Farmer Connect

Lemmie at the fair. She was reserve champion Holstein

We drove a couple of hours today to look at a bull that was advertised in Country Folks. He wasn't quite what we had in mind, but the folks had another one that we were crazy about and the dam was just as nice so we are negotiating on him.

Rose Magnolia at the fair.
She was grand champion milking shorthorn over a small,
but very nice quality entry. I was stunned and I don't mean maybe.

It was so cool talking to them. When we went into their kitchen we were total strangers. At first conversation was best-behavior-basis, a little stilted, feeling each other out, testing, one, two, three, will you understand what we are thinking? Will we "get" you?

After a few minutes cautious talk about hay and weather, the conversation turned to old cattle sale catalogs and we were off. It was a wonder we weren't next door neighbors or something so much did we have in common. They are good friends with our milk inspector. They like the old bulls, attended Backus auctions, kept big bulls, and on and on.

Alan and I were looking at one another with laughter in our eyes because although the two farmers had never met and looked nothing alike, they were like twins. We stood or sat in their kitchen for hours regaling each other with stories about big, bad bulls, nice heifers, amazing auctions and so on, each getting to know the other's ways and background.

We finally had to get going and they had to get back to fitting for their fair and chores so we said goodbye....several times, always another little story or thought. We liked them a lot. I hope they liked us too. I suspect we will be buying their little bull after a bit. I sure hope we get to meet them again. Nothing like a meeting of the minds.

Twin babies born at the Miracle of Birth Center at Altamont Fair.
Mama seemed quite taken with them.

Food Miles, Calories and Fallacies

I was surprised to find this in a NY Times article.

This is a well-thought out piece worth a thorough read. I am so glad it is reaching a main stream audience.

Raptor

Kestrel

Barred owl...who cooks for you?

Sleepy screech owl, grey phase

Red-tailed hawk...its only flaw was that is was imprinted on humans.

Not red but brave and bold just the same. These are rehabbed birds that were being exhibited near the cow barn at Altamont Fair when I visited on Tuesday. Although they have all manner of handicaps, their raptor nature shown from their dark bright eyes. I missed the gleaming steel colored eye of the broad winged hawk. It was such a beautiful bird, but my focus was poor.

Colored Breeds Show

Down around the wagon by the gate at evening milking time.
Kinda like rush hour country style.

Starts in ten minutes. I am not there.

Maybe I can make the Holstein show tonight. That would be sweet as a certain dearly-loved family member usually shows up and I'd love to see him.

At least chores are done and we finally have grain.

And if you are looking to buy a beautiful children's book, I would love to send some business the way of the illustrator of this one. (You can see how fantastic her art is here)

It's a long story, but she brought our grain at 3 this AMand it wasn't exactly a good moment for her. Anyone that talented deserves support. And it sure goes to show you never know. Who would expect that a grain truck driver, incidentally a lovely and very sweet young lady, would be a published children's book illustrator too?

Back to School Shopping

(Don't you just love these irrelevant pictures?
This is a Scottish Highlander Cow over at the fair.)

I am done with school shopping, what with the baby in college and all, and it is not a task that I will miss at all. If I never again have to compete with herds of other harried parents for the last pack of three by five cards in the state or spend money we don't have for expensive gadgets that could be replaced by lined paper and a pencil I will rejoice with hosannas. To never buy another five-inch binder (yeah, I know what they cost) or graphing calculator will make me a very happy woman.

However, a post by my friend Ann, had me remembering just how creative a terminally lazy very busy and harassed mother can be. Three kids, one husband, elderly inlaws, the farm etc. had me at a dead run all through the school years. Band, chorus, 4-H, Dairy Quiz Bowl, Dairy judging, Dairy Ambassadors, who had time to shop? As soon as our kids could count, read, and conceive of spending money (I think Alan might have been nine) we pointed them towards independence by giving them a certain amount of money at the beginning of each frantic fall pen, pencil and over-priced clothing round up. (One year it was two hundred dollars for clothes, books, three by five cards from Hell, calculators etc. Those were the days.......I can't imagine spending that now and am glad I don't have to).

They were then permitted to each take a shopping cart and buy exactly what they wanted-the catch being that it had to go them for the whole school year. If they had money left at the end of their initial shopping session (when the prices are lowest and the crowds most insane) they could put it away for school needs during the ensuing year. If they had any left come summer vacation it was theirs for whatever they wanted.

If the clothes they bought were poorly made or seriously ugly, they had to cope with the consequences. Skimping on things on the class lists brought the teacher down on their heads not mine. (Well actually I put my fingers in my ears and hummed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony while the teachers yelled at me on the phone but the offspring had to come up with a way to fulfill their commitments....)

You might expect that this would be fraught with comedy and tragedy and that they ended up short of needed funds, out of paper and bereft of pens.
It wasn't.
They weren't.
Maybe because they were farm kids and simply had to be practical and independent to get from day to day, they did just fine right from the very first year. Alan and Liz, the practical pair, had money left for summer. Becky the generous might have had to borrow paper from someone half way through the year, but she got by and got to choose clothes that she liked (I shuddered but she was happy).

It worked for me too. I was there in the store to offer advice if requested but I never had to fight over what color or price of notebook or tee shirt. If they wanted top of the line stuff they made do with less...willingly because they got to choose between five notebooks for a dollar or one for five dollars.

Today any one of them can take X number of carefully hoarded dollars to the store and come back with the maximum amount of appropriate products that those dollars can purchase. They can grocery shop for the whole family on an extremely tight budget, buy vehicles, animals, feed, or whatever and the oldest is only 24. I know I was a real mean mom, but most days I am quite glad of it.

Farm Sign Gate

I was one of a bountiful number of ag journalists who wrote about this fascinating, but incorrect story. I'm calling it farm sign gate.

Retraction anyone?

Stranded Payments in PA

Where is the milk money going?

Shorties at the Fair

Rose Magnolia, our girl, shown in the intermediate calf class

The other shortie at the fair,
sired by Promise, our old bull,
a junior yearling, I think.

Lemmie Loves Me

Lemmie before she heard my voice

Just in case you wondered whether cows know their folks or not....Liz's boyfriend took me over to the fair for a bit. When I got there Lem was just lying there resting. The second I spoke and she heard my voice she spun her head right around to see me. Then any time I spoke her name she quickly looked to see what I was doing.

As soon as she heard my voice...
there were people all around talking but she picked me right out

Chewing cud like it was her job.

Milk vein

Liz, Becky and the men generally feed her. All I do is milk her twice a day, put fly spray on ditto...and talk to her, because, despite her breaking my nose with her tail last year, she is one of my favorites. Nice to know she likes me too.

More Cows for the Fair

I hustled all weekend getting these ladies finished for Liz's fair decorations...then she forgot them. Oh, well, I am sure she will remember tomorrow and the paint will probably be a bit drier then.Now if I can just get the printer working for the stall signs.

Rose Magnolia at the Fair

Some fast phone pics sent home by Liz during and after clipping. Her head is shaped a lot like that of her paternal grandmother Gold Mine Poppys OT Kay (Her sire is the Select Sire Power bull, Poker).

***Yet another update. There is another milking shorthorn heifer over at the fair, a nice yearling. Guess who her sire is?

Yep, the two shorties that will compete are very closely related. Rose's granddad is the other heifer's papa. Even though the older animal will almost inevitably beat little Rose I am simply tickled red (shorthorn red). I picked Promise out myself from a photo I saw online. I fought kinda fiercely to get him drawn rather than just beefed (as a certain husband was going to do). I have no objections whatsoever by being beaten by one of his offspring.

Pins and Needles

Fair time is nervous time for me.

I worry.

The drive is terrible. 32 miles of twisting, winding road, bad enough in the day time, horrible at night when shared with hard core elbow benders and worse. We have been followed, harassed and witnessed massive drug busts while on that merry jaunt to the show and back.

Then there are the cattle. I worry about them. They are so vulnerable to who knows what while they are there. There is a good watchman, but there are so many um.....people....not cow people...all kinds of people. And loose cows, always a few loose cows.

And dear Lemmie has to be hand milked today as the milking parlor won't be open until tonight. She has been hand milked before, but I worry. She is one of my very favorites to milk, tall enough so I barely have to bend down to put the machine on, always clean with a properly placed udder, just a very nice girl...and she is the best cow Becky has ever had. Here at home one of Liz's best heifers, a Silky Cousteau, out of Mandy herself, turned up with a bum hock yesterday. Real bad. She is a big strapping thing, but somebody or something did her harm. Probably one of the other big heifers in that pasture. They tend to play rough. I am so worried about her too. That whole family of cows is very soft, not toughies like some who will just rub a little dirt in it and walk it off. I hope she is better today.

And then there is Gael. Gael is Liz's border collie, Mike's half sister. Her dad was a great enough dog to go to the National finals with his owner. I have written about him here before, one of the most staggeringly talented dogs I have ever seen. Gael was softer when she worked, but she had a git er done attitude that made her more dog than she actually was. She is fifteen. Old dog vestibular disease and with it intermittent blindness. Incontinence. She was drinking from the garden pond when I looked at her yesterday. The next time I looked out to check on her she was gone. I looked and looked. She had fallen behind some plants and couldn't get up. I went and helped her. Then she fell in another flower bed and couldn't get up. She ate a couple bites of meatloaf and nothing more. She has lost so much weight in the last few weeks.... I will get her some canned dog food and see if that helps, but in my heart I know it is getting to be Time.

How I hate to make that decision. I know will feel guilty as I did when Mike left us last fall. Who am I to say? When is it right? Too soon? Too late? Good dogs. Good friends. Good helpers. They are all getting old at the same time.

It all adds up to not much sleep. Worry and a buck and a half will get you a cup of coffee (unless you are the Star$$$$ sort) but I do it anyhow. I will be glad when the week is done and all the decisions are made and the cows and kid back home again.

****Update...first thing I saw out the kitchen window when the sun got down to business this morning was Monday, the Cousteau daughter, lying in some bushes looking awful and very sorry for herself. I was so discouraged I could barely stand it. She is good one. I want her to thrive and prosper. We brought the cows in and were discussing what we would do....try to get her down into a pen, take food and water to her right where she was (problem, the other animals would fight her to take it away from her) or put her in the empty pasture behind the barn. Then Alan said, as he looked out the cow barn window, "Isn't that her right there? Isn't she the only one with a collar on?"

Nonsense....she was so bad off, how could she walk? Well it turns out she could walk pretty darned good and was right there in the barnyard with the rest of the heifers...going back to that whole family being a bunch of wienies.....Yup they are. Guess she sprained her hock, but she is infinitely better this morning. She refused our offer to rest in the barnyard and hustled right out with the others....see this grey hair here...this one right here? It's hers!

Sunday Stills....Smoke and Fire

I pride myself on one-match fires. This wasn't one.



For more Sunday Stills....

Rooster

Teri gave us this fellow a while back. We let him out of the coop to run around the other day and he is such a sweetie! He is still called New Roo for want of a better name.

Another Shorthorn

This is BattleMint, another Holstein/Milking Shorthorn cross. As you can see they don't all turn out red. She is not a bad heifer, but I am probably going to sell her as her mother was an abysmal cow and somebody has to go. I have a Myrik daughter that we can't seem to get bred that is also for sale.

Fair Time

Lemmie shows as a five-year-old this year. Here she is getting clipped

Altamont Fair begins officially on Tuesday next. Liz is getting her animals washed and clipped. This is Frieland Ex Spec Lemonade, a daughter of Ocean-View Extra-Special out of an old Straight-Pine Elevation Pete daughter we had. She has never exactly been a spectacular cow, but she never changes...looks the same at five as she did at two. I am really hoping she holds together to show as an aged cow and looks this youthful.

Carolina Wren on the Porch

For Cathy, who asked. I never imagined I could actually get this video, but as I was getting ready to head to the barn this morning, not one, but two Carolina wrens came to sing on the porch amphitheater. One was under the old DR Trimmer singing its heart out. This one started at the top of the steps then flew right to the door where I was standing, clung to the outside of the crosspieces on the screen and sang about a foot from my camera (missed that on the video). You can see him flying up to the door at the end of the video.
Used my beloved Canon Is3s btw, which does a fine job at anything I ask of it.

I was about to shoot more when the cat hit the screen at about a hundred mph. Guess he isn't a music lover.

****Update, I put a second video, in which you can just barely see the bird on the screen before the cat hits it over on my other blog, The View at Northview.

Thursday on the Farm

Not all the dandelions around here are out in the lawn.....

Sorry I haven't been doing much more than putting up links and photos lately. This is a busy time of year on a farm and we have been going at it every day. The guys are finished with first cutting and getting at the Sudex and second cutting. Trying to bale the latter, but with the every few days rain most of it is ending up in the bag. They are mixing the Sudex with semi-dry hay to get it to go in the bag as it is pretty hard to dry down and tends to mush up and not pack otherwise.

Haven't even had a chance to plug the new camera into the computer to charge its little battery. Beets and beans are throwing themselves at me apace and I have to get them in the freezer. I am itching to get out and take some video of Shamrock playing with her tongue. She is a goofy little Jersey of Liz's and she spends hours flipping it up and down and waving it around and turning it upside down like someone waving a flag. It is the funniest thing to see.

Liz's new job is making it hard for her to get ready for the fair next week. It looks as if she is going to be leaving my milking shorthorn, Rose Magnolia, home because she never got to the library to print off registration blanks for her. I am kinda disappointed because I think she is real nice and I want to see how she looks with her coat clipped and washed and all shined up. She is a strapping big girl now with an amazing frame and a very deep body. I think the Poker bull is going to be a good one.

Well, the Carolina wren has finished his daily early morning serenade and the Indigo bunting is warbling down below the driveway. Guess that means its time for chores. Take care....

Seed Signs and Cow Hunters

Yet another totally irrelevant photograph...how I love them

Here are a pair of stories I used in researching this week's Farm Side

Chicagoans see seed signs as evidence of corporate ownership

Insects could be the key to meeting needs of hungry folks

And here is the rest of the story on the cow found dead with an arrow in its side. (The Angus in question must have been armed, as the alleged perps are claiming self defense.)

Farm equipment thieves caught in the act.

NAIS wearing new clothes, but still the same old nightmare.

Best Butter Commercial EVER

HT Elaine Shein on FB

The Camera Came Today

From the contest.

I am so excited. Can't wait to get it charged up and take some video.

****A big thank you to NutriDense

MORE of this darned weather again tonight. The guys just got the last load of hay unloaded as it hit.

Sometimes You are Glad You Took the Time

Got up really early yesterday to get the most bang for my morning off buck. The sun was just edging a little light across some chilly clouds and puffing up the fog and the Thruway was almost quiet.

Out in the yard a something was singing. Cardinal-like, very flutey and lovely. I figured either a creative cardinal or the mockingbird, but I listened whenever he sang....his call was so sweet and pretty.

Then he came to do the thing so many birds do...sing on the front porch, beak at the door, taking advantage of the two story foyer for a concert hall.

Sweet indeed.

I climbed out of my creaky old desk chair and crept to the door.

Right on the step was the Carolina wren that was hopping around my feet on the other porch last week. Supposedly he is singing tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle.... if he is that is the prettiest tea kettle song I have ever heard. I would link to some of the places that have bird call recordings but I haven't heard a one that does him justice. Most of them are much flatter and less fulsome than the real thing, up close and personal.

I am so glad I left my games to go see!

Sunday Stills...Clouds

For more Sunday Stills.....

Oil Change or Perhaps Not

What do you think of a dealership that takes in a tractor to replace a rear wheel bearing and fails to replace the used transmission oil, filter or strainer?

Or even to call to see if we wanted it done?

Said oil was full of metal filings from the scored housing from the failed bearing so bad that the filter clogged...

TWO, count 'em TWO service calls yesterday to deal with that situation and I am not a happy camper. This kind of thing is why jackknife mechanics flourish around here.

August 6 2005

The day the first post appeared here. It's been a great five years. Thanks for riding along and sharing via the comments!

Incredible Photos from the 30s and 40s

Do take a few minutes to look at these in the Denver Post. They are phenomenal and include homesteaders inside their prairie homes, juke joints, dam building and so much more. Amazing!

HT Luv Hahn on FB

Armed Robbers Hitting California Dairy Farms

This is a chilling story of armed robbers attacking Fresno County farmers as they go about their work. The attacks have been brutal with injuries for the victims


It seems horrifying that even out in the country people can no longer feel safe in their own homes, barns and fields.

Grinning in the Garden

Do click for comparative largeness

My garden is small and crowded, but I have a lot of fun with it. These giant sunflowers are volunteers that I let go among the beans and sweet corn. As you can see my model was more than a trifle reluctant to participate in this particular comparison (Coulda been the nettles).


BTW the model is six feet tall under normal circumstances and six one with those big boots.

Tornado

Alan was up chopping Tuesday when a hellacious storm hit. Trees were bending right over, rain was slashing and drumming and he could barely see to drive the tractor. When he came down he told us about a thing dangling down from the clouds that was circulating and undulating up and down. Over the past few years we have seen that two or three times so we didn't think too much of it until today....when we heard that an E-F1 tornado touched down just a little bit from here.
Wow! He must have been watching it forming. It went right over him.

Defining a Family Farm

Read about it here

Local Meat Harvesting Facility on NPR

HT to Chuck Jolley on Facebook for this story about the meat lab at SUNY Cobleskill. Alan took some classes there, which made our venison processing efforts much smoother. He learned a lot about cutting meat from Director Eric Shelley and worked in the room pictured in the article.

Could We Have

Male bobolink in fall plumage

Indigo bunting singing in the sweet corn

An almost wordless Tuesday? Much to do and never enough time, so I will leave you with a couple of bird pics I took the other day when I was working on Sunday Stills.

This Explains a Lot

From John Bunting's Blog. I frequently feel sad and guilty because our place doesn't look as nice as it should. These numbers can tell you where the fix it up money goes.

"In June, 2010 New York dairy farmers were paid a total of $177,505,300. According to USDA "Costs and Returns" the total costs were $261,960,900. There will be those who argue the "costs" numbers are not accurate because milk can be made cheaper - think slavery."

Monday

Remember Scottie?

We don't usually work Sundays except for chores but yesterday the boss worked his fanny off, all by himself, finishing up a hay field because it was going to rain.

And then it didn't .

But he got some things cleaned up so they can start fresh today. The Sudan grass/sorghum is so wet they are mixing it half and half with dried out first cutting so they can get it in the bag. They are feeding a similar mix green chopped to the cows and they seem to like it pretty well. The kids worked for my bro then went to the fair to the tractor pull. Mark finished up seventh I guess.

Today the sun is coming up in a blaze of red and it is humid enough to wring a glass of water out of a handful of air. Off to the barn then the usual round of garden, kitchen and bookkeeping. Have a good one.

I was walking over to take my Sunday graffiti pics and heard a loud rustling in the creek bed between the farms. ANOTHER woodchuck carting plastic. I have no idea where he found it...but must be a new style in marmot housing.

Sunday Stills...Graffiti

Hickory Tree Field

Instead of concrete and railroad cars...

This could have been quite a challenge in our neighborhood. We do live near a city with a bit of a problem with it, but right here...well, not so much.




However, the boss gets creative with the markers when he is keeping track of which field is put up in the ag bags and this year was no exception.


He is quite the artist isn't he?

Bird Graffiti

And so was this little bird (thanks to Alan for tipping me off to all this good stuff)



For more Sunday Stills....