Seeing Red on the Day of the Green

Here is somebody who wears green every day

As a Facebook friend pointed out the dairy markets are crashing again. It was looking as if we were going to see some decent prices this summer, which is a great thing for little farms like ours. Although we milk year round, we are just a bit on the seasonal side, with a lot of cows calving right now.

Then the mamas go outside to graze for the summer, fresh and ready to make a lot of milk for us on that nice green grass. For those circumstances to coincide with good prices would mean we could pay of some of the poor folks to whom we owe money and maybe do a few of the things many folks take for granted.

Alas, I guess those futures markets were just idle speculation, tempting dairy farmers into thinking things might be okay for a change. You can read ongoing discussions on all the factors involved in the dairy markets here.

So we are seeing red the about market messing around, and we are seeing it in the color of our bottom line.

We are also seeing it in the lovely mahogany-and-white of the big bull calf born to Broadway last night. He is sure a beauty! Of course he decided to be born at midnight after a six-hour struggle on the part of his mama, so I am even more jet-lagged than after the time change. We took it in shifts to walk over to the barn and check on old B-Dub.

For hours and hours and hours, nothing was happening. Then there were feet and a nose when I made the last hike. I assisted a little just because she had been laboring so long, but she would probably have had him okay without me. He is so huge I had to call the boss to lift him over the gate in front of her so she could lick him off!

As time goes on I like the milking shorthorn cattle more and more. Six hours of hard labor and B-Dub jumped to her feet the minute he was out and swapped ends to moo and lick. Six hours of being hard labored upon and he was shaking his head and sneezing and trying to crawl up to her face in less than a minute after birth. The red ones are hardy cows indeed.

Happy St. Patrick's day to everyone! I am using the circles under my eyes for my wearing of the green. With all the McIntosh's and McGiverns and Ferrins and such in the family background, I figure there is green enough right in my blood.