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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