Dairyfarmer's Thankful Thursday

Milking our dairy cows twice a day is part of the 

daily routine down on the dairy farm.

During a pandemic, it is comforting in a crazy kind 

of way to be able to continue  a daily routine.

You may notice our employee, Jonathan, is wearing gloves.

Glove wearing has been part of our milking procedure

for a very long time to help decrease any spread of bacteria

from cow to cow.

I'm thankful that the COVID19 pandemic has 

not disrupted or changed our  daily activities and procedures,

 that our employees continue to be healthy,

the cows are being milked everyday,

and that farms and farm employees  are considered  essential 

so that we can continue to provide high-quality milk for 

my family and yours.

Dairymom's Thankful Thursday

Last week members of  our Benton County  Farm Bureau 

Women's Leadership Committee spent the morning at 

Mathias Elementary with 4th and 5th grade students to provide 

information about Arkansas agriculture.

It's always fun to milk Frannie the Arkansas Farm Bureau cow.

Frannie is  the perfect cow  for school visits because  she doesn't

kick or swish her tail in your face when milking!

I'm thankful for the opportunity to share how 

milk is produced on our Arkansas dairy farm

and

to live on the farm and care for the animals that

 provide high-quality nutritious milk.

We're Open!

We're Open!

There's no question about what will happen down on the dairy farm

when inclement weather shuts down the  normal activities of our community.

Bundled up with several layers of warm clothes and boots to give us traction on the ice,

you  will find us doing what we do every day...

feeding calves,

milking cows,

feeding cows, 

and 

                                                                 
                              taking pride in our commitment to provide high-quality milk that
                              plays a critical role in the diets of adults and children by providing
                             nine essential nutrients, including calcium,magnesium, potassium
                             and phosphorus,in addition to 48 percent of the daily value of protein.

Dairy Q&A

Question: 

Is it painful for the dairy  cow when being milked?

Answer:

No.

Milking a cow actually provides relief from the pressure of being full of milk. 

The milking machine applies a very gentle pressure on each teat in an alternating pattern.

Although every dairy farm may have a different type of milking equipment, milking the cow provides relief and comfort for the cow. Dairy farmers make sure their cows in the milking herd  are milked at least  twice a day, the same time every day, everyday of the year.

Labor Day Dairy Diversion

Labor Day is always a day of labor on the dairy farm. Our dairy cows would not understand if we didn't show up at the milk barn at milking time or make sure their feed was mixed and served   in the barn on time!

Our Labor Day  holiday did begin with

a gentle rain this morning that  brought cooler temperatures and created the opportunity for a diversion of our planned silage chopping activity to vaccinating a couple of our herd bulls. 

That's how holidays on the  family dairy farm are created...

                                                                           
                                       they happen when least expected and  are  always unplanned!

Wireless Dairy

Even though I've been frustrated by the lack of internet access  this week due to a "migration issue  with a new server " (that's  internet provider lingo), it never interferes with

Caring for the calves,

Feeding the cows,

Or

Getting the milking done!

                                                It's a good thing our dairy cows are wireless and  
                                    don't rely on internet access to  give us high-quality milk!

Cows and Clocks

Thank goodness we don't have to explain Daylight Savings time to the cows ! As long as we keep to the consistent routine of making sure our dairy cows are fed and milked twice each day of the year--they're happy!





Our cows are milked every day at 7:30 in the morning and 7:30 each night. While most farmers may start and finish at earlier hours, we have found that this schedule works best for us in getting the daily chores done on our farm. Our commitment to providing high-quality milk begins with taking good care of our cows by providing consistent and regular milking schedule that allows time for the cows to eat a nutritious diet and rest between each milking time.

 

Through the years, we've found it more challenging to make sure that the humans on the farm get to work at the right time and understand which direction to move the clock for Daylight Savings time than to get the cows to the barn!

 

I'm glad we don't have to explain to the cows: "Spring forward and Fall Back"!

Cow Milking Experience

Last week I was talking with second grade students about dairy cows and how dairy farmers work to produce milk. My assistant in the picture is ,Frieda, the Arkansas Farm Bureau milking cow. Just as I was talking to them about how we have a nutritionist to help us formulate our cow's diet, the school food service director and her staff came to observe our lesson in milking the cow. It was a great opportunity to talk about why healthy food choices are important to kids and cows! How do you milk a cow?

I explained that on our dairy farm:

• First the cow's udder and teats are washed, then a milking machine is attached




• Milking machines apply vacuum which gently removes milk from the cow's udder
  
  



• It takes about five minutes to milk one cow. With milking machines, farmers can milk about 100 cows per hour
  
  



• Cows are milked two times a day

Everybody gets a milking experience!

You can find more information about dairy farming at http://www.dairyfarmingtoday.org/ or dairy nutritional information at http://www.midwestdairy.com/.

Milking to the Music

What kind of music do the cows like? That was the question from one of the visiting University of Arkansas students a couple of weeks ago. We were standing in the milk parlor watching the cows being milked when the student spotted the radio suspended from the ceiling. I quickly responded,"Country, of course, and sometimes in Spanish!"

After laughing about the music, we did have serious discussion about how the cow's environment affects their production performance. In past studies about the affect of music on cows, it has been found that cows adjust to reasonable levels of continuous sound. Farmers and researchers have also agreed that continuous radio play with a variety of talk and music can actually have a calming effect and may stimulate the milk let down reflex.

Our dairy cows have always been exposed to music at low volume while they are being milked. Low volume is important because loud or alarming sounds can startle cows, causing erratic behavior. We make a point to use a calm gentle voice and keep the music at a pleasant level. No matter what kind of music is played in the barn while the cows are being milked, we are committed to our cow's health and well being everyday because that is how we provide you with safe,high quality milk and dairy products!

Double Fun Milking

What can be more fun than watching 500 kids milk Sophia, the Midwest Dairy cow? My answer would be to take a dairy farmer to talk with the kids milking Sophia! I wasn't counting on having a case of allergy related laryngitis when I volunteered for this event, so asking husband/dairy farmer Ryan to assist was a true necessity. Students at the school were learning about Arkansas history and Sophia had an important role in educating students about MILK-the Arkansas state drink!
We arrived at the Apple Glen Elementary in Bentonville at 8:30 to set up and be ready for our students by 9 a.m. As the students arrived, we had sheer organized chaos. Ryan talked with the children briefly about what cows like to eat, how much they drink and then proceeded to assist those that needed help or instruction on how to milk the cow. My job was to give the I Milked a Cow sticker to each child. With each group of children, our dairy talking and milking procedure began to flow with ease.
We had some great conversations with these children and their teachers about how we produce milk on our farm. Sophia was the hit of the day! As we loaded Sophia on the truck and headed for the farm, the dairy farmer decided that a day of milking real cows was a lot less tiring. Can you still see that I'm smiling about my double fun day with the dairy farmer? You can find more information about Arkansas dairy farming and the nutritious product we produce at http://www.midwestdairy.com/.