Dairymom's Thankful Thursday

A mild winter and an early spring has made a perfect growing season for this field of rye that was planted late last fall. Our dairy cows are going to love eating this crop!   I'm thankful for the fact that we have a beautiful,bountiful  crop to harvest!

Why is breakfast important for children?

Fourth grade students across Arkansas are taking required benchmark tests this week. During the week of testing, students are encouraged to get plenty of sleep and eat breakfast each day. Although test prepartion is important, making sure that a child has breakfast every day is important to building lifelong healthy habits.

It's well documented that breakfast provides fuel for school and boosts brain power. According to information provided by Midwest Dairy, eating breakfast:

• Improves classroom performance, including better test scores and grades.
• Increases children's ability to focus and concentrate on school work.
• Decreases behavior problems, tardiness, and visits to the school nurse.
• Increases attendance rate.
• Establishes healthy habits for later in life.

The 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommends that children include three servings of low-fat or fat free dairy foods in their diet each day. Including dairy at breakfast makes perfect sense. Together,milk,cheese and yogurt play a critical role in providing nine essential nutrients, including calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus, in addition to 48 percent daily value of protein.

You can find more information about dairy nutrition, the importance of breakfast and great breakfast ideas at http://www.midwestdairy.com or http://www.dairymakessense.com.

Dairymom's Power Skills

Just put me in charge of a power button and see what happens! Even though I was the last person left to ask for help late Friday afternoon, I actually felt pretty important when asked to help finish getting the last thirty wheat bales silage wrapped.  Son Casey gave me two tasks which required me to stand at the power control box.My instructions were simple--push the power button to stop the machine if necessary and push the lever to change the direction of the front tires when instructed by farmer sign language. After I passed the practice test of my skills in pushing the power button and the one lever, our job began. It was amazing to have all that power at my fingertips!

I love watching this machine wrap bales. Each bale is placed on the machine and pushed into the adjoining bale as the wrapper brings silage plastic around each bale. The wrapping machine gives us a choice in how we can harvest and store a crop and our dairy cows love the silage feed that comes from these bales.

We finished the wrapping job with no mechanical problems and I handled all that power without one mistake! Technology and dairymom's power skills ---it's all in a day's work to provide nutritious feed for our dairy cattle that will produce a great dairy product for my family and yours!

He Lives!

Although I attend church every Sunday, I look forward to our Easter worship service. Since 1933, Christians have sung He Lives and it  has been part of my Easter tradition since I was a very small child attending church with my family.  Blessings to you and yours! 

He   Lives

I serve a risen Saviour; He's in the world today.

I know that He is living, whatever men may say.

I see His hand of mercy; I hear His voice of cheer;

And just the time I need Him, He's always near.

In all the world around me, I see His loving care.

And tho' my heart grows weary I never will despair.

I know that He is leading, thro' all the stormy blast.

The day of His appearing will come at last.

Rejoice,rejoice, O Christian!

Lift up your voice and sing

Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ, the King!

The Hope of all who seek Him,

the Help of all who find,

None other is so loving, so good and kind.



He lives, He lives!

Christ Jesus lives today!

 He walks with me and talks with me

along life's narrow way.

He lives, He lives,

salvation to impart!

You ask me how I know He lives?

He lives within my heart!

                                                     ---Alfred.H Ackley

Happy Easter!! 

Dairymom's Thankful Thursday

Iris, also known as 'flags', are one of the first flowers I remember from   my grandmother's yard. These white iris are the first to bloom in my flower bed  this year.  I'm thankful for such a stately flower that brings to mind sweet memories of the past and beauty for the present.  

Assignment: Dairy Tour

Today's lab assignment for University of Arkansas Food and Hospitality students was to tour a real dairy farm. It doesn't get any more real than to watch cows being milked,smelling the silage in the feed barn, or getting a juicy lick from a baby calf. I love the questions these young consumers ask about the farm and the conversations that are started about how we work every day to produce a safe nutritious product by caring for our animals and our land.

Petting the  baby calves always seem to be the highlight of the tour and I must admit, I love listening to the laughter of the students as they pet the calves and take pictures. It's a great place to explain how these heifer calves are the future for our family farm. 

Although I don't get to give the grade for this lab assignment,

I do  appreciate the opportunity to share our family  dairy story!

Dairy Farmer Flexibility

Spring harvest for our farm began  Friday when the first field of wheat was mowed by my youngest son Casey.

 After last year's extreme heat and drought that caused poor yield of our hay and corn crops, we are anticipating a great spring crop.   Wheat silage will make a nutritious addition to our dairy cow's diet and is part of our plan in producing high quality milk. Every bit of this spring wheat crop is crucial to the sustainability of our family farm.

When the silage chopper and truck pulled into the field Saturday afternoon, it appeared that everything was working as planned.  After taking a few pictures, I returned home to do my own chores.  When I heard the chopper returning to the shop, I had a sinking feeling that all was not right. Sure enough, major mechanical problems  required shop work the rest of the afternoon.

With the possibility of rain in the forecast, the chopper still broke down  and the importance of harvesting every bit of this wheat, farmer flexibility kicked in.  Instead of chopping the wheat, it would be baled and wrapped. Thank goodness for multi-tasking,flexible farmers!