Dry Cow Day and a Special Surprise

 Every Friday we move cows in the cattle trailer to our second facility. We have two locations which are within a few miles of each other and I like to consider one as our main operation and the other as the teenager hangout. I think this because the one location has the milking parlor and is where I spend most of my time, while the other location has our weaned heifers, yearlings, and some dry cows. Today we moved around fifteen cows and ten of them were dried off from our main facility. To dry off a cow we have a special toothpaste like material which comes in single use tubes and all we do is apply it to each teat on a lactating cow when she is about seven months pregnant. This will allow the cow to get a rest period to prepare herself for birthing as a cow will have a gestation period of nine months. When we move them to the other barn it allows the cow to get plenty of rest, proper nutrition, and reduce the instance of getting harassed by other cows. Sometimes our pregnant girls can get picked on so separating them can be very helpful for many reasons! 

The photograph below of the cattle trailer was taken by Sarrah over the winter. This is the same one we use when we haul our dry cows across town and if you look closely you can see some of the girls poking their little noses through the trailer! We all thought it was a really cute picture. 

Today we shipped 5,454 gallons of milk and had a very special surprise of newborn kittens! At the calf barn we have a few friendly barn cats and the proud mama cat Ketchup had four adorable healthy kittens.