Blue Hill Farm

So excited about this new step we are taking! Most of you are familiar with Fitbits. We will be putting a tag in our cows ears that will measure cow behaviour in terms of physical activity, rumination, ingestion time, and other statuses, thus providing the us with accurate and precise information. These tags are so accurate that they can detect health issues in an animal 1/2-2 full days before any human can. They can also detect when animals are in heat and pinpoint when the best time to breed them is. Installation of the hardware is next week and tags will go on next Friday.

You’re in my spot! Cows have favorite spots to.

We had a cow not feeling to good the last couple days and we had done everything we could to get her on the right side of normal again with no luck. Today she finally twisted her stomach which gave us something to fix! Called the vet and they got her fixed up in no time. Had a few cows coming in for an encore, nosing around and making sure she was stitching her up right!

Happy Fathers Day to Bill and all of our awesome employees who are Dads - some of the hardest working men we know!!

This past week we replaced the stall beds in our north barn by digging out all the old sand and installing a mattress and covering it with a layer of sand that wasn’t quite as deep. The cows had made a hard layer of sand at the back of the stalls and to compensate for that they would lay down and scoot forward to find a soft spot. By scooting forward they would end up having difficulty getting up and they would pollute in their stalls instead of the alleys. This would continue the cycle of making the back of the stalls harder. Now the cows are laying properly again. Thanks to ASAP Interiors for a job well done!

Things have been busy here, we finally finished up getting planted almost 280 acres of corn (THANK YOU Dairy Support Services Co. for the big part of the haul on this!!!) 1st cutting grass was completed a couple weeks ago, the alfalfa wasn't ready then, it is all mowed now, but then we had a time costly breakdown and now we sit and wait for the alfalfa to dry enough to chop. A little heifer feed to chop probably next week sometime. For now, we get ready for our daughters NON COVID wedding! Then we can get back to cows and crops!

What do you do when you have a scratchy butt? Good friends are hard to find!

The new calf’s legs have not even come all the way out yet but the other mama who is also in active labor is doing her part to help out by cleaning off the calf as fast as possible! #ittakesavillage. By the time I walked back through mama was up and there were 3 cows helping to clean off the calf. She’ll be dry and well stimulated in no time!

If the weather forecast is right this mornings sunrise is correct. #redskyinthemorningsailorstakewarning

After almost 40 years it was time to replace some of the steel in the parlor. We started the minute they finished milking this morning. Hoping that our measurements that we triple and quadruple checked regularly in the process were correct. Finished with about 30 minutes to spare before the next milking! Then we did a test run to make sure the cows were going to work through it the way we anticipated. #success

Sasha loves them #cabotdogtreats! Have you gotten them for yours yet?