What do you do

When late blight takes out your tomatoes and potatoes?

You make fried green tomatoes and baked potatoes. Lots of them. Found a recipe for the former that involves baking rather than actual frying. Yum.

More Dairy Action, Schumer asks for Anti-Trust Action

Here.

***Thanks to Jean for this one

And here is a much more detailed look into the subject, from John Bunting's dairy blog. (Click on each page of the Feingold, Schumer, Sanders letter.) For all you farmers who have spent the last decade gnashing your teeth over failure to act on anti-trust issues in the dairy industry, here is a little something kinda, sorta hopeful. Now all that is needed is action.

This letter, from the three senators to an assistant attorney general, is pure dynamite. We all knew this stuff was going on, but to read the numbers laid out one after another is shocking! Even if you are not a farmer, this should tick you off. Every time you pick up a gallon of milk you are being deprived of competitive pricing, plus the farmer who produced the milk is being kicked in the teeth. Check it out.....

Hunting a Lost Calf

We found junior Holstein critter just south of here.

While the boss and Liz were at the ball game (they had a great time btw and the Mets won 9-0) Alan and I undertook to find a missing calf. Bubbles, a big Ocean View Extra Special daughter of mine, had a bull calf by SWD Valiant out in the heifer pasture a couple days ago. We let her stay with him for a day then went to bring her down...and couldn't find him. It's a big pasture with a big hill.

If we didn't find him quickly yesterday we were going to put her back out so she could find him for us, but that wasn't our top choice as we would have had to sort her out from about twenty or so young stock again and she is a very hard to handle critter. She is a big cow and will charge you. I was wishing we worked stock on horseback like our rancher friends. Then we could have made short work of the job.

First we searched the thistle patch at the bottom of the hill. You wouldn't think a hundred-pound, bright black and white spotted calf would be easy to hide. However if mama pushes one into a clump of thistles it will lie invisible and never move even if you walk past it a foot away. We once searched all day for one that was lying right under a forage wagon that we must have passed twenty times.

After plenty of scratches and scrapes from the miserable thistles we decided that it just wasn't in there and headed up the great big hill behind the house. He went east and I went straight south.




A few minutes later I heard a hoarse moo somewhere south of me. I couldn't see it because of a patch of wild roses the size of a truck. It may sound silly but I can do a pretty successful imitation of a mama cow calling her baby. I proceeded to do so. Soon I could hear eager little moos hurrying in my direction. I pulled out my dog training whistle and called Alan. (Yeah, besides using the shepherd's whistle for the dogs I have always called the kids with it too...you can hear it a long ways away...people in town always thought I was awful calling my kids with a dog whistle, but it always got them home when I needed them.)

The kid is a lot more likely to be able to grab a calf on the hoof than I am. He hustled over.

We still hadn't actually seen the calf, but he went down behind the clump of wild rose bushes to where we could hear it bawling eagerly for mama.

When it saw him it took off at a dead run.
Straight back at me.
I was wearing my camera, carrying Alan's 12 gauge and a sorting stick. Needless to say I didn't grab it but just got out of the way.....Looked like Secretariat sailing away back to the north over the hill and gone....feet barely touching the ground in that weird off center run that cattle have.

Alan said..."point where it goes for me and I will run it down."

I did and he did....at least a quarter mile over the top of the hill, down the other side and back into the original thistle patch. When he caught up he grabbed its hips and pulled it to a stop. It fought like a wild thing, which I guess it was, but he put the halter I was carrying on it and began to lead it to the barn.... after we looked for his hat for ten minutes or so...it was lost in the race.

All the way to the barn the little bugger attacked him, charging his legs and bawling and snorting. I was like a wild rodeo bull in miniature. I felt sorry for it so..... scared at not finding its mother and instead being pursued by such a strange blond wolf. All is well that end well though and it is safe in the barn where no coyotes or turkey vultures roam.

But oh, how I wish I could run like that. And a long time ago I somewhere heard a story about how the breeder of SWD Valiant lost her prefix and couldn't use it on the calf, which went on to be a highly regarded Holstein sire. Thus she used SWD, which stood for Sold With Dam, a common auction term. I have no idea if this story is true but I think I will name my little bull, Frieland RWA Bat Man....RWA for runs with Alan.

Just Another Wednesday

Late blight has been hitting the northeast in a big way, spread I guess from some tomatoes from some garden center. I grew my plants from seed, but alas the horror spreads on the wind and from the looks of the lower leaves yesterday I am getting hit. My potatoes are already on their way out. Fortunately they have developed enough for the potatoes themselves to be dug, so I dug a bunch yesterday and will try to get the rest today. They are quite nice. I hosed them off outside and they were sitting in a bucket by the sink when I heard...crunch, crunch, munch, munch....
What the heck. I am used to pork chops vanishing.
Bread doing a bunk.
But potatoes!
Who knew!

That sheepish look is because of the camera, not because I begrudge him a couple of spuds.

Later I was picking a batch of green beans for supper when I heard a hen turkey cut-cutting just feet away. It wasn't Lucy, who was down by the horse barn, but rather a wild one we have been seeing out in the horse field. I never did see this one, but I would estimate that she was within six feet of me hidden in tall weeds. It was kind of cool.

Right now a cardinal is whistling up a storm in the cedars by the front door . This is the first time one of them has used the acoustics of the front hall to amplify its song, although other birds do it regularly. You wouldn't believe how loud it is.

Farm Side deadline today, but there is so much going on in the dairy business just now that it shouldn't be hard to find material. Hopefully finding time won't be a problem either.

Someone special is taking Liz and the boss to NY for a Mets game today. The rest of us will be holding down the fort without them. Liz is over graining the cows right now, so I don't have to, but I will be doing it tonight. I think she is worried about me handling it, but I used to do it all the time....I am more worried about all the dozens of calves on buckets right now.

Things are Hopping Around Here

(Excuse the grubby fingers, this toad was brought to you by a hard working man)

And there is some discussion about just what the hopping things in question are. I never knew that we had Fowler's Toads around here, but Alan insists that some of the little guys that we are finding everywhere are not plain old American toads. (I am not going to argue with him. He is the college fisheries and wildlife student and I am just his mom.) They DO seem to have the diagnotic extra lumps in their wartiness. Whatever they are, and I suspect some of each of our local common toads, they are everywhere. You have to watch where you step in the driveway, as they blend in amazingly well and are hopping all over the place out there. I know some toad whoopee was being made in the heifer watering trough all spring, because I could hear them singing all night and half the day. I suspect there may have been some happening in the garden pond too, although I never caught them in the act and they are a pretty shameless lot.

The little ones seem to have an extra measure of cute that is irresistible. I found one when I was out feeding my dog Nick that was small enough to sit comfortably on my thumbnail with room to spare. I put it in the quart cottage cheese container I take the dog food out in (after feeding the latter to Nick of course). Then I took the container in to Becky and said, "Look, I have one little kibble left."

She glanced into the container, did a double take and began to carry on in utter delight. She is as tickled as I am by tiny toads. After a careful examination baby toadlet was carried out to the edge of the pond, where he was much safer than the center of the driveway. Later Alan brought a big one in to compare to the Fowler's on the Internet.....hmmm, spots here, spots there, I think I may, I think I might....be right about this toady tonight.

You see, I have raised my daughters and son right. They love herptiles like outdoor folks should. I am delighted by all these toads and by a baby green frog Alan found on the bridge. By the myriad garter snakes we find. Red backed salamanders (which I have known as plethodon cinereus so long that I have to think to come up with their English name). Milk snakes....although we haven't seen many of those this year yet. All the hoppy, slithery, scaled and slippery amphibians and reptiles that hang around us. I guess we are lucky that most of our local critters are non-poisonous and in the case of the toad, downright neighborly. It makes enjoying them so much fun.

The Expert Has Spoken

Thanks to everyone for an interesting dialog on the Glen Beck Cash for Clunkers story yesterday.

Kim Komando, the digital goddess, addressed it on her blog yesterday and you can read about it here.

And here is her conclusion:

"Personally, I think this is an example of what happens when lawyers aren’t properly supervised. This language is just so over the top."

Drink Milk, Live Longer

Thanks to World Dairy Diary

Milk drinkers live longer.

“Furthermore, childhood diets rich in dairy or calcium were associated with lower all-cause mortality in adulthood.”

Another recent review, in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, made similar findings. It found that dairy products conferred an “overall survival advantage” against vascular disease, diabetes and cancer."

Have You Seen This?

If this is true, the government appears to be permitted to completely take over your computer if you log onto Car.Gov for the Cash for Clunkers program and accept the privacy statement. There seems to be a great deal of discussion on various sites as to whether the privacy statement exists at all and as to whether it says what Beck says it does. Some people think that it is only the dealer log in page that requires that you give up all your information to big brother...but even so...should Uncle BO be allowed to look into everything on a business computer like that?

Anyhow, I am not logging in there to find out.

I hope you will share your thoughts on whether this is actually in the privacy statement and if so, what it actually will mean to folks who opt into it. Meanwhile, I would avoid that site like a patch of radioactive poison ivy. Good grief!!

Macro Monday Revisited

Macro Monday

Sunday Stills...Fences

I had to hit the archives this week. This is a fence that we were quite glad was there.....

And below, is what most of our fences look like this rainy, rainy summer.....



For more (and better) Sunday Stills

Dum Da Dum Dum....The Name

The naming hat has had its say. My new red baby's brand new name is Northstar.

Thanks to June for naming her.

Thank you all for all the great suggestions. Hope you will help again, the next time I come up blank in the naming department.


And in the pointless, but fun department, yesterday was not a great day. Weather issues, farming issues, general misery because it was still raining issues. Last thing at night, after chores were over, Becky and I ran downtown to do a few errands. We needed an extra copy of the paper for a friend, as the Farm Side runs on Friday. We also needed to pick up our own copy at the bottom of the driveway.

I always get a kick out of opening to the editorial page on Friday to see what title the editor has given each week's submission. This week I wrote a sort of tongue in cheek lament about leaving camp behind...I love the lake. Even though I love home too, it is always hard to change gears at the end.....Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had, not only a nice title, (The Vacation's Over Blues) but a cartoon! Yep right in the corner, next to that lovely 11 year old photo, which makes me feel so good every single week, was a cute little drawing

It describes exactly how I feel! I drove home grinning from ear to ear after seeing it.

More on Moving the Biolab

Lawmaker slams plan for Kansas bio threat lab. (Thanks Elaine)

What puzzles me is why it took so long for legislators and quite a lot of the ag media to get all over this. England is a pretty small country on a not so large island. They probably had no choice but to place their research labs among farms and cattle.

Didn't work out so well for them. We already have a lab dedicated to the study of infectious animal disease.....on an island, in the ocean, far away from cows. So of course, the powers that be want to dump infectious material right into the heart of Kansas cattle company. What are they thinking?

Thanks

Thanks, Linda

Farmers Number 8

Check it out

HT Amanda Noltz at Beef Daily Blog

But wait! There's more! Here is legislation that is LONG overdue. Now lets see if they pass it.
And enforce it..

Water, water, everywhere

Here is Cameo drinking from the big girl water tub.
(The wire is over the window and really no where near her. I am just too short to miss it in the frame.)

It's wet!

There are times when we are glad of our hills....at least, although haying is shut right down until it dries up a bit, we are not under water like folks in the story above.

We got a lot yesterday though. Driveways washed again. I was thinking I needed to top up the garden pond...uh, not so much....

Deer in the headlights look.

Another milking shorthorn/Holstein cross,
this time a bull, which will be steered and raised for beef.

*******Keep those names coming! Getting some real great ones!

Name that Calf

As promised

Long time followers and Farm Side readers are probably familiar with the Name That Calf contest phenomenon.

The rules are simple. We here at Northview need a name for a new baby. You out in blog land are clever, inventive, and kind enough to be helpful. And of course, everyone, everywhere, is eager to receive the fabulous prize, which is to have a beautiful bovine go through life sporting the name you gave it.

In past contests, lovely Bama Breeze was named by Florida Cracker. Asaki, as in "this is my cow, Asaki," got her moniker from Mrs. Mecomber. Liz has several named by kind folks as far away as Oregon. Dalkeith, Takala, Maureen, Hazel, just to name a few....

Anyhoo, it has come to pass that I have a really nice calf, and no one can come up with a name that is quite....enough....if you get know what I mean. Nothing quite seems to fit...to have that ring that stands out just so.......

The name-ee is half milking shorthorn and half Holstein, sired by our shorthorn bull, Checkerboard Magnum's Promise. Her dam is a gigantic first calf heifer out of my Trixie family (ask Alan if she looks like Trixie). Mama's name is Frieland Chilt Encore, and she is sired by a Champion son, Chilton. Her dam is my old England cow, who sadly had a preemie while we were at camp, which only lived one day.

Shamelessly nameless is the color of a pale carrot, a soft, orangy red. Her face has a faint roaning pattern that makes it look as if the sun was shining on it all the time....and she has a few snowflake-like speckles on her legs. (I will try to get a pic this morning at milking.)

She was a total surprise to me. Although Encore's maternal grandsire was Citation R Maple, none of her other family members ever showed any sign of being a red carrier. A sure sign of carrying the gene for a red coat is having a red calf...recessive gene and all. This opens up some interesting possibilities, as England must be a red carrier too. She is an old cow, but, you never know.

I am going to say thanks in advance for all the wonderful names I expect you will probably come up with. I enjoy the connection I feel with my blog friends when I care for animals that you good folks have named. I get a huge kick out of the clever and perfectly good fitting names you have come up with too.....Liz has the naming hat (into which we put slips with your baby names) all primed and ready....

So, ready, set, go......

NAIS and Kansas FMD Lab

Two links to Cattle Trader stores.

One is a Chuck Jolley column on the popularity of the National Animal Identification system....or the overwhelming lack of it...



The second discusses the advisability of plopping the nation's animal disease research lab (think foot and mouth disease) down in the middle of Kansas cow country.



****be sure to click the link at the very end of Jolley's column about USDA and the word "no".

Homecoming Week

Being back from camp is always a challenge. I don't think we quite realize just how busy we are until we let it all go for a week. Then homecoming hits like a two by four to the head. This year it is worse than usual because of the dairy situation. The point of can't do it any more is rapidly approaching on farms all over the country and ours is no exception.

Alan has jumped into finishing up 1st cutting. They finished Hickory Tree Field yesterday, with one more big field and one small to go. It is still too wet to put a tractor in any of the new seeding, but we are praying the ground firms up enough to get that in.

We are so glad we only planted a little corn this year. The cost of putting it in is ridiculous since the advent of wonderful, wonderful (insert sarcasm) ethanol. And with this lousy weather, what they did plant looks two months behind. If they can get the first cutting finished up I guess there is some nice second to go after too. And that new seeding weather permitting.

The boss was worrying about buying corn meal this winter to replace the corn we didn't grow. I pointed out to him that the cows are doing pretty well on cheap (ish) grain and green chop. They ought to do just as well or better on fermented green stuff and the same grain this winter...so why worry?

Liz is tired from filling in for the rest of us for the past week. I feel bad for her. Alan came down several times and helped her milk, but the boss doesn't exactly leap into the fray during milking. She is planning her fairs....decided to show her Blitz daughter at Altamont and Fonda. She got a Roylane Jordan daughter from her, which is some solace I guess for being left with all the work. Her vacation will be the shows... Not my idea of restful contemplation but then I am a whole lot older than she is. I can remember dragging the ponies over to Fonda...and the cart...harnesses...hay...weeks, months, years of training. For a couple of little slips of ribbon (usually red, although Major Moves and I once brought home the blue for open driving.)

Becky will be off to Potsdam in 31 days. I think she is getting nervous. I know I am. She will be the first one of the kids to leave home....I am not sure just how folks deal with that phenomenon, but I guess I will be finding out pretty soon.

While we were away my Trixie family heifer gave birth to a one-half milking shorthorn heifer calf. It came as an amazing surprise to me as it is the loveliest carrot red you could imagine. I simply didn't suspect that Encore was a red carrier, despite her mama being a Citation R Maple daughter. Kind of neat anyhow. I am looking forward to seeing the folks who bought some semen from her sire from us last year. Wondering if they have any nice calves. Ours are amazing looking things. Wish we saw a rosier future, as I think we could make some pretty nice milking shorthorns with a little practice. The one we are milking isn't much of a tester, but she makes as much milk as a Holstein.

We are buried in calves right now. Liz has over twenty of them on buckets. Normally when milk prices are so low and we have such a barn full of heifers we would send five or six of them over to the heifer sale and pay some bills. Now they aren't worth anything. We got fourteen bucks for two nice bulls again last week. I have no clue how we are going to pay our taxes this fall as we count on heifers to fund that. Sorry to be so negative, but this is historically about the worst time dairy farming has EVER seen. I am tired.

On that note, I stumbled upon a good blog just before we left for camp. John Bunting is a well-known dairy speaker and his blog offers some insight into what is going on behind the scenes to create the current crisis. Check it out if you have a minute.

Macro Monday

For more Macro Monday

Sunday Stills....Toys

For more Sunday Stills