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.