be produced faster and cheaper.  If milk is produced cheaper, the savings will show in the price people have to pay for milk at the store.   

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Will temperature affect how quickly a dairy heifer eats?

HYPOTHESIS

I hypothesize that the hotter the temperature, the slower the heifer will eat.  That means that the opposite is true, the cooler the temperature, the faster the animal will eat.


MATERIALS

A dairy heifer
A nylon halter with a ring to attach a chain
A chain attached to the animal’s pen
A bucket
2 gallons of high protein dairy mix grain feed
A cell phone with a stopwatch timer option
A built-in thermometer in the truck
An assistant to start the stopwatch
Paper / pencil to record data 


PROCEDURE

1.    A two year old Holstein dairy heifer was chosen from the herd.
2.    The heifer was fitted with a nylon halter in order to     limit her movements while eating.
3.    A chain was attached to the pen panel and hooked     onto the nylon halter just before feeding time (as     shown to me by Miss Jennings, my 4-H leader).
4.    Two gallons of custom mixed high protein grain was     measured out and held in a bucket until poured into     the heifer’s feed trough.
5.    The assistant started the stopwatch timer at the     moment the grain was poured.
6.    The air temperature was recorded from the readout     on the dashboard of the truck.
7.    The heifer was observed while eating. 
8.    When the animal backed away from the trough, the     trough was inspected for any remaining grain.
9.    When the grain dust (finely ground meal) was all     licked clean, the timer was stopped, the time was     recorded, and the animal was released from the     chain.

DATA

On day one, the temperature was 76 degrees.  It took 24:35 for the heifer to complete her serving of grain.  On day two, the temperature was 82 degrees.  It took 29:18 to complete the serving.  Day three was 75 degrees, and it took 21:18 to finish the grain.  On day four the it 52 degrees.  It took 15:29 for the heifer to eat.  On day five it was 57 degrees and it took 17:44 to completely finish the two gallon portion of grain.

SUMMARY

The data collected demonstrates that when the temperature goes up, she eats slower.  When the temperature goes down, she eats faster.  (See Chart 1)

 
 (Chart 1)

CONCLUSION

As stated in my hypothesis, I believe that the higher the temperature, the slower a dairy animal will eat, and that the lower the temperature, the faster a dairy animal will eat.  The experimental data that was collected supported my hypothesis, indicating a direct relation between temperature and rate of grain consumption.  The warmer the temperature, the slower my research subject ate.  The cooler the temperature, the faster my subject ate.  The experiment confirmed that temperature slows or speeds the rate at which a dairy animal eats.

Through my research and my experience, I discovered that in addition to the temperature, the type of weather also fluctuated.  I experienced days that were sunny, cloudy, still, windy, and even a day of light mist.  An idea for a future experiment would be to also note weather conditions in addition to temperature.

BIBLIOGRAPHY...