Farmer John Says Yipee!

As of April 21st, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that only four percent of the corn crop was planted. This compares to 26% planted at this time last year and a five-year average of 16%. On April 21st, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wisconsin all had virtually no corn planted. Based on this statistic, it is no wonder that Farmer John is saying Yipee. Thanks to the temperature increase and the snow no longer falling, today is the beginning of spring field work! 

Farmer John and Grandpa Roy are working up the soil using a chisel plow.
Chisel plowing in the spring breaks up the soil, incorporates crop residue from last years crop, aerates the land and kills early sprouting weeds.The field they are working on today is 40 acres and will be planted with oats and alfalfa (hay) to feed to our cattle. It will take about 4 hours to plant this 40 acres after the chisel plowing is done.

So even though our fieldwork has gotten off to a late start, we are all excited for the beginning of a new growing season. Yipee!

Prepare To Be Dazzled

When I give school presentations or I'm asked to speak at meetings about dairy farming, I like to "dazzle" my audience with a bit of somewhat useless dairy trivia. Prepare to be "dazzled"...

• Dairy cows can produce 125 pounds of saliva a day
• People first domesticated cows about 5000 years ago.
• A cow stands up and sits down about 14 times a day.
• Cows can detect odors up to six miles away.
• Cows can see color.
• There are approximately 350 "squirts" in a gallon of milk.
• Cows can pick and lick their noses with their tongues.
• When the Pilgrims went to America, they took cows with them.
  
  
  Just like people, cows have an interesting story. As a Dairy Farmer, I believe one of my responsibilities is to share that story; the story of how we are committed to caring for our animals, respectfully preserving our land, and taking pride in what we do each and every day. 
  
  
  So who says we can't have a little "dazzle" along the way?
  
  
  To learn more about the story of Dairy Farming visit Dairy Farming Today.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Every Day Is Earth Day

April 22, 2013. Happy Earth Day! Here at Bremer Farms every day is Earth Day. We support practices that make economic sense, help the environment and are socially responsible to our communities and our world. One of the ways we do this is by reducing energy and reusing water through the use of a plate cooler. So how does it work and why is it good for the environment? When milk leaves the cow it is a warm 101 degrees F. It needs to quickly cool to 40 degrees and a plate cooler helps with this. After the milk leaves the cow it travels from the milking machine through stainless steel pipes to the cooling tank. (It's never touched by human hands). Along the way, before reaching the cooling (bulk) tank, it goes through the plate cooler.

Our plate cooler is mounted on the ceiling. The milk enters the cooler on the lower left side of the above picture. It stays enclosed in these pipes but winds its way through this cooling system which has cold water cooling these pipes, therefore cooling the milk that is safely inside the pipes. The milk then moves on to the bulk milk tank via the larger pipe on the lower right of this photo. But what about the water that was used for cooling the milk? That water is piped to a tank in our cow yard where the cows enjoy a clean, fresh drink.

The plate cooler on the ceiling (upper right). Milk travels via pipe to bulk tank (lower left).

Since the cooling process begins in the plate cooler, this reduces our electricity used by the bulk milk tank to cool the milk. The water serves double duty by helping to cool the fresh milk and then moves on to supply the cows with the necessary water needed to produce more milk. One of the reasons we became farmers is because of our love for our land and animals. What better way to show this love than to respect our natural resources?

How are you going to show the love on Earth Day?

Not Quite Yet!

Have I mentioned our farm is across the street (road, in country language) from a golf course? Hole three of the Platinum Course of Emerald Greens Golf Course is 250 feet straight north of our front door. It is a beautiful well manicured sight in the summer. It provides us with entertainment when a golfer gets a hole-in-one. And sometimes it grants us a free language lesson on what not-to-shout in public when the ball doesn't find the hole. My family all enjoys sitting in our front yard enjoying the entertainment and the view, after a day of working on and off the farm.

But as you can see, Mother Nature has played another cruel trick on us, with another blast of winter. If you look closely you can see the optimism of the golf course staff however. See the blue flag marking the hole?

We as farmers have to have that optimistic attitude too. No matter what the season, weather is a concern. When winter winds down, we think about "When will it be warm enough and dry enough to start planting?"  When summer rolls around the question is "Will we have enough rain or too much rain?" Fall's question is "Will we finish harvest before  winter rears its head again?" Our "farmer optimism" always wins out though, because each spring we say a prayer and place more seeds in the soil to start the process all over again.

Until then we'll just sit in the yard and enjoy the view.

Well, maybe not quite yet!

To learn about other dairy farms visit Dairy Farming Today

I'm Nuts for Pecans

Pecans are one of my favorite nuts to bake with, and today being 

National Pecan Day, what a better way to celebrate than with

English Toffee and a glass of milk!

English Toffee

Ingredients: 

8 ounces Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Bar
³/₄ cup pecans, finely chopped
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
¹/₈ teaspoon salt (optional)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Toast the chopped pecans on a baking sheet in the oven for 6 to 8 minutes, or until fragrant.
With heavy-duty aluminum foil, form a 10-inch square shell with 1-inch high sides. Place the foil shell on a baking sheet, and set aside.
In a heavy saucepan, cook the butter, sugar, water, and salt over medium heat until the temperature reaches 305F (hard-crack stage), stirring occasionally (watch closely after it reaches 290F because the temperature will increase rapidly). When the mixture becomes dark golden brown, immediately remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the mixture into the foil shell. It will spread but may not reach the edges of the square. Cool at room temperature for 45 minutes, or until hard.
Melt the chocolate according to instructions on the side of package. Spread melted chocolate over the cooled toffee, and sprinkle with the pecans, pressing lightly to set pecans into chocolate. Let set at room temperature 1 hour, or until the chocolate is set. Break toffee into pieces. Store covered at room temperature for up to 1 month.

Another delicious pecan recipe can be found on Dairy Makes Sense.com

Rice Pudding with Praline Topping

You may just go nuts for pecans too!

 

When Life Throws You Curveballs

This is Target Field, home of our 

Minnesota Twins Major League Baseball team.

 

This is the inside of the stadium. 

 Now imagine everything covered in white, fluffy snow, with baseball fans donning winter coats, boots, hats and mittens anxiously waiting to watch the Minnesota Twins challenge the New York Mets tonight at 7:10 PM.

I'm guessing cold and snow was not what fans were envisioning two years ago when our Twins went from the indoor Metrodome to the outdoor stadium. 

Yep, sometimes life throws you curve balls.

Weather is one of the biggest curve balls in a farmers life. Our latest snow the last two days made everything beautiful, yet frustrating. Last year we were spoiled with an early Spring, and many farmers were in the fields preparing the soil by early March. Typically, we begin Spring field work in mid-April. This year it will be several weeks before we can even think about heading to the fields to begin planting. The snow needs to melt, the ground needs to thaw and dry, and the temperatures need to rise. It's all in God's hands. So as we continue to wait, we dream of God's perfect pitch so we can begin the excitement of Spring planting.

So while we wait...Go Twins!

Something Doesn't Look Right

Have you ever had that feeling when something doesn't look right? Farmer John felt that way last night. Our family went out for supper and as we arrived back home, Farmer John noticed lights about 1/2 mile down the road from our house. He dismissed the something doesn't look right feeling after he was convinced it was probably just a car coming down the road. This morning when John was taking one of the daily loads of manure to the field, that not right feeling came over him again, and it was justified when he noticed a water line hanging down from one of our irrigators. It seems the lights we saw down the road from our house the night before was someone stealing the copper wiring from our irrigator.   

So why take the copper? Perhaps you have heard of copper pipes being stolen from abandoned houses, and the pipes being sold to recyclers. This is what is happening to the irrigators also. Sad to say this is not the first time this has happened. Last summer our neighbor had his irrigators wiring stolen, and after reporting the theft, our local sheriffs canvassed the farmers in our area to alert us of this robbery. When we checked our irrigation, it had been hit too, and 13 other farms as well. So besides the frustration, there is the financial lose too. Last summers  irrigator  damage totaled $8,000 and our recent lose is yet to be determined.

What can be done to stop these thefts? Unlike most machinery we use on the farm, the irrigator cannot be kept in a shed for safe keeping or be dismantled until needed in dry weather. The best defense we have is what I'll call our "neighborhood crime watch." Our neighbors and fellow farmers look out for each other. We support each other when tragedy strikes. We help each other when someone is sick or hurt. And we celebrate the good times. It's a community that now-days can be rare. 

Irrigation- A necessary part of our farm