Suppertime!

When I go out to milk the cows I always get a kick out of all the attention I get.  Tricia and I joke around and ask each other, "Do you think the cows, chickens and goats like us, or do they just like the fact that we feed them?"  The answer, of course, is that they view us as objects that give them food.  I like this picture below as it shows the many animals depending on us everyday.  It is a responsibility and one we take seriously, but we enjoy the animals as well.  It's not just a job.

As you can see, there is lots of diversity in our barnyard with Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red, Aracauna, Black Star and Cornish Cross chickens roaming around anticipating the rice that I'm going to throw to them. Can you spot the different breeds in the photo?  They get right underneath the feet of the cows sometimes. A three or four pound chicken is no match for an 800 - 950 pound cow.  From time to time we'll have a hen that limps around for a week or so because they didn't move out of the way quick enough.  I'll hear some squawking and I'll have to go push the cow off of the poor bird.  They aren't even aware that they are standing on a hen.

Bosses of the Barnyard

Rosie and Daisy are waiting for me to open the gate, but if you look in the background, you can spot Magnolia back there by her glowing eyes.  We milk Daisy and Rosie twice a day - at 5 am and again at 6 pm.  Maggie is in milk, but she's serving as our nurse cow and she's providing milk to Lily and Amy.  Tricia thought of that idea to keep us from milking all three cows and it has worked out nicely.

Hurry up and open the gate!

We feed them very little in the Spring and Summer as they are grass-fed milk cows, but in the winter when there is no grass, we feed them a little Dairy ration with a square bale of Bermuda hay broken up over it and then we also have round bales of hay out that they always have access to.

Speaking of hay, it was time to climb up in the loft and take inventory of our remaining stock of square bales. In the summer, the boys and I will hoist 100 square bales up into the loft and stack it for use in the winter months.  As I climbed up into the loft last night, I counted 9 bales left - 3 rows of 3 bales.  We had anticipated the hay lasting us into March and our estimates were accurate.  The 70 degree weather hopefully will get the green grass growing again for the girls.

Dwindling stores of hay

Looking back in the other direction, you can see the emptiness of the hay loft.  You can also see the 2 x 4s that I repeatedly bang my head into as I'm walking to the trap door with a bale to throw down.  I probably need to paint them bright red or wear a hard hat when I'm up there! 

The empty loft

The loft will stay empty until this summer when we'll fill it back up again.  An empty loft is a good thing for a couple of reasons.  When it is full of hay, the hens like to make nests and lay eggs that we never find until they are rotten and stinking.  All the hay up there also makes a perfect habitat for rats, although we've waged war on them pretty good this Fall/Winter and have put a serious dent in the rat population.