Rocky Mountians Sale

In July Rocky Mountain Holsteins are holding their sale at their farm, they have their sale every two years. We have a heifer that is consigned in the sale, she is a Braxton December calf that is 49 inches tall. The sale is the 7th of July. There is lots of other consignments as well, also Rocky Mountain sells a bunch of their animals in the sale too. With a sale there is always staff to go along, there is usually fitters that clip all the animals, line watchers these people feed hay and pick the poop and can wash also. There is also and auctioneer, pedigrees man, and people who take the bids. There are more jobs that other people do that help out with the sale.

Skycrest Mailing Limabean VG88
 Dam to the calf that is selling in the sale.

Summer Time

It's summer time, most people take the summer off and go camping or away from home. Well this is just another busy season for farmers. In summer farmers either do hay and silage, this consists of cutting the hay letting it dry, raking hay swaths together and baling or silaging it off and putting it in a pit, bag or silo. At our farm we do round bales, square bales and also we do silage in bags and for the silos. This is always a busy time because if there is a nice day your out in the field raking or baling trying to get the hay off beofore it rains or gets to mature.

Me square baling hay

Smile for the Camera

Not only do people get their photos taken by professionals but so can cattle. There are photographers that picture cattle at shows, or come to you farm if you want them too. The purpose of picturing cows, heifers, bulls is to advertise that animal, offspring,  or daughters for your farm or if they are selling in a sale. Picturing cattle is not always easy to do some work with you and sometimes they can fight you. For picturing you need a person for each front leg, someone to hold the head, someone to set the back legs, someone to hold the tail in place, someone to make noise to get good head carriage and to get the ears forward. The reason for placing the feet is to make the cow look wider, show more rear udder, you can also add height to the front end by adding blocks underneath the front feet. This process can vary in 5 mins to 50 mins depending on the animal behaviour.



Tabasco 3/4 view



Skycrest Laurin Sweet Potato



Skycrest Lou Lip Smacker VG 86



Thunder Season

It's that time of year when there are plenty of thunder storms brewing in the country.Thunder storms can be either good if we need rain or bad because it can damage crops. How can they damage crops well if there is hail then it breaks the stems of the grain or it can rip holes in the leaves in the canola. When this happens it doesn't fully come back resulting in a lose of the crop.

Hair Cut



blending the top in

 Well its that time of year where it get hot out and long hair can make it even hotter. Yes farmers give their cattle hair cuts too. Most dairy farmers clip their cattle when they are in barns so they are not as hot and are more comfortable when cool, also they can produce more milk when they are cooler. Also at shows the cattle get clipped to make them more dairyer looking. To clip a calf you need a pair of clippers, top line brush, hair dryer. When clipping you want to make the top look level and blend the hairs to make it look more natural looking. You also want to leave belly hair if the calf needs the extra help of the hair to add more depth of rib. Clipping takes lots of practice, it just doesn't come to you.

clipping the udder

Getting the Milk Out

Well we know how the milk is made now it time to learn how the milk gets from the udder to the milk tank. Milk let down is an involuntary reflex action that the cow has no control over. When it's time to start milking washing the teats of the cow sends a message to the pituitary gland in the cow's brain which is letting her know to let the milk down. In response to the message a hormone called oxytocin is sent through the blood to the udder. When this reaches the udder it sends a single to "squeeze" the milk out of the alveole cells. When milk leaves the cells it travels down through the udder into the teat cistern. Then the teats fill with milk, the teat opening is held shut by a sphincter muscle at the bottem of the teat. Some cows leak milk before they are milked, this is usally because they arew either high producing cows or their sphincter muscle is weak. With the milk made and the milk out now its the milk drivers job to transfer it to the farm to the milk factory.

The Udder

Well if you don`t already know dairy farming is a full time job, you can`t skip any days. Weather the cow is eating, drinking, chewing their cud or lying down they are constantly making milk for you and me to drink. Its the farmers job to make sure that the cow and her udder and healthy in a suitable environment and a proper milking procedure. Well to make milk the cows have to have a calf before they can produce any milk. The udder is made up of four quarters and each quarter contains milk producing tissues. The milk that is produced in a quarter stays in the quarter, it can not go through the tissue walls to a different quarter. But Viruses, diseases and antibiotics are able to pass through the tissues to the different quarters. In side each quarter there are thousands of tiny cells that are called  ``alveoli``. Its takes thousands of those cells just to make one drop of milk. For the cow to produce milk the alveoli meed energy, this energy comes from nutrient rich blood flowing through the udder. As the blood flows through the nutrients and energy pass from the blood into the alveoli cells. That is just how the milk is made, stay tuned to learn how the milk gets out!

Raccoon Grand



Grand and Res Champion



Our clubs achievement day was held on Saturday June 11 at the Westlock Ag barn with Orville Smitt our judge. I did very well, with five out six of my heifers winning their classes and then my summer yearling Skycrest Wildman Raccoon getting grand champion and Honorable mention with my March yearling Skycrest Mr. Sam Kiwi, I was also 1st Sr. showman. Also Casey Morey for getting Reserve Champion with her Sr. yearling. But before achievement day that previous week I was busy clipping and washing and leading my calves.For those of you that don't know what clipping is, its like a hair cut for cattle but just leaving a strip on the top of the backs (kinda like a mohawk) to make the heifers more dairyer and give them more angularity. On Saturday morning I got up early to leave so when we got to Westlock I had lots of time to spot wash and do tops before the show started. So I think all the hard work to get my heifers ready for achievement day had paid off. 



Kiwi Hon. Mention



Getting heifers ready with my cousins

Healthy Cows are Happy Cows!

Keeping cows and calves healthy is an important part of farming. With healthy animals the more milk, bigger the heifers and less stress on the farmer. Keeping cows healthy isn't just about giving them a shot of medicine. Health comes from a proper nutrition, vaccinations, and having a good clean dry and well ventilated housing. One way to tell is an animal is sick is to take her temperature, respiration rate and heart rate. Respiration rate refers how many times the animal takes a breath every minute. The ideal the ideal range for a heifer or cow for temperature, respiration rate and heart is:

A happy farmer and a happy calf!

Temperature: 38.6 C

Respiration rate: 30 breaths per minute
Heart: 50 beats per minute

So keeping cows, heifers, calves healthy will show on how they eat, how much milk they give, how much they grow, and if they have healthy calves when calving. Health is an important part and can't be forgotten about.

Leduc Dairy Congress



Getting Grand and Reserve at the Jr. show in Leduc





Well the past couple of days I have been down in Leduc attending the Dairy Congress Show. It consisted of a sale, Jr. show, judging school and the open show. As I am 17 I am still young enough to precipitate in the Jr. shows, Logan Chalack was the judge to the Jr. show in Leduc. I have four animals entered and all four of my calves won their class and then my winter yearling was grand and my senior calf was reserve. I also won in my showmanship category. The next day was the judging school and sale, I helped with leading animals in the judging school. The judging school is a workshop for the o judges that are officials or the up and coming judges. Friday was the open show which consisted of the heifers and cows, our heifers and cows did well in the show. Our farms results were:





All four of my heifers were pulled out for champion in the Jr. show!



2nd Dec calf Willswikk Duplex Doofus
3rd Sr. calf Skycrest Damion Nosejob
1st Sum yrl Skycrest Wildman Raccoon
1st Int yrl Skycrest Sanchez Abracadabra
Jr. Champ B&W and Supreme Jr. Champ Skycrest Sanchez Abracdabra
4th Jr. 3 yr old Skycrest Lou Lipsmacker
3rd Sr. 3 yr old Skycrest Damion Doodle
3rd 5 yr old Skycrest Mr Sam Tabasco

With this show done now, I have achievmentday coming quicky so I am busy getting heifers clipped and trained for that.

May Marathon

Well its been a busy month for me. With the Leduc Dairy Congress show, Achievement day coming up, as well as helping with seeding . With the show coming up I have put the show heifers on a diet so they can dairy off, I have also been busy washing them every second day so that they can grow nice hair for my brother Chad to clip.With the show heifers being on a diet it means that they are  put on straw and I give them some beet pulp and just a couple slabs of hay sprinkled on top of the straw once a day. As I have said I have been washing them also, washing them keeps the dirt and oils out of the hair and with dirt and grease out of the hair, the hair will grow thick and will get longer. Dad has also been making me go roll some fields after he has seeded them.This is where I pull a giant roller on the seeded fields to push down the rocks that have been missed from picking.We do this because then when it comes to combining we don't have to worry about running  a rock through the combine and cause serious damage. But with seeding done now and no more rough fields to roll that is one less job that is out of my way. I also have our 4-H clubs achievement day coming up after the show in Leduc, so I have been fine tuning some of my 4-H calves and getting them ready for the achievement day. My December calf, September calf and my Junior yearling will be attending the show in Leduc coming in the first week of June. I have taken my Sept. calf to two shows in spring and she has done very well. My Sept calf's name is Nosejob, she has placed 2nd in Calgary, 3rd in Saskatoon and was 1st and Honorable Mention in the Jr show in Saskatoon.I am excited for the rest  of the year with my 4-H calves!So check it out June 3 at Leduc for the 25th Anniversary Dairy Congress.



Nosejob and me at Saskatoon Show



Pedicure Day

Well today was hoof trimming day at Skycrest for the milking cows, dry cows and bred heifers. Two times a year our hoof trimmer comes out to the farm. He uses a hand held grinder and a hydraulic shoot in which he can trim 90 head of cattle a day at our farm. Here is a video of a person trimming hoofs, so you can see how they do it.  

Types of Housing

There is many different types of housing for milk cows. The Types of barns could be free stall, tie stall and pack. Free stall is when the cows can walk around to the feed bunks and water and also there is stalls that they can lay in, they also have to walk up to where they get milked. A tie stall is when the cows are tied in the stall and they just stand of lay there, they don't have to go anywhere for their food or water. The food gets put in front the cows and they have water bowls in between the cows also the milkers come to the cows. So the cows get milked in their stall, they don't have to move to go get milked, food or water.A disadvantage to a tie stall barn is that the cows don't get enough exercise as the other barns. A pack is a barn with a pack of straw and there is no stalls for the cows, they have to walk to their food, water and where the cows get milked.
Some advantages of a free stall:
-a lower amount of labour for each cow
-the cows get adequate amount of exercise

Advantages of a tie-stall barn:
-more time is spent with each cow
-the animals get individual attention
-easier to treat the cows cause to can see if they eat or not

Advantages of a pack barn:
-lower amount to labour
-cows get adequate amount of exercis




This is our farms tie stall barn.



Grand Champion

1st 4yr old and Grand Champion - Wendon Goldwyn Allie

Congratulations to Wendon Holsteins, a 2X master breeder herd, on breeding the grand champion cow Wendon Goldwyn Allie at the National Convention Show in Halifax. Allie has been shown this spring at B.C. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec and now Nova Scotia. She has won grand 3 of these five shows. This is a huge accomplishment for this cow to be show from coast to coast.

My First Saturday of May

Picking garbage with Tyler

Well last Saturday I participated in the Alberta highway clean up with my 4-H club, we picked 20km's. It was a nice day out to be cleaning up our ditches of Alberta. Our club participates in highway clean up every year for a fundraiser. I think this is a good fundraiser because we get to help our province as well it shows tourist that we have pride in our province.



Our happy leader!



Our club happy to be picking garbage

Seeding

Its that time of year when farms start to get out in the fields to put in their crops. Seeding is important part to farmers if they grow and their own crops to sell or to make feed out of it later on for their cattle. This year it seems to be a wet year for most farmers, but with hot temperatures to come this will help out the farmers with their seeding. My old bus driver once said "you seed in the dust your graineries will bust."
Its the time of year where farmers are busy in the field preparing the soil to seed their crops .Farmers in southern Alberta are about three weeks behind schedule when it comes to seeding thanks to old man winter, southern Alberta would normally have about 20 percent of seeding done by now, but the rest of the province is not behind at all. Seeding in central and northern Alberta does not usually start until the first week of May. Moisture levels are good now, but any more rain could saturate some areas.



Seeding the field with an air seeder






Spreading fertilizer at our farm

Robot Milking!

Yes there is a such thing called robot milkers. It can be hard to believe that there doesn't have to be a person out milking the cows. The robots milk them for you and records how much milk the cow gives, how long it took her to milk all on a computer. The cows come to the robots by themselves or sometimes you have to go and get them if the cows aren't used to the robots are new. How the robots work is they use lasers to find the teats to wash and put the milking inflations, they also spray the teat dip on after the cow is done milking. Some advantages to the robots are more consistant milking, less staff required more time to do other things on the farm. A farm that lives close by has three of the robots, they are the neatest thing to see!




The roboat





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Washing the teats









Putting the milkers on.



Facts that you probably didn't know?

• Healthy animals take 10-30 breaths per minute
• 50% more Blood flows to the cows udder when she is laying down. Since it takes 454kg of blood flowing through her udder to make 1kg of milk
• A 625kg cow will produce 60kg of manure and urine each day
• The Canadian  dairy industry produces 7.6 billion liters of milk per year

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