Egg Safety

As I boiled eggs to prepare requested deviled eggs as part of my son's birthday supper,I thought a lot about the egg recall that has been on the radar screen of all consumers this week. Any type of safety and quality issue with food is very serious to all farmers because the American farmer makes it a top priority to provide the highest quality and safest food products for consumers. As the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration are working to find the source of the issue, America's egg farmers are urging people to thoroughly cook their eggs as salmonella is destroyed by the heat of cooking. Eggs should be cooked until the whites and yolks are firm or, for dished containing eggs, until an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit is reached. You can find great information about eggs and answers to questions you may have about the egg recall at http://www.eggsafety.org/. As we go forward and more information is shared about this recall and its cause, I will still be thanking the American Egg Farmer and all other farmers for the safest,most abundant and affordable food in the world!

Agvocating with Free Fun

Funnel cakes,corn dogs,merry-go-rounds,exhibits--fairs bring all kinds of fun,food,entertainment and experiences. Most parents bringing their children to the Benton County Fair will tell you that the best fun is the free petting zoo. This past week was my fifteenth year to volunteer for the Benton County Farm Bureau Petting Zoo during the Benton County Fair. In the beginning the purpose for the petting zoo was to provide children an up close experience with a farm animal. Baby chicks were the logical first choice for the petting zoo because Benton County is number one in poultry production in Arkansas. The petting zoo is still an amazing hands on experience but as our county has become increasingly urbanized and the number of farms and farmers is decreasing, we have felt the increased importance of sharing information about agriculture with the consuming public. As the children and adults are holding the baby chicks, petting the baby pigs or calf, we are educating about agriculture, dispelling misinformation and providing a place where farmers can connect with consumers in a fun and friendly setting. If you are an advocate, you are supporting or pleading for a cause. As an agvocate I am pleading my cause--agriculture! As a beef and dairy farmer, volunteering in the petting zoo is one way I agvocate. For fun at home,you can check out fun facts about agriculture at www.thankafarmer.info/FunFacts/. With only two percent of the American population producing food,fiber and fuel for our country and the world and young consumers more than three generations removed from the farm, it is important that we share how we produce the safest and most affordable food that is vital to daily life in the city or on the farm.

Corn Silage

August brings hot and dry conditions every year but these last two weeks have gone above and beyond creating discomfort for my family and our cows. This extreme heat has speeded up our harvest schedule for cutting the corn that is used to make corn silage to feed our dairy cows. Corn silage is fed through the entire year and it is very important to harvest at the right time for quality and yield. Harvesting our corn crop involves the entire family plus employees. The self propelled John Deere silage cutter cuts the corn,leaves, and part of the stalk and blows it into the bed of a large dump truck. The truck will deliver and dump the corn into one of the large pit silos located just below the dairy barn where a tractor is used to pack it into the silo. After all the corn is cut and stored in the silo, it will be covered with plastic and allowed to ferment for 14-21 days before feeding it as corn silage. Fermentation breaks down the sugars in the corn making it an excellent source of energy in the cow's diet. A sample of the silage will be taken for a quality analysis report which will be used by our dairy nutritionist to formulate the entire diet for our dairy herd. When corn silage is fermenting, it takes on a particular smell. Many folks complain about its distinct odor but I think about how good it smelled the first year I experienced it in December 1983 riding in the big red International tractor on my second date with the dairy farmer. I don't know if it was because it was forty degrees cooler in December or I was in love but I still love the farmer and the smell of corn silage!

Dairy Delight

A quarter inch of rain and a day of cloudiness was a welcome sight this Thursday after having 103 degree days. Heat stress is a real danger for our dairy cattle, our employees and my family. Providing extra water and shade for the cattle and access to fans and sprinklers was a must for the animals. Professor Leo Tims has given great information about cool cows on the Dairy Makes Sense Blog found at http://www.midwestdairy.com/. Chores on the farm started earlier in the mornings to avoid the hottest part of the afternoon and any tasks that could be delayed were left for a day with more moderate temperatures. Extreme heat seems to wear on our patience with each other. To lift our spirits and cool us off, I prepared a special recipe that my mother-in-law fixed many times on hot summer days. We call it Purple Puddin'. She called it Raspberry Delight. Whatever you call it--it's a dairy delight!

Purple Puddin' (Raspberry Delight)

1 can condensed milk

Juice of 2 lemons

4 Tbs seedless black raspberry jam

1/2 pint cream,whipped

1 box vanilla wafers

1 cup nuts(optional)

Mix the condensed milk and lemon juice. In a separate bowl, whip the cream and mix with the jam. Fold all together.

In a 9x9 dish,place a layer of vanilla wafers in the bottom,add a layer of the pudding mix,repeat.

Chill and serve.

Hay Days

"Making hay while the sun shines" describes activity on our dairy farm this week. In this last week of July weather conditions of sunshine and 100 degrees have been perfect for cutting,baling, and wrapping quality hay that will be used to feed our dairy and beef cattle. Farmers in Northwest Arkansas are known for being experts in growing Bermuda hay but you can also find a smorgasbord of other grasses such as fescue,orchard, and crab grass. All of our cattle will be fed hay that we have grown. Baby calves will enjoy small square bales of hay and as the cattle grow and develop they will be fed large round bales or wrapped hay bales. Wrapping hay started on our farm two years ago when we bought a machine called a bale wrapper to utilize the grasses that are available to us. The grass that we were cutting this week was a mixture of fescue and bermuda. The grass was cut, allowed to dry or cure for a day,baled and then wrapped. Wrapping protects the hay quality for feeding through the year and actually turns the hay into silage that the cows love to eat. You can think of this as candy for cows without cavities! Before we feed the hay to our cattle, we will send a sample of hay to the lab for quality analysis. Our dairy nutritionist will use the hay analysis to formulate a nutrition recipe for our cows that will provide a scientifically balanced diet to insure proper growth of our animals and produce quality milk. Hay production like every job and activity on the farm is all about making our family farm sustainable for the future by caring for our animals,being good stewards of the land, and producing a quality product for all consumers.

Dairy and the P's

Dairy and P's

As children we learned our ABC's and attended school for the three R's-readin','ritin, and 'rithmetic but have you heard about the three P's? The three P's stand for People,Purpose and Passion. This week I have been away from the farm for a couple of days to attend the Officers and Leaders meeting for Arkansas Farm Bureau and our Dairy Farmers of America Cooperative summer informational meeting. Both organization have the common bond of People,Purpose and Passion. Farmers and ranchers have a great purpose--providing the safest and most affordable food for consumers in our country and the world. Experts have found that passion drives success. Here are four truths about passion: Passion is the first step to achievement. Passion increases your willpower. Passion changes you. Passion makes the impossible possible. The American Farmer has Passion! As a third generation dairy farm family we are very passionate about producing the highest quality,lowest cost milk possible in an environmentally responsible manner. We love to farm the land and raise and watch the cows grow. Milk is nature's perfect food and we love to promote a healthy product. You can learn more about the product we produce and great recipes by checking out these websites: http://www.midwestdairy.com;www.dairymakessense.com/ and http://www.friendsofelsie.com/.

Miracle or Mistake?

Iwasn't looking forward to feeding calves in the sweltering one hundred degree afternoon heat this week but when I turned to go down the second row of calves--there was a miracle in my view! A bright auburn red calf in the sea of black and white! We raise and milk Holstein cattle with the exception of a few Ayrshire and one Guernsey that belong to our sons from their 4-H projects. The mother of this calf is a black and white Holstein and by our record she was bred by a black and white Holstein bull. Was this a mistake or a miracle? We do use artificial insemination for breeding our cows so it is possible that the father of this calf is an Ayrshire if the wrong semen was selected or mislabeled. It is also possible that the black and white Holstein herd bull may have had a red Holstein trait. Miracle or mistake--it doesn't matter because we provide the best care possible for all of our calves regardless of color. Each calf lives in an individual hutch and receives milk and grain twice daily. Hot,humid days are a challenge on the farm but we make sure the calves have fresh water to drink and observe them closely for dehydration or signs of illness. One hundred degree temperatures are a lot easier to take when you have a smile on your face from an unexpected miracle!