From Our Farm: A Calf is Born

For those of you who have never been on a dairy farm, here is a peek into our farming life.


Step 1-A calf is born. Our calves are bottle-fed whole milk for 8+ weeks before being weaned. Once weaned, we will keep the calves on the farm until they are 3-4 months old before sending them to our custom calf raiser. They will stay there until they are old enough to be bred.


Step 2-The calf grows up. We bring the next batch of heifers (cows that have not had their first calf yet) back to the farm when they are about a year old to be bred by our breeding bull. After being bred and having a calf, we bring the cow into the milking herd.


Step 3-In order to produce milk, a cow has to 1. have a calf and 2. eat, eat, eat. We feed hay, corn silage, and a mixture of grains and minerals during the winter months. This is taken in the feed lane at our winter barn.


Step 3(cont.)-From mid-May to mid-October, our cows are on our summer pasture. We move their paddocks twice a day to allow for fresh grazing and feed corn silage and a grain/mineral mix. There is nothing lovelier to me than seeing the cows grazing contentedly on all that lush green grass.