One night at about dusk on my way through the barnyard I heard this guy. I couldn't get a very good shot of him with my phone in the low light but he let me sneak up in the hay loft to get this pic.

Keeping the cattle watered in below zero weather

Thought I would post these pictures while we still had snow on the ground reminding me just how cold it was this winter when I had to give this waterer some special attention when the temperature dropped below zero. Luckily no pipes burst and a few minutes with the hair dryer got the water flowing again.

Baler School

I have to post something tonight or it may be ten more months before I actually make a post. I had the chance to go to a baler school today at a local implement dealership to learn more about how to keep the baler up and running. Very important to be able to keep baling when the conditions are right for high quality hay. Besides keeping the cows as comfortable as possible feeding the highest quality hay possible is probably the highest priority on our dairy. I did learn about our baler but unfortunately they also taught me about the improvements on the shiny new baler that was parked behind the instructors the entire presentation. I guess the free lunch and instruction had a reason behind it. The balers have become the size of a small house and cost as much as our house did when we built in 1997. I couldn't get over the fact that you can put 30 spools of twine in the baler. For our farm that is almost enough twine to bale the entire year without reloading. You can see the three rows for the spools just in front of the ladder in the picture. And don't forget that the spools sit on an angle to help the twine feed better and the twine box is sealed to keep the dust from building up and causes issues.