Fridgid winter morning spent making sure the herd gets fed

Farmer Jonathan's son Ben drives the tractor to get the round bales of hay into the barn so they're close at hand during feed time. The roundbales are fed to the herd in the barnyard during the winter months. Ben gets a little help from his brother Justin in cutting the baling twine.

Making the cows' beds nice and cozy for a winter night

The scenery around Howmars Farm was breathtaking this afternoon, with snow piled high on the stack of round bales and the forested hillsides glittering in the bright sunshine. I had plenty of help around the barn, i.e. all three boys, and 40 freestalls that needed sawdust. It was getting close to milking time, but if we didn't bed the stalls now it would have to wait for several days and that would mean some messy stalls.

I helped the boys get started, with Ben running the tractor to bring in the sawdust and the rest of us shoveling the dry bedding into the 4-by-7 stalls. When we had the first side half-done, we penned up the cows for milking on that side. I went to get things ready for milking while the trio kept on working on the sawdust. The boys had three quarters of the stalls done before I started milking, and they finished the rest as the first few already-milked cows exited the parlor and headed out to the freestall area. Noah, the last Angus crossbred steer, gave his snort of approval to the stall bedding job.

That almost finished the sawdust supply in the toolshed bays. I called about a month ago to let my sawdust supplier know I would need another load. Hopefully I'll see his tractor trailer in the farmyard in a week to 10 days. Otherwise, I'll have to head to my brother-in-law's farm store for some bagged sawdust. We need to keep all the girls, and a few guys, clean and dry.