Hard to believe that milk and dairy are so inexpensive at the store. Anyone who never set foot on a farm would be shocked how much work and expense goes in to a bowl of cereal! Thank you for the video and hooe your family is well! Bob
We used to have to clip twice a year here in Northern California!! After they stopped it, I continued clipping!! I love clean Cows just like you folks!! I just love your videos, and wish we lived closer, I would love to help you guys!! Take care for now, Vic!!
Excellent video. I'm very impressed with your dedication, care of your animals and hard work. It makes me feel positive for the future of our country knowing men like these men are out there below the radar.
I just love how well y'all take care of your cattle. Thats a nice thing to do for your cattle. I know years ago we always had to keep the hair off their bags for milking.
I’m a dairy farmer from yesteryear, small 400 acre farm older equipment and about 40 milk cows and with heifers and beef cattle around 100 head total, I enjoy the older ways of common sense farming and enjoy watching your videos!!!I must say that 2nd or 3rd cutting baled hay you feed in dairy barn looks good enough for me to eat!! Definitely “milk make” keep up the good work and be safe.
I majored in Dairy Science in college and our dairy club used to clip cows for local farmers. We would clip the tail, flanks, udder, rear legs and some of the stomach if needed. It's amazing how clean the cows looked after we clipped them.
Another good video. Thanks for making these. As a kid, dad fed out beef and my brother and I fed out hogs. But dad grew up during the 1930's and 40's here in SE Michigan. I remember him telling us about the dairy cows he milked along with my Grandad.
Cherish the time you have with your dad. I learned so much from my dad but he is now stuck in the house and in a wheelchair. Many of the things your dad says in these videos reminds me of what my dad taught me. Love the channel. Keep up the good work.
I remember working dairy farms growing up in southern ontario canada.My neighbor raised 5 kids milking 20 cows.The cows always free ranged after milking.Sure was simple then,I'm talking late 70's to early 80.
On thing I notice and it’s consistent is your family is making the one family dairy work, and be able to have a good living. This is the kind of dairy my father had when I was a small boy back in the early 60’s, the only reason he got out was health reasons that prevented him from continuing to farm. My uncle and cousins built a dairy up from scratch starting in the early 70’s. How they farm and the way they survived is a totally different from your family farm. The good thing is my second cousins are continuing the farm, however it’s larger now more mechanical but it’s still there. FYI here in ( NC piedmont near Charlotte) the few remaining dairies are getting larger, in my home county there is only 3 dairies, with my cousins being the largest, but still small at 300 milking. Just a few miles away a young farmer bought up 3 family dairies several years ago and made up a 1000 cow heard. The amount of farm land to support that dairy is enormous, he has land leased all around, and just the silage operation is huge. Keep up the videos, I really enjoy sitting down and seeing your family making the family farm work
This is a awesome video, this looks like a lot of fun the way that I thought dairy farming should be done. I worked on a run down 250 to 300 cow dairy farm through high school but it kept gas in the tank but I didnt enjoy it there. It seemed more like a factory than a farm every day it was how fast can we get the cows in and out in a double 8 step up parlor and get on with the day. The farmer who ran it was a alcoholic, many chores often went undone and the cows especially ones with hoof problems or cuts usually went untouched till they died or were sold to become dog food. I believe if I had worked on a setup like this I would still be farming hats of too you and your folks you guys are doing a great job.
First time watching your videos, very informative. Love to see the care you take with your cows, I am grateful for your hard work so I can enjoy my milk.
I had a similar set up like you for feeding heifers and dry cows. Instead of a TMR, I converted an old Meyers manure spreader to a feeder wagon by extending the sides and adding the front end from an old chopper box. I put a hydraulic motor on the discharge chain. I could then discharge to either side. I could throw a few small bales of hay in, top it with haylege and or corn silage, grain or protein supplement, spread out the minerals and vitamins on top and and deliver a somewhat TMR mix. Cost of the feeder wagon was less than $1000 plus the time to make the changes. The only down side was that it was a rear discharge.
I know you said in your video why you don't have a feed wagon but I figured I'd say this anyhow because most people haven't seen one. Kelly Ryan makes a very simple yet durable feed wagon that works well for something like you did in your video. It's called the Feed-R-Wagon. They are very cheap in comparison to other feed wagons are when used. Love the videos, keep it up.
Glad you included the segment about caring for the cows tails. Never knew about the process of shaving the tail and cutting the hair at the bottom. When the pump failed in the middle of your treatment, do you normally keep track of the cows number that were treated, as to not treat twice? Always enjoy your videos, keep up the good work.
Ya I think I have the numbers of the ones we need to treat yet! Put I do not think it would be bad to treat them twice, probaly not the smartest use of money. but I don't think it would hurt the cattle! Thank you Ben, We will do our best to keep releasing videos!
You guys hiding a milking parler somewhere? Watching someone groom a cows tail is something I've never seen. And I milked cows myself a few time. Nicely done.
Do y’all ever use the stave silo anymore or just the bags? Btw y’all have a nice neat clean facility. Love the way your dad describes his way of doing things. Keep up the good videos. I enjoy every one. 👌
I grew up on a dairy farm like this as a boy. I now feed animals on a big farm that makes its money by delivering its products to homes. Diffent way same process.
I'm curious whether or not it's possible to get lice from your cows? My dad grew up on a dairy farm and continued farming until I was 8. He now shares these videos with me and I've taken a great interest in watching how you guys do things on your farm! Things are explained in a way that I understand, even though I'm not entirely familiar with dairy farming. Thanks for taking the time to educate and allow us into your day to day lives!
Hi i am farly new to your channel and i love watching your videos we milked for over 20 some years we miss it a lot of people that havent milked would think you do things the hard way but i think you and your dad are just using what you got and it works for you all and your not in debt for some big shiny stuff thats over priced anway dont get me wrong yea you see all these other farmers with new tractors and you think man thats nice then you think well mines old but it gets the job done just as well and its paid for i would love to see your farm its so beauitful looking and clean we keep ours clean its not hard really thats what think is so funny i watch other videos of these big dairy farms and they have millions of dollars wiorth of equpiment and there farms and stuff look like shit i worked for some one else for years but i treated it like it was mine not bregging but my dairy was clean i always got a 95 or better on inspection watching your videos brings back memoeries for us keep up the great videos
We are very happy you found the channel and that we could bring back good memories for you! I'm glad another Dairy man is watching our videos! Thank you for the support we appreciate it!
My father-in-law had 172 steel wheels around the front of his farm yard. My wife still talks about painting them with a brush. All white wheels and they kept their sheep in when they got to mow the lawn. lol Love the cow bells. Cows have gotten bigger since the barns were built and their flanks hang over the gutters. Do your cows have their own stanchions? We had the omes at the ends of the stanchions that had theirs and few others but we milked year around and sometimes we cow fights for their place. Not saying your cows are bad but the milk inspectors in Minnesota would go crazy with the flanks like yours. I was a fieldman for a creamery for a while here years ago and The inspector was really strict. You have a nice looking herd. Back to the flanks, years ago the inspector here would not pass the inspection because of the flanks and you would have to white wash. All inspectors are different and rules have changed over the last 3 years. Thanks for the video and enjoy them very much.
The Steel wheels sound really cool! Almost ever cows has their own stall we have a couple that we switch out, because we typically milk more than 40! Thank you for watching and commenting!
great video. you do it exactly like here in switzerland. here in swiss the milking time is strictly adhered to, do you always do it after 12 hours? Greeting from switzerland🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭
Welcome, we are so happy you commented! Thank you so much for commenting! I would love to go over there again! We try to keep it as close as possible to 12 hour intervals!
How often do you need to put silage out for the young stock. Is what you feed more then one days feed? Used Eprinex for years,, felt it was a good product and helped cows both for cow comfort and improved production. .
You guys would have gotten along great with my dad. Look for the hardest way to do your work. I was surprised to see that you were using the skidsteer to do part of your feeding and a barn cleaner to clean the stall barn. I was beginning to think that you thought a scoop shovel was cutting edge technology.
We used to have some cows you couldn't bush there tails like that. They would shake hands with you and they were the kind one's. We kept sucklers and they were wild limason for breeding beef.
I see the bobcat skidsteer in a lot of your videos. Was wondering if you had a backup for it in case it breaks down? Seems to be the most used tool on your farm.
Do you guys have any cows that like to try and back out when getting close to chain them up. I used to work on a dairy farm that had 49 chain cows. Some were a pain in the ass to chain up liked to back out and run around the barn. That was hard when I was most of the time the one who chained them in. I got to where they were distracted some of the time and I could grab them before they got away. We had a cow get both her front legs stuck in between where they get tied in. Had to cut one side off completely to free her. Of course letting the cows out was the worst as they saw there friend leave and wanted to try and back out while still hooked in
Sometimes thankful we have a small enough herd so we can learn how every cow acts! But we know exactly what you mean! Sure can be a pain when the back right out just before you can tie them up!
Nothing wrong with shoveling that's why God gave you the ability to do it and just think no expenses when it comes to breakdowns on TMR that's money saved right there.
A guy I worked for cut half the side and roof off an old silage wagon loaded it then augered it out in front of the cows Not being critical just saying
How many cows are you milking. Your farm doesn't look like the usual 1000 cow herd. Or maybe I just didn't see them. Looks more like a traditional farm. Nice wood work over t.he manger