Sunday, March 1, 2009
Hi all!
We are doing well! We have been very busy this past week. We had 600 pregnant heifers arrive at the farm from Canada this week. We were very busy getting the last barn ready before they arrived. Some of the trucks hauling the cows got lost and we spent all night waiting for them. So, we are tired to say the least!
We are now milking 1030 cows. Our employees are getting more efficient as the days pass and we are all still learning a lot. We have attached a video of the cows being milked. Here is a brief description of what they video shows: Each cow enters the moving rotary. Her udder is dipped with iodine to sanitize. She is then dried off. Then a third person attaches the milking unit. The cow continues to move around the rotary while she is milked and the milking unit detaches automatically when she is finished. She will continue her ride for a total of ten minutes and then she will exit and walk back to her barn where there is feed and a place for her to lay down. Very simple! This occurs three times per day. We are able to milk 360 cows per hour. The other video is from inside the rotary where the cows are looking down at us! You can see where the cows are entering the rotary and then on the left you can see where they exit after going for their ten minute ride. (If you look closely you can see a spray of water that we installed to make the cow reverse and get off the rotary. Some of them like to ride twice if you let them!) If you think it looks strange, imagine what they cow must think!
We are flying back to the U.S. on March 10 for a quick trip to renew our visas.
Hope to see all of you when we are out and about!
We are doing well! We have been very busy this past week. We had 600 pregnant heifers arrive at the farm from Canada this week. We were very busy getting the last barn ready before they arrived. Some of the trucks hauling the cows got lost and we spent all night waiting for them. So, we are tired to say the least!
We are now milking 1030 cows. Our employees are getting more efficient as the days pass and we are all still learning a lot. We have attached a video of the cows being milked. Here is a brief description of what they video shows: Each cow enters the moving rotary. Her udder is dipped with iodine to sanitize. She is then dried off. Then a third person attaches the milking unit. The cow continues to move around the rotary while she is milked and the milking unit detaches automatically when she is finished. She will continue her ride for a total of ten minutes and then she will exit and walk back to her barn where there is feed and a place for her to lay down. Very simple! This occurs three times per day. We are able to milk 360 cows per hour. The other video is from inside the rotary where the cows are looking down at us! You can see where the cows are entering the rotary and then on the left you can see where they exit after going for their ten minute ride. (If you look closely you can see a spray of water that we installed to make the cow reverse and get off the rotary. Some of them like to ride twice if you let them!) If you think it looks strange, imagine what they cow must think!
We are flying back to the U.S. on March 10 for a quick trip to renew our visas.
Hope to see all of you when we are out and about!
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