Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Mini Horses]

Yep -- cold is a coming! Highly probably you will get more snow and they say we are getting a shot at it again. Suggesting we may actually have some this time. I lucked out with only rain past weekend. 50 miles out, snow. 100 miles out several inches.

Even TX is getting cold air. I'm sure they are hoping the moisture isn't included.

Jan -- do your farms have a required test schedule? Is this a State dairy requirement thing? Seems there may be a little flex in there so long as you get "within" the boundaries, which would sure help you with weather, etc. Of course, they start VERY early at most dairies I'm sure it was more fun years back.

 

[Mike CHS]

At least when you post things like this those of us in the south gripe a whole lot less.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

 

[Bruce]

Well then Mike, how about this?

Guess I'll wait until 10 or so on Thursday to do the animals. Not like they need anything from me early anyway, I make sure they have plenty of food and water when I close the barn up at night.

 

[Mike CHS]

I would need different kinds of gloves than I wear here.

 

[Bruce]

Me too I've never found a pair of gloves I can both work in when wearing and have my hands not really cold after a time. Good thing I don't HAVE to work out in the cold that often.

 

[RollingAcres]

Yikes @Bruce !

 

[farmerjan]

@Mini Horses ; there is no real required schedule anymore. At one time you had to test a minimum of 10 months of the year. The registered cattle were required to have a minimum of 10 tests a year to have official records. Then Holstein assoc allowed the Tri-star program which was 6 tests a year as long as they were 2x ( meaning both a consecutive eve then morning).
But several years ago there was some sort of a legal challenge (not here in Va) about requiring a certain number of tests if not registered, and some other issues. So we (DHIA) adopted the policy that we are not a "police" organization, so a farmer could test as often or seldom as they wanted. There are different programs. Used to be that the only one accepted by any registered organization (cattle) was the standard 2x so that you got an accurate total amount of milk for a 24 hour period. With the advent of computers, they started offering different ones, and most do a 1x and alternate from a morning one month to an evening the next month. The computer can calculate the lbs. of total milk , because we have to record the milking times of the milking BEFORE we come and the one we are there.
There are "owner sampler" tests where I just drop the stuff off, and the farmer does the milk weights, and sample collecting. I go back to get my meters if he uses them (some have weigh jars or electronic meters), samples, and put all the information in the computer. I do not have to be there through the milking. There are other plans where some do a milk only sample, some do a weight only, some that accomodate (sp?) the farms that milk 3x a day and I go once to sample and record the milk weight. Some to where they milk 3x and I take all 3 weights off the computer program on the farm and only take one sample... you have a specific "want" they will accomodate it.
We are a "service organization" so it is not required. But most do it because they need to know what their individual cows are doing, and if they have a scc, (somatic cell count) problem, they need to know who is causing it. Then the cow can get cultured and treated, or many just will treat for mastitis. If they are chronic, then a culture is smart. Staph can be a chronic one and very little will take care of it if it has been an ongoing problem. Those cows will show some mastitis one day, then no noticeable stuff, then have flair ups. With the tightening down of scc from the milk companies that pick up and buy the milk, and premiums being paid for low scc, it is in the farmers best interest to NOT keep problem cows around.

Plus there is the benefit of records for the registered stock.. @Goat Whisperer and @OneFineAcre and others who show and milk goats also are covered under the DHIA organization. It is a big deal with the goats in states south of here, not any here in my immediate area. I did test one goat herd for about a year. She wanted the info for herself, not registered... but they drank raw goat milk. They got out of the "homesteading" mindset and as the kids got older, and left home, they sold the place and moved. I don't know if any of the other testers in this area have any goat herds. Don't think I have heard any talk about goats.
But when I talk to any of the support staff in Raleigh NC where our records are processed, some of the girls I have come to know after 28 years, will talk about having processed a goat herd in the computer and had to "fix" a problem.... just like when I call them to "fix" a problem with my herds. Like a fresh date being wrong, or a breeding recorded wrong, or something got miss-typed and they have to go in and change it....
Most of my 1x herds now will test mostly afternoons; because I have gotten to the point where getting up and going to barns at 2 or 3 am is just getting to be too much for me. Especially setting up. And I have several that we will test mornings in the summer when it is hot and it is cooler in the barn @ 4 a.m., and in the winter we do more afternoons so I am not out in 0* temps early. Most work with me now because they have had some not very good testers, and as the good ones retire, they don't want to go through 2-3-5 testers til one decides to stay with it. We have a terrible time finding replacements as, you all know, for a great part, the "younger generation" does not want to get out and "work" for a living if it means crappy hours, or crappy conditions. And a dairy barn is "crappy" in the literal sense of the word!!
As some have retired, and farmers have retired and sold out, we have absorbed the herds in order to be able to keep our full time status. Since I turned 65, and am wanting to do something with these joints since Medicare will pick up nearly all the costs, I have been hinting around to all my farmers that the time is coming that they are going to have to have a new tester. If I do surgery, I will not go back. I have stuck with it through the prolotherapy and PRP treatments... and would still like to try the stem cell, but it is expensive, and not covered by any insurance or medicare. So at this point it is looking more like just replacements, and once I start that, I am done in the barns. I want off the concrete. The ankle alone I will have 3-6 months recovery from what I have been told. Then there is the knee, and a shoulder.... I want to be the "BIONIC WOMAN"

 

[Latestarter]

Gosh Jan... with all that you do now, I don't think the bionic woman could handle it...

 

[Baymule]

I can tell you that my husband having knee replacement and shoulder replacement is the greatest thing he has ever done for himself. If both your knees are needing replacement, do both at the same time. Each time "older" people are put under anesthesia, it screws with memory. Not to mention, it gets it done, and you can move on afterwards. I saw several people at the hospital that had both knees done and they were up and walking, just like anyone who had one knee done.

Get your medicare supplement through AARP, United Healthcare, "traditional" supplement. It may be a bit more expensive, but with these surgeries looming in the future, it will be money well spent. DH had shoulder and knee replacement, a triple bypass and months of therapy, all of which COST US NOTHING OUT OF POCKET. If we had been paying out of pocket, each therapy session was $400. Twice a week for months and months adds up real quick.