When the calves get out

Some days sitting in my office looking out the window, I see things that I don't know if anyone would ever believe if they were not sitting right here. We have a construction crew building a new calf barn. The calves have "play pens" right now that they are in and the barn really doesn't have any walking room for the employees because of the size of the play pens. So the new mission of a new calf barn. When all is said and done the calves will have an even larger play pen for each of them and the employees will be able to walk around with plenty of room. With construction happening around the current barn there have been times when a playpen area needs to be moved so that the calves are not disturbed. Any time that you have a bunch of calves being moved around there is bound to be one or two that are escape artists. It is hilarious to watch these calves discovering new areas of the farm that they are not really allowed to be in on a normal basis. No where dangerous, just a new fence line or a new field. But it gets even funnier watching these guys try and wrangle these calves. All these babies want to do is play, and all the guys want to do is get back to work. They really remind me of GIANT puppies. If you want them to go left, they run right. It just makes you want to giggle. The good news is, when all is said and done, the babies will have a much larger barn with even bigger play pens. It always makes me feel good inside.

Freezing Weather

This last week has been COOOOLLLLLLDDDDD! The week started with some light snow on Sunday evening and then lots of snow Sunday night. Monday the roads were extremely icy. I didn't even come into the office because they were like skating rinks. We had a low of 12 degrees on Monday and it was definatly a cold day out there. Tuesday I came into the office and was amazed. No snow or ice to be seen. It is amazing what 10 little miles can mean here. Franz and Angela both said that they didn't get more than a light dusting here on the farm. The cows are all doing fine in this weather, it amazes me how hardy of animals they are. My dogs think it is the end of the world if I make them leave the deck to go to the bathroom in this weather.

We were able to provide milk delivery to most of our customers this week, except those that lived on hills. Overall most of our customers have been happy.

The calf barn is coming along nicely. It is kind of cool to watch the progression. part of me hopes that they have it done by next week so I can watch the entire progression, however, with this weather I am not holding my breath.

Until next time,

Dani

What am I doing at a Dairy?

I have spent many years in the non-profit "professional" world. About 6 months ago, it was time for a change. I accepted a position at an Organic Dairy in Scio/Crabtree Oregon. This blog is my adventure working in an enviornment I have never been in before.

A little about me: My name is Dani. I am 30 years old with a wonderful husband and son as well as 3 dogs and 3 cats that were all adopted from local humane societies. I worked in non-profits for the last almost 10 years actually and specifically animal welfare (I worked at a humane society) for almost 5 of those years. I am a sucker for animals but also belive in animal rights. I want to clarify I am not a "tree hugger" or a wackadoodle "animal rights activist". I belive that we should treat animals with respect. If I had to choose between a human and an animal, I would always choose the human, that doesn't mean that we can't do a lot to better the lives of animals in our world as well.

A little about the dairy: The dairy is Noris Dairy. We are actually a rather large dairy out of Scio/Crabtree Oregon. We have a lot of cows :) Our owners are Franz Wenz and Angela Spalt, both European and wonderful caring people. I was amazed when I interviewed here, how much that Angela and Franz love their cows, I mean really think of them as living beings that need to be taken care of and not just property. They believe in sustainable farming, humane treatment of their cows the environment. As I pointed out before, I am not a "hippie" but this sounded refreshing.

I could back up and tell you about my exciting first summer on the farm with Angela's mother (who is an amazing woman) visitin from Germany, but personally, I think that would be boring. let's just pick up where we are right now (I mean who knows if anyone is actually going to read this anyhow).

I have a mission to trap a feral barn cat here that I have fallen in love with. This is big excitement for me during my breaks and lunch....I love this cat, and I have finally gotten him to eat in front of me. This has taken me weeks but I am progressing nicely. I don't know what I am going to do with the cat once I have caught him/her. My husband will NOT let me bring home cat number four, however, I may be able to talk him into fostering until we can find him a new home....hmmm...gotta think on that one.

We are building a new baby calf barn right outside of my office window. I am sooooo excited for this spring when we will hopefully have another full house of calves. They are so stinking cute and so fun to bottle feed. When they are in their individual pens and playing....well it is just to cute and funny.

We are getting ready to produce some more cheese. Angela has said that I can assist with this round of cheesemaking. I am pretty excited as I have watched it done in large plants on tours but this is different, Angela is a true artesian and making small batch specialty flavored cheese seems really cool to me. I have been working on getting the dairy into the "now" in technology so I have created a website for our cheese sales www.mailorderorganiccheese.com and hopefully this helps with our cheese output in the long run. I never really thought about the difference between "regular" cheese and organic cheese until I started working here. You really can taste a difference which I think is really cool. The real test was if my husband - the self proclaimed cheese king could tell the difference. He loves to each cheese but I always wondered if he actually tasted anything that he has eaten. He said that organic was definatly better than processed stuff. So I am excited. We are also supposed to be starting to make some spreadable cheese. I think that too would be cool to make, we will have to see.

I think that is all for now!