Flat Aggie Shares Dairy Facts

Flat Aggie, my friend from California, just loves getting his  picture made on the dairy farm and learning how we work every day to produce high-quality milk. After spending the week on our Arkansas  dairy farm, these are a few facts Flat Aggie wanted to share:

 

 We start the day feeding calves. These babies are fed milk and grain twice every day.

Calves grow up to become the cows that produce milk, so we  make it a priority to get them off to a healthy start.

We milk 260 Holstein cows twice every day. Milk is never touched by human hands.

Milking equipment delivers milk directly from the cows to the refrigerated tank to preserve freshness and safety.

Milk is kept cold until it is transported to the processing plant.

The  cows are fed a nutritious, balanced diet  everyday. The feed ingredients include:hay,corn silage,ground corn, and vitamins and minerals. All of the ingredients are mixed together in the big wagon and delivered to the feed barn for the cows to enjoy.

 

The cows enjoy eating as soon as they leave the milking barn. When finished eating, they return to the pasture to rest.

 

 

It's alot of fun to play in the snow!! 

Flat Aggie's Arkansas Snow Drill

Flat Aggie and I had a snow drill on Christmas Eve to prepare for the predicted three to six inches of snow the weather man was sure would happen in Northwest Arkansas on Christmas Day. We practiced our snow and extreme cold weather  readiness all during the day on Christmas Eve. While  Santa was checking his list of gifts, we were checking our lists for  the items we might need to make sure we could care for our cows and calves in extreme winter weather   like heat bulbs for the water  well pumps, diesel for the generators  in case of power outage and extra feed for the cows and calves.

 

 

 

 

We were ready on Christmas morning! It was sooo cold and windy and looked like it could snow any minute. Flat Aggie dressed in her warm Arkansas Razorback coat and hat. We watched for the snow while we fed older   calves in the pasture  and baby calves in the hutches and as  the dairy cows were fed and milked. 

We watched all day and night but not one flake of snow on the dairy farm!

 

 

 

Even though we didn't have any snow,  Flat Aggie learned that we  use all our snow drill skills every day--snow or no snow-- to care for our dairy  calves and cows around the clock whatever the conditions.