The 2018 dairy show season has begun! It is the week of the Spring Dairy Carousel Show at the NY State Fairgrounds. The animals are back in the ring after a winter of growing, and it is always great to see the transformations.
It is also spring vacation week for the kids. So, for those of us who don’t travel out to the Spring Show, it means we start taking inventory of what cows we are going to show this coming summer.
With ultrasounds and sexed semen, it’s much easier to predict the outcomes than back when I was in 4-H. I was forever trying to put together a winning string. I prayed for 9 months to be blessed with a heifer. Unfortunately, my Brown Swiss loved to throw bulls.
Despite all the technology, there are some things that we still can’t predict: the stillborns. We did have one of those this year; Tyler’s Milking Shorthorn, Cowbell, had a stillborn in December. That will leave him a little light for this coming show season, but some years are just like that. So, we plan for the next.
Jacob’s cow, Cookie, calved a week and a half ago with a heifer. Chips is cute as a button.
And dear little Sprinkles, Sam’s calf from last year, has grown. We are hoping she carried her easy-going personality with her over the winter — or else he might have his work cut out for him as she is about 4 times bigger than last August. We have a plan B though, just in case.
My nieces and nephews in NH are a buzz picking from the new crop of calves. We just bought a couple of baby heifers to join the growing Brown Swiss herd at home.
Here they are, January and February (real names to come). We picked them out a couple of weeks ago, and they traveled to their new barn today.
Thank you to Sunny Acres Farm in Milford, NY. I enjoyed every minute of being surrounded by such beautiful Brown Swiss. They may be challenging to teach to drink from a bucket, kind of slow at settling, and stubborn on a halter, but I sure do love them.
As the daylight is stretching longer, a green haze is starting to spread in the fields; the rye is growing.
The streams are roaring and full, the sky is blue, and, the other night, I heard peepers.
The crocuses are popping up along the foundation, the geese are flying home, and the sun is warm on my back.
I smell dirt in the air and feel spring being carried in on the breezes.
Winter is behind us. I think it’s time to get the corn planter out, so it’s ready!
Happy April.
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