The Farmer's Holiday

Today is November 11th and a holiday celebrating Veterans. The Farmer would like to take time out of his busy schedule and thank all the men and women who have served in our military services to protect our freedoms, with great sacrifice from them and their families.




So how busy was The Farmer on this holiday?




He left the house at 4:00am this morning to bottle feed his baby calves so he could start milking by 5:00am. After milking, the cows were fed and the veterinarian showed up at 9:00am for the cows' monthly herd health check. The barn was cleaned after the veterinarian left and The Farmer was home by 1:00pm for lunch. During lunch The Farmer fielded several farm-related phone calls and still managed to take a 15 minute nap.




At 2:00pm The Farmer was back to work, feeding the heifers and bottle feeding the calves in order to start milking at 4:00pm. During the evening milking The Farmer was interrupted by two dairy supply salesmen and a farm equipment dealer. After milking, the cows needed to be fed and The Farmer made it home for dinner at 7:30pm. After a quick dinner he went to a Diking District meeting at 8:00pm to discuss annual budget review and property acquisitions. He was home by 9:00pm to check on the cows - yes, there is "lights out" even for the cows - one more time before heading to bed.




Tomorrow The Farmer repeats his normal routine and will meet the grain truck before 4:00am, the milk truck at 8:00am and the shaving truck (bedding for the cows) at 10:00am, and shoot the breeze (aka conduct business) with any other unscheduled visitors.




On this "holiday" The Farmer would also like to thank the farmers who keep America rolling and to thank those individuals who keep the farmers rolling.




~The Farmer~

The Smell of Money

Ever wonder what that sickening sweet smell is when you drive by a farm? That's the smell of silage - fermenting forage (aka grass) used as a feed additive in the winter. Hay apparently gets a bit boring and dry so silage is added into their diet for a bit of variety. OK, and important milk-producing nutrients too.

Or...as some farmers will tell you...it is the smell of money.

Honestly, I wish money smelled better, as it is probably my least favorite smell on the farm. The Farmer is well aware of this, and I cringe at the thought of being caught downwind from the silo on certain days. But it is the smell of money, so says The Farmer, so I live with it. I only whine a little bit.

After my last post two friends wanted to know what was silage. With the help of The Farmer (everyone say "hi" to The Farmer!), here's the scoop...

Silage is the fermentation of forages in an oxygen-free environment. Common forages are your basic pasture grasses, corn, and barley. The forages are processed with a forage chopper, which reduces the crop to small pieces and then is compacted in a bunker silo.

This is the silo on day one.

Once the silo is full, the silage is covered with a plastic tarp (oxygen barrier). The compaction and tarp create an oxygen-free environment. With the aid of bacteria which is infused into the crop during harvest (Brunette Comment #1: note the yellow/green tank, which holds the bacteria and water mixture, attached to the chopper in the first photo), the forages are allowed to ferment over several months. Since silage is harvested at a higher moisture level than hay, the oxygen-free environment also keeps the crop from molding. 

Brunette Comment #2: see this previous post on tarping silage

Silage is normally fed to the cows during the winter months along with alfalfa hay as part of their total nutrient ration.

Brunette Comment #3: in short, silage is sauerkraut candy for cows...and cows love sauerkraut candy

From The Tractor Seat

One of The Farmer's favorite things about farming is driving his tractor. Besides the obvious boys-and-their-toys reason for enjoying the driving in circles the tractor brings him, the tractor seat provides a time to think, imagine, and plan. Often after a day of tractor driving, dinner includes a conversation that begins, "So as I was driving, I had a thought..."

Driving tractor also provides The Farmer scenery that most of us never see, or rarely appreciate. If those dinner conversations don't begin with a plan devised from the tractor seat, they frequently begin with commentary about what he saw during the day. And to the locals...The Farmer has said on more than one occasion that the neighbors have no secrets with him around. You are forewarned.

As silage season drew to a close two weeks ago, The Farmer took his camera along for the ride to provide a glimpse into his life on the tractor seat.

Enjoy the view...

During the mornings of silage, The Farmer cuts the grass with a large mower. Don't we all wish we had a mower this big?

After mowing, The Farmer comes back over each neat and tidy row of cut grass with the forage chopper. Here you can see the forage chopper and silage wagon, as seen when The Farmer looks backwards while chopping silage (yes, he was driving, looking backwards, and taking photos). The grass is chopped from a size of 2-3 feet to 1/2 inch pieces, then shot through the red arm-thingy (technical term of The Brunette) into the wagon towed behind his tractor.

And the view looking forward (though I am amazed at how much The Farmer is glancing backwards while driving tractor...then again, he is driving a mere quarter of a mile per hour)...

As you can see, The Farmer has a ways to go to finish this field. He also knows how to drive in straight lines and make right angles with his tractor. I'm impressed.

The Farmer has two silage wagons, allowing for a continuous flow of silage to be chopped and then delivered to the silo. OK, almost continuous...I often get a lot of 5-6 minute phone calls during silage as The Farmer waits for the empty wagon.

Here comes the second wagon.

The hand-off.

Often The Farmer sees wildlife from the tractor seat. Sometimes that wildlife is a bald eagle...just hangin' out. 

These guys aren't quite as majestic. These ravens are searching for mice.

Bambi!

She didn't leave the field because she had a fawn in the brush she was protecting. So more accurately...Bambi's mom!

And these gals aren't quite wildlife, but they sure are cute.

When The Farmer comes in for lunch, he drives past the silo. The dozer is pushing and compacting the silage to begin the fermentation process.

The silo as seen from the field.

And as seen from a farther-out field. And that hillside? That's Oregon.

And the "I can see Oregon from my front yard" is even more spectacular of a statement when a ship goes by.

This was one of the naval ships that was a part of the Rose Festival fleet.

This is a bulk freighter headed upriver. The green doors are the cargo hatches.

This is a container ship headed downriver. 

And an oil tanker. And yes, these all went by in a single afternoon.

And finally, it was time for the last wagon to leave the field. 

And this is The Farmer taking one more glance before departing. 

The day - and silage season - is done.

My Co-Pilot

Yesterday was the last day of cutting silage! Woo hoo! Silage typically takes about 14 days...but weather, mechanical troubles, and a myriad of other things can drag that 14 days out longer. Much much longer. 

This year? 13 days of cutting and a day of clean-up. As of noon today, the silage is tarped and ready to be cooked. Let the fermentation process begin!

Per usual, towards the end The Farmer saves out a bit of the cut hay for the littler calves. Because it is such small quantities, we use the pickup and throw it in the bed. 

I get to drive.

And this year, I had a co-pilot!

He looks a bit worried about the task at hand. What's with the furrowed brow??!!?!?!!

Then again, I would be worried too if my daddy tossed hay on my head through the open window.

Oh, and here's the obligatory Farmer's backside photo. 

Minus the a**less chaps.

Dang. 

Those will come later in the summer.

No, really. I wanted photos of the beautiful skies. The Farmer was just the bonus shot. 

Cow Parades

Spring and summer afternoons on the farm include bringing the cows in from the field. It has been sunny around the farm recently, so The Herdsman and I decided we would venture out recently and help with the herding duties. Really, we just wanted to go for a walk and say "hi" to some cows. They are cute, aren't they?

It also helps that the cute handsome Farmer also participates in the herding process.

As we are still counting the Herdsman's age in weeks, he and I stayed behind the gate and really just watched the cow parade and enjoyed the scenery.

We also were the object of curiosity.

Despite it being a beautiful day and we were able to say hello to all our cow friends up close and personal (see above photo), The Herdsman slept through his duties once again.

And so while The Herdsman slept, The Farmer and I watched the cow parade. 

The Farmer insisted on taking a few photos, and I think these next three are payback for all my a**less chaps comments. 

Yeah, this one especially...definitely payback for the multiple a**less chaps posts.

Now you may notice it is a bit muddy in the cow parade lane.

I normally wear my boots for herding duties, but I decided on this day it would be OK to wear my ankle slip-on boots. 

This was a poor decision on my part. 

These ankle boots were purchased when I was eight months pregnant as I was having tough time getting my boots on. We purchased the ankle version one size too big so I could just slip them on without much difficulty.

However, now these ankle boots feel like clown shoes. They are just a tad too big and my ankles, well, they are no longer swollen. As such they are a bit too easy to slip on - and off.

Case in point...

Yes, that is my footprint in the mud after my right clown boot got stuck in the mud.

And this is my bare sock-foot after my left foot followed suit and stepped right out of the clown boots.

This reminded me of the first time I helped bring the cows in with The Farmer. I was nervous, hoping to pass this very important test of farm life. I was wearing appropriate foot attire - knee-high rubber boots - but as we walked through a huge mud bog near the front gate (there's no way around it), my boot sank...up to mid-calf.

I was stuck.

While we have no photos of the incident, imagine me standing there in a huge vat of mud with one foot buried a good 12 inches in the sloppy, sticky, gooey tar-like substance. And since this was my first time herding the cows I had a lot to prove I was up to the task. Instead I was motionless, teetering on the brink of falling head-first into this pile of muck. And just to be clear, it's not all mud when you are on a dairy farm.

And despite my impending self-inflicted mud-pie face all I could think was "The hat!" Because yes, I had accidentally worn one of The Farmer's good hats out into the field. Who knew that amongst his 834 baseball caps he had good ones and bad ones? But yes, he does! I had forgotten my hat that trip and thus naively picked one out of The Farmer's closet. And yes, I picked a cute one. If I'm going to wear a hat and try to impress The Farmer with my rookie herding skills I'm gonna look cute! However, it turns out this particular cute hat was The Farmer's new/nice/going-to-town hat. 

Oops.

When The Farmer saw said hat on my head he gave a stern warning..."Just don't get it dirty."

So as The Farmer pulled me out of the mud bog - yes, I needed rescuing and the fairy-tale-damsel-in-distress sort of rescuing is not really be-still-my-heart-inducing, but rather borders on mortification - all I could think was how to prevent the hat from impending mud-bog doom. I was sure I would not be invited back to the farm should a minute speck of brown goo appear on the hat upon post-herding inspection. Farming is messy business but there is no excuse for  ruining the going-to-town hat.

Fortunately, the cute/new/nice/going-to-town hat survived intact. My boot was rescued from the mud. I was invited back. 

And The Farmer bought me my own hat.