We have made it to the dairy month issue, and I LOVE dairy products! I love most kinds of cheese and a big salad with roast beef and blue cheese and feta is one of my favorites. I am not much of an ice cream eater BUT I love half and half in my iced coffee. I probably like creamer more than I like coffee if I am going to be honest.
On road trips I am always ready to pull over at any place that has a big cheese sign in front of it. I am lucky to live in the vicinity of Osceola Cheese and if anyone gets a chance to drive up 13 highway, it is worth the stop. I have always tortured my children in their younger years and we have stopped there to get cheese, sample cheese and of course to make them take a photo of the big mouse out front! It is a great place to sample tons of cheese and their web site boasts of over 275 different varieties of cheese.
I grew up with beef cattle and so the dairy industry is foreign to me, but I know it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be a dairy farmer. I had a Holstein cow once and was thinking of using her as a recip cow for embryos. I bred her the first time as a heifer just to see what kind of momma cow she would be and was I in for a surprise! When she calved her udder was so big and there was more milk than one calf could handle. So, in addition to milking her…by hand I might add…I also went out and bought a bottle calf to graft onto her. She was the beginning and the end of my venture into anything dairy cattle.
I live in an area where there are several dairy farms and when I first met my husband, he would buy and bottle raise dairy bull calves. I finally convinced him that raising beef cattle was a much easier venture and we have been bottle calf free for several years.
I do enjoy seeing all of the dairy animals at the different fairs we go to, and I have had the pleasure of knowing several dairy goat breeders that have some beautiful goats! Not that I want to get back into the goat or dairy goat business, but I certainly appreciate the hard work that goes in to preparing any dairy animal for the show ring.
We have reached the time of year where we are constantly weather aware. Not just because of impending bad weather, but because it is time to make hay. My husband has been very intent on watching the weather more than usual and checking his phone for frequent updates.
We mainly do round bales, but I always have him do a pass or two of little squares so we have hay for the show calves. We usually end up with around 50 squares, so it is not a big deal for us to pick it up ourselves.
I remember one year in particular he did our second cutting in squares, and we took our big flatbed trailer out to pick it up. He assured me that it would only be about 3 bales high and wouldn’t take that long to pick up. He started around the field and tossed up a bunch of bales and as I started to stack, I looked around and realized it didn’t look like we had picked up anything. I yelled out to him and said that this was going to be more than 3 bales high. He kind of laughed and kept going. After I was 5 bales high, I reminded him that he said only 3 high and here we were with still a half a field to go! Let’s just say that trailer ended up being 10 and 11 bales high and I was not doing a great job! I am definitely not complaining about the number of squares we ended up with because we have had some years that were a waste of a second cutting, but that was the last time I believed my husband when he said, “Just 3 bales high”.
On a positive not, he did end up taking me out for ice cream after that!
