Well it appears we are approaching another week of temperatures of less than 10 degrees.  Yes, things just seem to be a little more challenging around the dairy when we drop below 15 degrees.

A common misconception is that these cold spurts are difficult on the animals, but actually cows over 6 months old handle below zero temperatures just fine.  Baby calves need special attention and more energy in their milk, but can handle these temperatures also.   Udder Tech Inc makes some really warm calf blankets that are designed to specially fit baby calves.   With these blankets, plenty of straw, and some fortified milk and these calves really do well.    Actually, most of the difficulties on the farm are about equipment operation, and employee comfort.  The manure freezes, water troughs freeze, and so do the employee's.

Soon the next week of bitter cold will be behind us.  We will quickly look to better milk prices, and a positive outlook to milking cows in the Midwest once again.  While high feed prices will challenge this hope, we must cling to hope.

There have been many tragic endings in the Dairy Industry over the last 2 years, and probably some more to come.  We can only hope that the next year can rescue some in the Dairy Industry, and that we all received an education on the fragility of any business.  

Sad story about the dairy economy.  The Dairy industry is faced with the toughest time its seen in over 30 years.  We are thankful to have made it through, but feel sorry for those that have lost.   Check the link to this story...   Gone in a flash: Family's prized dairy farm hits auction block

By the end of the day today Bridgewater Dairy will have no manure in lagoons, well that is except for what we are currently producing.  Its been a wonderful fall, and the goal is now to just keep ourselves empty until the ground freezes.  That likely means will will haul manure about 1 day a week.  


Fall Cleanup has begun and preparations for winter are well under way.  

Fall Harvest, as most people in this area understand, it was a very dry summer for the crops.  Corn Silage yields were well below average, and we wound up chopping almost all of our corn acres into silage in order to get enough silage for the next 12 months.  The last 150 acres were made into High Moisture Corn,  but that still means we have a lot of corn and other products to purchase to get us through the year.   The one advantage with a dry year is we've been able to catch up on all our field work, clean-up some fence rows, and even repair a few waterways.  

Fall Manure, our manure pits are almost completely empty.  Kudos goes out to Tom and Jason Fry,  with a good mixer pump they have been able to stir up the manure in our pivot lagoon and reduce the level of this lagoon to the lowest we've seen in a couple of years.  Since this is just parlor washup water, and only emptied through our pivots over the years some solids build-up in the bottom of the pit.  Five or so years ago we had a company come dredge this lagoon, but this year it looks like we will regain almost 1 million gallons of storage very inexpensively.  By the end of this week, we should have zero manure on the facility.  Hopefully, we can just keep the pits empty til the snow falls and prepare us for a great spring.

Milk, The Bridgewater Dairy team has been working wonders milking cows and preparing to fill up Oakshade.  Since the milk market isn't exactly where we want to be running another dairy yet, we are just working on efficiency at Bridgewater.  We are milking almost 3100 cows 3 times a day, and are still able to keep our Somatic Cell Count level around 160,000.  The dairy is operating the best it has since we started operations.  We our milk quality is exceptional overall, and with all the extra work getting ready for the new dairy, and summer heat, this is something to be proud of.

All in all a great fall.