Drought in a Season of Blessings

Drought---it's defined as a prolonged dry period in the natural

climate cycle that can occur anywhere in the world.

It's happening in Northwest Arkansas!

Last week, our area was declared a drought area --D2 --to

be specific.

As you can see all around us--the color is brown.

Brown grass and brown trees.

Ponds are extremely low or dried up.

                                    

                                We actually moved beef cows from this pasture last week 

                                      because of very little water.  Even though there

                            is still water in the pond, the water quality has diminished.

                                 Hay feeding has been a daily job for several weeks.

Even during drought periods there are blessings.

At the beginning of this drought period when the grass

still had a little green color, we were able to chop the

corn for silage.  This silage will be used in our

feed ration and will definitely help provide nutrition 

and help stretch our hay supply.

                                

                                        Blessings come in all sizes---like finding a buyer

                          for our large milk tank.  It left for another dairy farm today!

                                                         

Even during drought--we are blessed with new life on the farm!

                                  A highlight and for sure a blessing during this drought--

                                                               a wedding!

                       We've been showered with blessings during this season of drought!

                              

                                                   

Dairymom's Thankful Thursday

I learned alot about the dairy industry in Benton County when preparing for our Arkansas Heritage program. This farmer was delivering his milk to the Kraft Plant in Bentonville in 1948.  I'm thankful for the improvements in the dairy industry like refrigerated milk tanks on the dairy  farm  that keep the milk cool  before being transported to the processing plant and for our faithful  milk truck driver!

Dairy's Natural Combination

Like cookies and milk, dairy farming and family are just a natural combination. While we  were celebrating Cody's twenty-fourth birthday today, bringing out the picture album seemed a natural response to questions about the early days of number one son. It's obvious from looking at these pictures that our dairy farm family milestones are intermingled with dairy farming.

The year Cody was born, 1988,  was also the year our current milking facility was built  and included the addition of a stainless steel milk tank that stores 28,000 pounds of milk. Stainless steel refrigerated milk tanks are needed to store the milk and keep the milk cool until it is transported to the milk processing plant. Refrigerated milk tanks are an important part of the system that make milk the safest foods available.


Just as our family is growing and changing, we are also looking at innovative practices to make our farm more sustainable. Cooling the milk more efficiently is one of those practices under consideration. The milk tank will still be needed for storing the milk, but new and more innovative equipment will help to conserve energy and reduce the operational cost in cooling the milk.

Bringing new innovative technology into our dairy farming operation is a natural combination with our dairy farm family's mission statement to produce the highest quality, lowest cost milk possible in an environmentally responsible manner.