C is for Crops

This is the craziest spring for planting crops. I bet you have seen pictures and heard stories from friends, or in the media, about how difficult it is for farmers to get their crops planted this year. Too much rain equals muddy fields which means waiting until they are dry enough to plant. If planted too early the seeds don't sprout properly and planting in wet ground can cause the seeds to rot. We finished planting our final crops on June 1st, about 2 weeks later than usual. We now have to hope that Fall doesn't come early so the corn has enough time to mature.

Our farm consists of nearly 300 acres.  Each year, before Spring planting begins, we determine how much of each crop to plant. The decision is based on what we need for our herd, the weather conditions, and how much, if any feed we have left from the previous season. Because we have so few acres, we feed everything we grow to our animals. 

Fall corn harvest

The bulk of our acreage, about 200 acres, is planted into corn. Some is planted and later picked to feed as corn mixed with other grains. The stalks are then baled to use as bedding. The remaining corn is chopped in the fall for silage to feed to the cows.

Silage

Nearly 30 acres of our cropland is planted into grains, primarily oats. 

Oats

The oat kernel is fed, while the plant stalk is baled for bedding, called straw.

Straw bales ready for bedding 

 Finally, about 50 acres of our cropland is alfalfa hay. We feed a lot of hay, since every animal on our farm is treated to hay each day. Hay must be cut and dried before it can be made into bales. If we baled wet hay, it would mold, and we only serve our animals top quality feed. Just like your lawn, alfalfa can be cut several times each season. Typically we can cut and bale hay from each field four times each summer. Hay can also be blown into a feed wagon, to be fed immediately to the cows.

Alfalfa hay cut, ready to bale

Two thirds of our cropland is irrigated land, allowing us to be assured of a good crop even if we do not receive adequate rainfall. Since we have to pay for the electricity to power our irrigation, we pray that Mother Nature will provide the rain we need!

One of 3 irrigators on Bremer Farms

A BIG Lunch Bag

Every so often I get this crazy notion to fill my freezer with make-ahead meals. Have you ever had this thought? Just imagine coming home from a hectic day, reaching into the freezer and a short time later presenting your family with a hearty meal. This idea is still just in my head...not my freezer, but this week we finished make-ahead hearty meals for our cows.

This week we finished filling their lunch bags with silage.  

 Corn silage is made by chopping the entire corn plant into small pieces using a machine called a forage harvester, which is pulled by a tractor. A wagon with tall sides is pulled behind the forage harvester to catch the chopped corn. 

 The wagons are then taken to the bunker where they are unloaded and the silage is tightly packed inside to avoid spoilage, and then the bunker is covered with plastic. Our bunkers are large, but not large enough to store all the silage we need for our animals, so we fill lunch bags too.

These plastic bags are 8 feet high and 150 feet long. They do the same job as our bunker- keep our cows feed fresh and safe.

The field may be bare, but our "cupboards" sure aren't. The silage in our bunker and bags will feed our cows until next fall. You can see how we mix the silage with additional feed by reading 120 Hungry Mouths To Feed.

This And That Thursday - 4

A little bit of this and a little bit of that- here's what we've been up to.

Recently I attended the Minneapolis Public Schools Farm To School BBQ. You can read about it at my post  Farm 2 School. That night I met Kyle Larkin, who races at Elko Speedway. During our visit he told me his race car and racing attire is decked out in cow spots! "Send me a photo," I said. I'm all about sharing my love of dairy, and it appears that Kyle is too!

Sara has been busy preparing the front yard for our trick-or-treaters. When shopping, it seems she can't pass by the Halloween decorations without bringing a few home with her. My favorite is the big jack-o-lantern that sings. Trust me, it looks a lot spookier at night.

Good news! Our silage project is finished. Learn about silage here. Our bunker is completely full, and ready to feed our "girls" so they can continue to produce good-for-you milk. We are now back to baling hay, and combining corn will begin soon. Never a dull moment here!

Have you voted yet? Our Show Your Pride photo needs you. We are hoping to win the grand prize, a visit to our farm by a National Football League player. Please click on Show Your Pride and vote for our Minnesota Vikings photo. Just look for the purple pride. You can't miss it.

Learn more at Dairy Makes Sense

This And That Thursday- 3

It's raining right now, and the forecast is for rain through Saturday. It's a farmers dream come true! Even though we are still chopping silage this week, we are glad to take a few days off so the moisture can replenish the soil. We are now about half through our silage chopping.Two days with a broken chopper didn't speed up the project either. We should be finished next week.

Upper left- fresh silage. Lower left and right- silage covered with plastic.

Our bunker is 75' long with a concrete wall down the center. One side is completely full of silage and covered with plastic, which is held down with tires to keep the plastic in place. The opposite side is about one third full. This silage makes for good "eats" for the cows.

You never know what we are up to at Bremer Farms! Michael and I are setting the stage for our Show Your Pride photo entry. You can see our entry, and vote (each and every day) at Fuel Up To Play 60 Show Your Pride. Our entry shows our purple pride for our Minnesota Vikings. Thanks for your vote!

Learn more about Fuel Up To Play 60 here.

120 Hungry Mouths to Feed

 Do you feel like you're always in the kitchen, either preparing the next meal or cleaning up from the last one? Feeding our 120 cow dairy herd is somewhat the same; until recently. If you read my October 1, 2012 post The Life Cycle of a Silo, you know that we recently removed our silos and replaced them with a bunker. Since then, we have made other changes to feed our "girls" an improved balanced diet, more safely and more conveniently. Come along to see our new recipe to satisfy our herd so they can produce the tasty, healthy milk you enjoy.

The first stop is the feed mill. Corn, minerals, salt and vitamins are mixed together to make 2,100 pounds of ground feed each morning. (The little guy in blue is Flat Aggie. Read about him in my12/1/12 blog post.)

Next stop is the bunker where the silage (chopped corn stalks) is stored. We need 3,200 pounds of silage for our "recipe." This bunker is 45' wide and 75' long.

It's time to do the "stirring." The ground feed and silage are put in the TMR (total mixed ration) wagon to be mixed together. There is a large "beater" inside to do the stirring which takes about 2-3 minutes.

When this scale on the TMR wagon reaches 5,300 pounds of feed and silage we know we have enough to feed our cows their breakfast, lunch and dinner for one day.

Our new wagon is driven in one end of our new building to unload. When finished we can drive out the opposite end. The tractor and wagon are also stored here between feedings.

This chute attached to the side of the TMR wagon is lined up with the feed bunk to unload the silage/ground feed mixture.

It takes only 3 minutes to unload 1/3 of the 5,300 pounds of feed for each meal.

How nice to now be able to feed the herd inside, and it's more comfortable for Farmer John too. All of our cows get a better balanced diet with this new wagon that combines the silage with the ground feed. Just like picky eaters in your family, some cows were not eating everything they should. This new mixing system assures they get the nutrients from both the silage and ground feed. As before, our cows always have access to unlimited hay and water. 

We are proud of our dairy cows, and judging by their swishing tails, I think they are proud to be new members of the Clean Plate Club!

The Lifecycle of a Silo

Dairy farmers are committed to providing high-quality milk. This begins with taking good care of our cows. We at Bremer Farms consider this one of our highest priorities. One of the ways we do this is by providing a nutritious diet for our cows. Healthy cows produce more milk for our family and yours!

One of the foods on our cows menu is silage, which is fermented chopped corn, using the entire plant. It is stored in a silo, which is the tall concrete structure you see on many farms. But just like factories, retail stores and other workplaces, Bremer Farms makes up-dated changes too.

In 1952, when Bremer Farms was established, this small 40 foot silo was plenty of silage storage for our small herd.

 Somewhat later our one little silo was replaced by 3 larger 60 feet tall silos.

Down they come! Last year our three silos were removed so that we could have a more convenient and safe way of feeding our animals.

We now store our silage in a bunker with concrete walls 75' long. It is filled and packed using a loader and tractor and then covered with an airtight plastic tarp to keep it fresh and tasty for our cows so they can produce fresh, tasty milk for you!