1. Tell me what is your favorite thing to do on the farm?
Working in the morning. I get up at 2:30am to feed cows and get things rolling. I have the whole world to myself!
2. Tell me what is your favorite dairy product?
Ice cream! Favorite flavor? Chocolate almond.
3. Tell me what type of livestock do you manage?
Cattle, pigs, chickens, and bees. The cattle are baldy Angus. The pigs are various heritage breeds. The bees are Italian honey bees.
4. Tell me can the milkhouse to parlor door be a screen door?
No, the milkhouse to parlor door must be tight fitting and solid. It can be double acting, but it must be self-closing, and it must be solid.
5. Do you know where should I store my milk filters?
Strainer pads, parchment papers, gaskets, and similar single service articles are stored in a suitable container or cabinet and protected against contamination and in a location convenient to their use.
6. Tell me do I have to hose down my holding pen after every milking?
Yes, if you have an open-ended parlor. If your parlor only has three walls, with the holding pen opening into the cowyard, the holding pen is considered part of the parlor. The parlor must be cleaned after each milking. If doors at the end of the parlor area are kept shut, the area outside the parlor is considered to be a part of the cowyard. The cowyard must be maintained to control fly breeding and prevent the soiling of the cows' udders and flanks.
Bovine somatotropin (bST) is a hormone that occurs naturally in all cows. Its physiological function is to help young cattle grow, and adult cows to produce milk. A small amount of bST is naturally present in all milk, including organic milk.
A synthesized copy of bST – recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) – is available for farmers who choose to use the hormone as a farm management tool to boost their herd's milk production. Health authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have determined that milk from cows treated with rbST is both nutritious and safe.
On the farm we have a lot of different things cows can eat. The following are a few of the feeds that we have on the dairy.
· Corn Silage, (chopped and fermented corn)
· Oats Silage, (chopped and fermented oats)
· Alfalfa Hay
· Cottonseed, (the seed from growing cotton)
· Almond Hulls, (the outside shell of an almond)
· Distillers Grain, (leftovers from the ethanol plant)
· Brewers Grain , (the mash from beer making)
The main food cows eat is silage, which is chopped oats or corn. When we harvest corn or oats, we chop it into very fine pieces, and put it into a large pile. The pile ferments so it will stay good all year.
9. Explain why Do Dairy Farms Smell?
Animals eat, therefore they produce manure. Manure has an odor. Dairy farmers work hard to minimize these odors by maintaining clean facilities, following proper manure storage practices, and properly applying manure as a natural fertilizer for cropland.
In some cases, farms are required to implement an odor management plan. Research and development has inspired new practices and innovative technologies to help farmers maintain clean air for everyone. Dairy farmers care about air quality; their families live and work on their farms and breathe the air, too.
10. Tell me why are you a dairy farmer?
Dairy farming is something I have wanted to do as long as I can remember. I love being my own boss, working with the cows, planting and harvesting the crops, and working outside. (Except, of course, when its minus 20 degrees with a wicked wind!)
11. Tell me what color tractors do you drive?
We drive red tractors around here.
12. Tell us do you grow all the products that you sell?
I'm proud to say that we do not.
Many small farms try to be all things in the beginning. You get some chickens (the gateway drug to farming), then add a farm dog to ride in the farm truck of course. Then a miniature milk cow, or milking goats. Then a couple of pigs, then meat goats. Then a donkey because somebody heard a coyote, then some alpaca, or turkeys, or geese, or ducks. You get the idea. When I go to a farm and see that there are two of everything, I see a farmer who is running a zoo, not a farm. There's nothing wrong with that but as time passes, most farmers will find the animals they work best with and focus on that.
13. Tell me can screens be used to separate two adjacent rooms, one of which is the milkhouse?
Yes, but both rooms would be considered as a part of the milkhouse, and both must be constructed and maintained in the same sanitary condition as a milkhouse.
14. Explain me are there pesticides in milk?
Milk has consistently been found to contain either no pesticide residue whatsoever, or levels that rank among the lowest of all agricultural products. Stringent government standards ensure that all milk – whether organic or regular – is safe, wholesome and nutritious.
15. Tell me where do the animals live and sleep?
The cows live in large barns, and we make sure to keep them very comfortable. The barns are called free stall barns, because there are open stalls in the barn where the cows can sleep. They can choose whatever bed they want to sleep in.
We keep their beds soft by fluffing their beds every day. It's a lot of work keeping the beds soft, but comfortable cows are happy cows so it's well worth the extra work.
16. Tell me how many hours do you typically work in one week?
I work between 60 and 80 hours, depending on the season.
17. Tell me what is the last thing you do on the farm before calling it a day?
I walk through the barns to make sure everything and everyone is OK
18. Tell us how do you feed them? What do you feed them? Do you use organic feed?
We feed everyone except the chickens grass, produce, sunshine, and water. The bees pretty much feed themselves. We do give them honey/supplement in the winter.
19. Explain me how often do I have to scrape the loafing shed or change cow bedding?
The loafing area should be scraped often enough to control excessive fly growth in summer. Otherwise, the cleanliness of the cows is the guide that should be followed. If the cow's udders, flanks and bellies are dirty, scraping should be done more often. Likewise, if udders, flanks and bellies are dirty, free stall bedding should be changed more often.
20. Tell me why can't I just take a supplement to get the calcium I need?
More than just calcium, milk, yogurt and cheese also contain other essential nutrients needed for health and wellbeing. While a calcium supplement may help you meet your daily calcium needs, you likely miss out on these other important nutrients that dairy foods provide. Good nutrition depends on overall healthful eating and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, National Institutes of Health and the American Academy of Pediatrics believe that individuals should attempt to meet their nutrient needs through food first.
21. Explain me how do you deal with your weeds? insects? diseases?
We encourage insects. We do not deworm our cattle or pigs unless they are showing signs of distress. We will then do a fecal analysis and see if worming is warranted and if so, we will then deworm. Since beginning our current management practices two years ago, we have not dewormed any cattle and have had no need to, confirmed by fecal tests. Dewormers cause cow poop to be toxic to bugs which means we have poop that stays on the ground as dried up patties rather than being turned back into the soil by the big and little critters. We rotate our cows with daily paddock moves. It takes about 30 days for the cows to make a lap of the farm. By the time they make a lap, the poop from last time is gone. When we wormed cattle, those patties would stay for months.
For weeds, when we have an area that is growing something we don't like (thistle, bitter weed, etc.) we make sure that is the area where we drop off our produce for the day. This causes a few things. One, the soil is disturbed by the high impact of cattle as they feed. As the cattle do their thing, they poop, pee, and spill a lot of produce which is then trampled into the ground. The end result is a bare patch that has high concentrations of manure, urine, and organic matter. We've just changed the soil biology in that spot, which will result in a more favorable plant growing there. We do not seed an area like that, we let nature decide what is optimized to grow there. Often, it's the grass that we want. If it's not, then we wash, rinse, repeat till it is. If weeds are what comes back up, then we needed more health in that patch of soil.
Yes, if the milk bucket does not draw its vacuum directly from the milk line. The vacuum must come off a separate line. If the milk line is also your vacuum line, this is not acceptable because overflow from the bucket will go directly into the milk line. Ultimately, the safest method is to have separate herds for treated cows and untreated cows. The treated cows should be milked last, or with completely separate equipment.
23. Tell me how do dairy foods help build stronger bones and teeth?
Dairy foods provide a unique mix of nutrients including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, protein and vitamin D that work together to help protect bones, by maximizing bone density and slowing age-related bone loss.
The positive link between calcium in dairy products and bone health has been established for decades through dozens of clinical studies. Research shows dairy foods, when consumed as part of a healthy diet, improve overall diet quality and may help to reduce the risk of osteoporosis:
☛ S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005. 6th Edition, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, January 2005.
☛ S. Department of Health and Human Services. Bone Health and Osteoporosis: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General, 2004.
☛ Heaney, R.P. Calcium, dairy products, and osteoporosis. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 2000;19 (suppl): 83s-99s
24. Explain me do you have any recipe recommendations/suggestions?
First, it's grass fed beef. That means it's leaner than store bought beef and will dry out quicker than what you are used to. When you cook your first steak, pull it before you think it's ready. It's better to be a little under than a little over. The way I cook my steaks is:
☛ Take your steaks out of the fridge and let them come up to room temperature. No you won't die if your steak gets warm.
☛ Sprinkle kosher salt and black pepper on both flat sides of the steaks.
☛ Place a cast iron griddle pan over high heat till it's nuclear hot. Leave it on high for 15 minutes on a gas burner, I don't know how long for electric. Yes you will scorch off the seasoning. It's worth it and not a big deal. Make breakfast the next day and the grease from your sausage or bacon will quickly reseason it.
☛ At the same time pre-heat your oven to as hot as it will go.
☛ When everything is hot, and you've unplugged the smoke alarm (the pan will smoke as it heats) place the steaks onto the hot pan AND DON'T TOUCH THEM for at least 45 seconds. There will be lots of smoke and noise, that's good. When you flip the steaks to the other side for another 45 seconds, you should see a crust on the cooked side that is brown and in some spots almost black but not quite. It should look like these pork chops (yes this is basically the recipe for pork chops)
☛ After another 45 seconds for the second side, the whole pan goes in the oven for 2-3 minutes. 2 for medium rare, 3 for medium.
☛ After two minutes, pull the pan and flip the steaks, then 2 or 3 minutes again.
☛ After the last bit of cooking, pull the pan and place the steaks on another pan, covered with aluminum foil for at least 7 minutes. Don't cut them, touch them, poke them, or peak. This is the time you finish your veggies, call the kids, set the table, and open the wine (or second bottle if you are at our house).
☛ Enjoy, and send me an email and let me know how your beef was.
☛ Note I didn't include times for well done. I have family members who only eat well done steaks. If they come here, they get medium steaks, sorry. If you are going to cook your steak well done, you are murdering something I've spent years making as good as I can. Leave a little flavor in the meat and have some pink so you can taste the flavor.
25. Tell me what kinds of pesticides can I use in the milkhouse, and what kind can be stored there?
Only pesticides with specific directions for use in the milkhouse can be used or stored in the milkhouse. All pesticides must have an EPA registration number on their labels. No pesticide, including automatic intermittent dispensers, can be used during milking time. All milk and milk contact surfaces must be protected during pesticide use.
