Hoof trimming

It's that time again.  Time to call Mr. Hoof Trimmer.  We'll have all the girls done except the itty-bitties that were born in the last three months.

Hooves grow.  I guess they're kind of like fingernails.  They can get chipped, split, broken, and too long.  Mostly what I've ever seen was too long.  Ayan's hooves are starting to look like clown shoes, if you ask me.

I LOVE hoof trimming day.  Mr. Hoof Trimmer comes to the Ag Farm and we all bring our animals to him.  I lead each one around (one at a time) and he watches how the heifer or cow walks.  We walk away from him and then back to him.  I lead her through a type of chute with a head gate.  I hand him the chain straps that go under her belly, and he attaches them up top.  Then he pushes a button and the whole thing slowly tilts until she is lying on her side all relaxed.  He uses his hand tools and power tools to carefully trim the hooves.  He also inspects their hooves for good health and tells me if there's anything wrong.  Before he lets her down, he even puts an anti-bacterial on her hooves for good measure.  It's almost like a pedicure without the polish!  

Time for some ultrasounds!

Since my girls are in separate pens, and we don't have any way to check for heat on them like that,  we need to take Carmelita and Juicy and maybe Ayan for an ultrasound to see if they are pregnant or open.  Both Carmelita and Juicy are virgin heifers.  That means that neither one has ever had a calf.  I can't wait to see the results!  We've been talking about naming Apple Juice's first heifer calf Appletini and just call her TINI!  I can't believe I'm going to name her after an alcoholic drink, but it's just so darn cute!  She comes from a LARGE family of "Apples".

*******

Well, we got good news and bad news and worse news.  The good news is that Carmelita is pregnant.  The bad news is that we don't know if it's a heifer or a bull.  (Conventional semen was used on her.)  The worse news is that both Juicy AND Ayan are OPEN.  As Hutch, the ultrasound tech, would say, "Nobody's home."

Let's raise money for SPECIAL OLYMPICS at the Tulsa State Fair!!!

THIS IS THE COOLEST DEAL EVER! The Tulsa State Fair people posted this on facebook and that's where we found it.
Check it out!
I sent out an email tonight to my entire school district asking people to help me.  If they want, I will come by and take their photos and post on Instagram and facebook.  I will even deliver their entries to Tulsa for them!
Dizzy and I are going to do some work together!  This is going to be FUN!!!

************
The response has been amazing!  Kids of all ages are jumping on this opportunity!  One of my favorite ladies sent a copy to her daughter who works in a dentist's office.  She's going to give one to every kid that comes in!  Yea!  I'm hoping there are lots more stories like this!

Stay tuned!  I'll let you know how it goes!

If you're interested, you can visit the busydizzy link shown in the pic above to print off and color your own page for me to deliver for you!

I'm on the campaign trail!

Last Friday I signed up for Student Council elections and turned in my speech.  At our school, we just run for office.  We don't pick which one.  The number of votes you get decides what office you get.  We are only allowed to post one poster, so I did...with a whole stack of flip pages with different slogans on them!   It's got balloons around the edges, and on election day, I'm going to add a half dozen battery-operated flashing stars!!!

Then my mom and I made a slideshow with music.  It took me TWO days just to pick out the song I wanted to use.  We listened to TONS of music from our iTunes library.  Mom would like one and I would give it a thumbs down.  She liked AC/DC and Queen and Gary Glitter!  Then we would pick a goofy one and laugh like crazy!  Most of them we were just joking about, like "Laffy Taffy" and "The Sabre Dance" and "My Milkshake".  We laughed A LOT.
 
FINALLY, on the way to school the other day, she asked me what my decision was, and I said, "Never Miss A Beat."  So that's what I've got!  Then mom spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to drop the music file on the show.  She ended up asking a student.  She started explaining it to me, and I had to tell her I already knew that!  She wished I would have told her that earlier.  :)  Love you, Mom!

All the pics were in my mom's iPhoto library.  We just went through and picked ones we liked.  You've probably seen them all on my blog already.   We tried to make a list of my positive qualities.  Most of them have to do with the work I do with dairy and 4-H and stuff.  The slides sat there waiting FOREVER for me to pick out the right song.  My 6th hour teacher played it over the projector for our class.  They liked it so much that they wanted to see it twice!

Today I gave my speech, and we all voted.  Say hello to the new SEVENTH GRADE CLASS SECRETARY!  Woo Hoo!  Thank you!  Thank you very much!

Wait!  There's more!  The other day, I also signed up to run for 4-H office.  I would like to be Vice-President, Reporter, or President.  Elections are at our meeting next month.

Wish me luck on the rest of my campaign trail!

Ayan is back...and her family is changing!

X-Small, Medium, X-Large

Ayan came back from the breeder this week!  Of course that means that FARA and BANJO (aka Bucko, Bully, or whatever we call him at the moment) came back, too.  Ayan was gone for a month.  We took her to the breeder so he could catch her in heat.  Since Ayan has been in a pen with just her calves, there's no way for a heat tape to work, and there would never be any animals trying to mount her, so we would never be able to catch her in heat.  Alan was nice enough to offer to let her stay there with his herd until she "passed over" her next heat.  If she came into heat, we would know that she is not pregnant,  and he could A.I. her again.  If she showed no signs of heat, then we could bring her home and get her preg checked sometime.

They've only been gone a month, but it seems like forever!  I can't believe how big FARA has gotten!  WOW!  She looks awesome!

Banjo is looking good.  Looks good enough to sell!  We don't want him to spend the night at the auction, because he will "shrink" since he will be away from his momma and not getting her milk.  We want him to be fat and healthy to bring a fat and healthy price!  I hope to make a good profit.  I only have $200 in him.  That's what I paid for him.  He's been putting on all his weight from Ayan's milk.  He's not as big as the last beef bull I had, but I kept him longer, so he was older and he was on an all you can eat diet of Ayan's milk and feed from the creeper.  When I sold him, his rump banged the guard in front of the creeper every time he went in and out.  Anyway, Banjo bully is headed to the sale bright and early Tuesday morning!  I've sold animals at Bristow and Perkins, and now I'm going to try the OKC sale.

PRIM is in the pen with Ayan's little family.  She nurses all she can from Ayan, but we figured there can't be enough for all three of them considering how big the other two are.  So we let her nurse all she can, and then we also started out supplementing a bottle in the morning and 3/4 of a bottle in the evening.  Then the other morning, she just messed around with the bottle and that night, she only took about 1/4.  Her belly also looked full.  Hopefully tomorrow she won't need any at all.  Then Tuesday, when bully bully is gone, she will have all she can drink!

Ayan treats her just fine.  From what we've seen, they have all treated her fine, but Christy says that she's seen Fara head-butting Prim like, "This is MY momma!  You go away!"  Once we get the bull hauled to the auction, and they have to share less milk, maybe Fara will be nicer to Prim.

Prim seems perky and happy.  Her little tail just wags and curls.  She runs and jumps and kicks up her heels!


  

Feed prices?!?!?!?!

There are lots of headlines on the dairy websites about flood and drought and fires and high corn prices and possibly corn shortages.  I don't know what other crops have been affected, but I know that I'm feeling the pain already.  My high protein dairy mix has gone up $143 a ton since the last time I ordered.  It is now $544 per ton.  (Sad face.)  I worry about what the winter will be like.

Flat tires are wearing us out!

Wish it would stay as clean as the day we got it.

We are sick and tired of flat tires at our house!  We have ruined three in the first year!  Daddy says that it's because they are only 4-ply and we go down a lot of gravel roads hauling heavy loads.  So he brought us home a present of four new 10-ply tires!  Yea!

You may wonder why I'm so excited.  Well, have you ever been out in 107 degree weather with a cow in a trailer and had a flat tire that you had to change (or in my case, help change)?  It's no fun, I can assure you.  So I'm happy to be riding on some tougher tires!

One step closer to the TULSA STATE FAIR!

We're getting closer to the Tulsa State Fair each day!


The first show of the year, Sooner State, is over.  That doesn't mean the work is finished.

A day or so after the show we got all the girls out and scrubbed them up good with anti-fungal shampoo.  We have to keep an eye out for any suspicious spots that might surface after a show.  Like I've said before, you put a bunch of animals together, and you don't know what they might come home with.  We stocked up on Clorox to bleach all of our wash brushes and stuff.  We've got to make sure they stay healthy.

We adjusted diets to make sure they are getting the right nutrition for their individual body types.  Each one eats a different type or combination of feed.  I rope halter them each day and take them to their own feed pan.  They don't go back together until everyone has made a "happy trough"!  That way I can make sure they are just eating what they are supposed to.  I want to help them develop into the best condition they can each be.  No two animals of mine are the same or even similar.  They are each completely different.  They each get their own special treatment.

County show is less than a month from now.  OKC is shortly after, and the TULSA STATE FAIR is about a week later!  As usual, I will be there even before the fair opens, trying to be a good worker on our aisle in the Expedition Building!  Come by and check us out!  I'll be there with about half a dozen of my dairy teammates, my 4-H advisor, breeder, and of course, my mom.  Who knows how many cattle we'll have.  Last year with Jr. and Open, I think we had about 60 in our aisle!

I wish I could take every one of my girls to show, but I know that can't happen.  I REALLY want to take baby FARA and PRIM, but they are just too little.  I've turned in registration for Juicy, Carmelita, Stopnstare, and Posey.  I want to show Prim and Posey together, but that will have to wait until next year, I guess.

The month of September is going to be CRAZY for me.  Believe it or not, I actually have a lot of other activities besides dairy:  4-H meeting/activities, Rainbow meetings/installation/initiation/activities/trips/dances, maybe student council (if I'm re-elected next week), church, school/homework, dance (pointe and lyrical), and as much TV watching, texting, and Instagramming as I can squeeze in!

UNfair milk prices

I just don't understand.  Why can't dairy farmers get a good price for their milk?  This seems to be going on all around the world!

Posters from the UK

Dairy farm entrance in the UK

Since there are dairymen reading this blog in other countries, my mom and I started looking on the internet about dairies in the countries of my readers like France and Germany and Russia.  There are articles about farmers protesting and blocking traffic with their tractors.  Farmers have even dumped their milk in the streets in two different countries that we read about.  Just recently there was a post on facebook about dairy farmers FINALLY getting paid more for their products in Australia.  Yea, Australia!!!  I'm glad that someone is finally getting relief.

Smaller dairy farms are dying because they can't afford to stay in business.  Feed is getting more expensive.  Hay prices have skyrocketed.  Providing the cows with a high comfort level is not free.  Employees and equipment are necessary.  All this stuff costs money!

Dairy people take pride in their work.  They care about their animals and the land.  Believe it or not, I even know of a 5,000 cow dairy where they NAME every animal.  They are not just numbers.  I know that dairy people care about more than just making a buck.  Doesn't every person that works that hard deserve to make enough money to not have to worry every day?

Planning for Tulsa State Fair weather

(Written in late July)

It's 111 degrees today, but what is the weather like during the Tulsa State Fair?  Who knows.  It's different every year.  It's even different from the day we arrive to the day we leave.

Two years ago we spent the first four days in shorts.  The last day we were there, it was so cold that we were layering all the clothes we could find and we still froze.  There were some tiny flakes of snow blowing in the side of the show ring.  It was bizarre!

Ever since, we have packed for ALL SEASONS.  We may over-pack, but we are PREPARED!

"What are your future plans?"

I got my e-newsletter from Progressive Dairyman today.  They featured my latest post.

“WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS? DO YOU PLAN TO REMAIN INVOLVED IN THE AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY? IF SO, WHY?”

• Posted by MaddieMoo on August 6, 2012 at 6:41am
• View Blog

When I first got this question, all I could think of was “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  That freaked me out because I don’t know.  I’m still a tween-ager.  I’m only twelve and a half years old.  My mom and I talked about this question for three days. Here is my list of things I have honestly considered for my future so far:  Pre-K teacher, actress, professional ballerina, and beautician.  No joke.  We laughed about it a lot, but we were afraid that list wasn’t a good enough answer.  Then we looked at the question again and decided that maybe it wasn’t asking what we thought.  We thought that maybe it was asking about my nearer future.  Since I’m only twelve and a half, I’ve got a lot of future ahead of me.  Even high school is still a ways off.  I have several things that I’m looking forward to in my middle school and high school future.    

I plan to continue showing dairy.  I still have six more school years I can show as a 4-H or FFA member.  I want to continue to expand my dairy herd through breeding what I have and by purchasing additional animals.  I have always thought I would eventually own at least one of each of the major dairy breeds.

I would also like to continue to be a dairy princess.  I have been chosen as the Oklahoma Ayrshire Jr.

Princess for three years in a row.  When I am no longer chosen as an Ayrshire princess, I will be able to compete for a crown in another breed association where I am a member and show animals of that breed.  

We did pre-enrollment in school in May.  School starts in two days, and as a seventh grader I am going to take AG class!  I can’t be in FFA until eighth grade, but I can at least be in Ag class.  I’m so excited!  For ONE thing, she's already told me that I'm going to learn a lot more about dairy and dairy judging.  Later there will be SAEs and CDEs and convention and banquet and all kinds of new stuff.  I also plan to always be in  4-H.  My 4-H leader, who is also the FFA advisor, will help me make the right choices in my project areas so I can get the most out of both organizations without overlapping.  It’s tricky.  You can be active in both, but you have to be careful that you don’t “double-dip” as she calls it.  This year I turned in a 4-H recordbook for Gold in Dairy Livestock, Silver in Dairy Foods, Silver in Nutrition, Bronze in Shooting Sports, The Nutrition Special Award, and The Outstanding Junior Special Award.  I do a lot of work in a lot of areas.  I have been a  4-H officer for the past three years.  I will run again this fall.

I will continue to compete for Local Overall Exhibitor.  This is a competition among exhibitors of all the species.  Points are earned by your placings, showmanship, sportsmanship, herdsmanship, and your scores by judges during an interview process.  I have been showing for three years.  The first year, I was Runner-Up Overall 4-H Exhibitor.  The second year AND the third year, I WON 4-H Overall Exhibitor!  

I can’t wait until I’m fourteen.  It seems like fourteen is the magic age for lots of cool stuff.  This last year my placing qualified me to go to nationals in shooting sports, but I wasn’t old enough to be invited.  Fourteen is also the age I can start running for Oklahoma Dairy Princess.  It’s the year that I can turn in my first 4-H state level recordbooks.  I can run for 4-H office on the county level.  I can be considered for 4-H County Hall of Fame.  

I will also keep on helping with Cloverbuds and working in dairy themes wherever we can. 

I will continue to promote the dairy industry and dairy foods as a part of a healthy diet.  I will work for Dairy MAX’s Susan Allen for as long as she will have me.

   

Who knows what else I’ll get to do with agriculture?  Just recently I’ve been invited to spend a day working at Cross Country Genetics, and just the other day I was invited to come work for a day at a family dairy.  Who knows what other agricultural opportunities I will get in the future?    

Repost:  From Progressive Dairyman E-Newsletter 08-10-12

4-H Success!!!

Tuesday night was the annual county 4-H banquet.
We had BBQ catered by Klein's.  They served a HUGE dinner!  There was also a large silent auction and LOTS of door prizes.  I got some green and black 4-H vintage style sunglasses.  YEA!!!

It seems like I've been waiting FOREVER to find out what I earned this year!
My awards included:

Gold in Dairy Livestock
Silver in Dairy Foods
Champion in Individual Talent
Champion in Powerpoint
Champion in Prepared Speech
Reserve Champion in Impressive Dress
and OUTSTANDING JUNIOR!!!

The members of our 4-H chapter who turned in record books were very successful!

Maddie Moo - MIDWIFE!

Wah Hoo!!!  It FINALLY happened!!! Posey's calf has arrived!
Here's how it all happened...

Posey around 5:00 check

Wednesday evening we checked Posey around 5:00.  She was with all the other cattle standing in the shade by the water tank.  We noticed that she was breathing really fast like we saw Faith doing for days before she delivered.  She was sweet and loving and did not shy away.  I had a meeting, so I got dressed up (like a little lady), went to my meeting, and then came back to do chores and check on Posey again afterward.  We joked on the way about the moon looking full and how a full moon can make a female go into labor.

Cutting open the sack.  White hooves.

When we got to the farm it was dark.  Mom shined the flashlight across the fence to see who was up at the feeder waiting on us.  Everyone was there...except Posey.  That was a good sign.  So she shined the flashlight all around the field.  She said she thought she saw white out of the corner of her eye.  Sure enough, it was Posey's white belly glowing in the moonlight.  She was lying flat on her side.  When we got down to the bottom of the field, we could see a liquid filled sack with two white hooves sticking out of her.

Christy was out of town at the Ag teacher conference, so we called her to find out what to do.  She talked us through it all a little at a time.  We must have made four or five phone calls.  We were at the farm two years ago and saw a birth, but we didn't touch anything until after the calf was born.  We wanted to make sure that we didn't do anything wrong.  Mom had even watched a YouTube video that evening in the truck while I was in my meeting.  She was trying to refresh her memory on how everything was supposed to look.  (Awesome timing, Mom!)

We let Posey push a little more.  Then I cut open the sack.  We cleared off the nose with clean white cotton shop towels.  We kept the calf alert and breathing by touching her lower jaw and bridge of her nose.  That was weird.  Two hooves, a nose, and a tongue sticking out.

Nose and tongue, white feet and hooves.

We held her just above her hooves and pulled ONLY whenever Posey pushed.  We weren't trying to pull the calf out or remove her.  We were just making Posey's pushes more productive.  Posey got up and walked around and pushed for five minutes or so and then laid back down and pushed some more.  The calf's  head just wasn't moving out well, so Mom laid her hand on the opening (vulva) and just gently pushed it up and over the eyes and forehead.  Posey didn't tear or anything.  We were glad.  It was weird because the calf's head was sticking out and it opened its eyes and started looking at us.  Then the pushes got really productive and we had the calf on the ground before we knew it.  We checked, yep, it was a girl!  Yea!!!

Two seconds after touching the ground

Posey took to her right off and licked her good.  Then the calf started stirring like she was trying to stand up!  We had to move fast.  I ran and got the wheelbarrow.  We loaded up the little slippery sucker and pushed her up the hill to the pen.  I led Posey and Mom pushed the wheelbarrow.

Momma is cleaning her up.

We laid the calf on the soft hay beside the hay ring.  Posey licked her more.  I got to use my new Vetericyn umbilical cord spray!

We waited while she (Prim) tried to stand.  Then we worked with her on nursing.  Worst nurser EVER!  She would just barely get the teat in her mouth and lose it.  We would push her up closer, and she would resist us.  We would get her on and Posey would shift over one or two inches and we had to start all over again.  It was SO TIRING!!!  Much more tiring than helping with the delivery!  Finally she had enough and wouldn't nurse anymore.  She was even more tired than we were.  We were worried that she wouldn't have had enough nutrition to last her through the night.  She made it just fine.  She was just tired of us messing with her.  The next morning she was rested and alert and was a MUCH better nurser!   She filled up good.  She's been prancin' and dancin' every day since!
Welcome to the world, Godbless Burdette Primrose!!!  Everybody, this is Prim.  Prim, this is everybody!

Baby Prim, less than 12 hours old.

We can't BELIEVE how much she looks like her momma!  She's just got less white.  Even the triangle on her forehead is like hers, except in reverse.

(2010) Baby Posey's first day.

                                                                               






See the resemblance?

(2010) Baby Posey less than 24 hours old.

                                                                                   

Posey went to the dairy to live with other Ayrshire show cows.  It's the same dairy where I sold Faith.  So they won't be lonely.  They will be friends again! 

I can't wait to see what kind of condition Posey is in by TULSA STATE FAIR time!  That will be my next opportunity to show her.  I sure hope she is good.  People have always thought that she would be a better cow than she was a heifer.  She did okay as a heifer, but it would be nice to see her do even better as a cow.  We also wonder what her udder will look like after the swelling (edema) goes away from pregnancy/delivery.  

You just never know what could happen.  I hope she stays healthy.  I feel really good about her being at Hall's Dairy.  She will get great care there.  I sure do hope that other people think she's as great as I do!   I wonder if she will "track better in her back legs" since she has a big ol' udder to keep them apart?  At least I hope it's a BIG ol' udder.  It sure looked big the last time we saw her!  

After her first trip to the dairy parlor!

I miss her.  She's the first calf I raised up.  I know I've only had her for two years or so, but I feel like she's been with me forever.   

I can't wait to see her at TULSA!

Little Prim follows me around the pen just like her momma did.  We run and jump and play.  She's like her momma, but I think that Prim just might have a little more personality.