Did you know that a cow always has her day planned out before she wakes up? She doesn’t have a planner or a smart phone she can put all her events in. The cow’s instincts tell her what she’s going to do each minute of the day. Below is a graph I found which gives actual numbers to a cow’s day (Lee 2010). Scientists have watched dairy cows closely and analyzed their behavior to figure out how they budget their time. Her main activities are eating, lying down/resting, walking/standing, drinking/eating and management. When it says management, that is when she’s… Read More
We’ve Had the Thurl, What’s Next?
Well, I’m again, very impressed with my reader’s knowledge of dairy cow parts! The correct answer for body part #2 was thurl! The thurl is an important part of the cow’s leg and is used largely in cow evaluation and judging. So congrats to everyone that got it right and I hope everyone had fun even though you may not have gotten it right. Now, for this week’s body part. We are onto the red part labeled #3 (one of my favorite parts of the cow).
Wordless Wednesday: Cause I Love Photos
They say a photo’s worth a thousand words. I’ve always loved Wordless Wednesday and I love photography so I have no idea why it took me so long to get on the bandwagon! So here is my first wordless Wednesday entry. I had a few customers ask me where in the world this picture was taken at. In the summer of 2008 I had the wonderful opportunity to take a trip to Europe with a group of ag students. One of our stops was Scotland and that was where I fell in love with the Scottish Highlander. I will have… Read More
The Good, The Bad and the Comfy
My topic of discussion today is often a controversial one. All of the views I will discuss are my opinion and my family’s decisions to do the best for our cows. In today’s world confinement barns on farms have a bad rap. In reality, farmers chose to use the barns to give our cows the best environment possible. I know I’ve told you this before, but I will repeat it many times to come. A cow’s favorite three things in this world are consistency, consistency and more consistency! That’s a little exaggerated but this is one of the keys to keeping our cows happy. They… Read More
Thigh Bone’s Connected to the… Hock!
Well, I was very excited to see that I have a smart group of readers! By a landslide most of the readers got the poll question right, the first mystery cow body part was the Hock. My title is deceiving because the thigh on a cow isn’t really a bone, but it was still a good title regardless.
From the Poll to a Barrel: Cow Parts Uncoded
Today, I have 2 polls on my blog. The first is the poll on the cow’s head. Yup, there is a part on the dairy cow’s head is called the poll, check it out below. The other poll is a cow part’s quiz! Yay! I miss college so much I thought I would revert back and give you all a quiz.
The Future of The Industry
As much as I love the farm and doing my job. I also love getting out of my normal routine to visit with industry members and other young people. I volunteer for the Michigan Dairy Ambassador Program as one of the coordinators. My favorite part of the program is getting to shape the future leaders of the Michigan Dairy Industry.
Professional Picutres
We all have professional pictures, you know the head shots that we use for our jobs and we almost always hate them but they’re the pictures we use the most. They show up in magazines and marketing material. For example, this is one of my older head shots.
