Just a little farm tour

It's pretty simple. If you want to visit a farm just ask a farmer. When Stephanie asked to bring her three beautiful girls to our farm...of course I agreed. But first I had to mow, and weed-wack, and pick up the toys and clean up my garden.... I wasn't worried about the animals or parlor because we keep that clean all the time.

I may or may not be the best tour guide, but I had ice cream and figured that would get me on everyone's good side :)  I also had two babies born less than 18 hours before they arrived SO I was feeling confident things would go well. AND it did!! Not only did the kids ask to come back but they left with poop splatter on them, which is a pretty good indication they were up close and personal with my favorite ladies.

It started with the usual "Oh! It stinks..." which makes me smile every time we have company. It means this is NEW for them, something small that I've become numb to. I was introduced to Madalyn, Emily and Lillian (...and I got their names wrong every time). We met twins who were born this morning, a heifer (girl) and bull (boy). They even got to feed the calves their very first bottle of colostrum. Names were chosen and we have a Rosie & Patches in our herd.

Of course on the day of our tour it was 92°F out so after we looked at the calves in the hutches and walked down to the dry lot there was drinking from the garden hose. (Something their mother did as a kid but they were skeptic about trying.) Not only was this tour a learning experience for them but it was a reminder to me that what I do daily is important and special and to enjoy it.        

 

By the time we made it to the parlor the cows were being milked. The girls were able to hand squirt milk from the cow and help bring cows in from the holding pen.

 

Below are some of the questions & answers we talked about today. If you'd like to see more of our every day farm life follow along on Facebook or Instagram @michiganfarmgirl.

Do calves have teeth?
Yes, calves are born with bottom teeth and develop more as they grow.

How long does a cow carry a calf?

9 months and they have heat cycles every 3 weeks until they are bred.

What do they eat?
Calves get milk, water and grain from birth to 2 months.
Heifers and dry cows get grain, dry hay and water.
Cows get "cow chow" or "casserole" or "TMR" (name depends on the tour guides vocabulary), a mix of haylage, grains, vitamins, soybean.

Does it hurt the cow to milk?
No, their bodies produce milk and if we don't express the milk they may feel more discomfort from that.

Why is your front door glass broken?
That is what happens when I mow grass :(

There were a lot more things discussed BUT I had two questions for my guest: 1) do the hutches look big enough for the calves to live in? 2) do the cows look happy? The answer to BOTH was yes.

At the end of two hours I was EXHAUSTED because I never talk that much, BUT I hope it was a good experience for them. And if it became a yearly thing that would be awesome, they would be able to see how things change; because every day here is different.

#happyfarmer