Fantastic Christmas Video Contest...Dairy Style!

Proud To Dairy is having another contest.  The challenge is to create a Christmas music video...dairy style.

I'm working on this project right now.  We'll have to see how it goes.  I'm no Peterson or Lil' Fred, that's for sure!

Take a Christmas tune and make up your own lyrics to it about the wonderful world of DAIRY!
Submit the finished video to the Proud To Dairy site.    http://proudtodairy.ning.com

You could win a prize!

OK State Fair 2012 - Part 3

OOPS!  Look what we found in the DRAFTS box!

When I go to the OK State Fair, I know that the TULSA STATE FAIR is just around the corner!

At 10 A.M. Sunday morning, we met with our show team at the Ag Farm to load up the trailers to go to the fair at OKC.

Since they don't allow COWS at the OK State Fair as of this year, we were able to get supplies in one trailer and heifers in another.

We headed to the city and pulled into the livestock gate, but when we gave them our exhibitor tickets, they wouldn't let us in.  They sent us the wrong tickets.  (Good only for Monday.)  So our poor advisor had to leave the truck and trailer holding up the line and go pick up the correct tickets to get us in.  I'm sure all the people behind us were mad.

We got unloaded.  It was my first time to see the new barn facilites.  Sometime after the fair last year, they tore down the beef and dairy barn and rebuilt.  Things are a lot different.  It used to be dark and dirty.  There were wood and pipe panels to tie your animals to.  This time we had to bring our own stock panels in order to have something to tie them to.

They tore out the milking parlor.  Even when Southwest Dairy Museum offered them $250,000 to build a new one, they would not.  So now we cannot bring cows.  We cannot even bring DRY cows.  This has become a heifer-only show.

******

Sunday night we unloaded and set up, ate, fed, and went to bed.

Monday evening was the Purdiest Cow Contest.  I brought Cleopatra with me.  (I dressed up Stopnstare.)  I was Julius Caesar.  We got first place and Grand Champion.

Then we had Showmanship.  I chose to use Stopnstare.  I kept loining her when she didn't need it because I'm so used to doing it with Posey and Juicy.  Stopnstare doesn't need it.  Ooops.  I came in second.  Probably could have come in first if I hadn't done that.

Tuesday was the morning of the show, we got up at 4:20 A.M. so we could be washing the animals by 5:00 A.M. so they could start drying and the first toplines could be started at 7:00 because the show started at 9:00 A.M.

Jr. and Open show happens at the same time.  If you were placed second behind someone in Open that is not a Jr., then you would place second in Open, and first in Jr.  So they hand you both of your placings at the same time.  This is different from Tulsa.  At the Tulsa State Fair they do Purdiest Cow and Showmanship on Friday, Open show on Saturday, and Jr. Show on Sunday.  The judge is different for every event.  It's one more day of hard work, but it makes it interesting.  Different day, animal acts differently (maybe), animal is in a little bit different condition (maybe), you perform differently (maybe), different judge, different results (maybe).  You just have to wait and see.  It's more interesting.

Prize summary:
*Best Dressed Cow Contest - (Cleopatra and Julius Caesar) Grand Champion - Rosette, blue ribbon, medallion
*Showmanship - Stopnstare - 2nd place ribbon, plaque
*Stopnstare - Spring heifer Jersey calf - 1st in Open, 1st in Jr., Reserve Breed Champion Jr., Reserve Breed Champion Open, (two blue ribbons, two rosettes, two banners, and an embroidered garment bag) $5 from Oklahoma Jersey Jr. Assoc.
*Carmelita - Spring yearling Jersey - 1st in Open, 1st in Jr. (two blue ribbons and $5 from OJJA)
*Juicy - Spring yearling Brown Swiss - 2nd in Open, 2nd in Jr. (two red ribbons)

OH . MY. GOODNESS.

From PTD in November

This is a copy of the latest post for Progressive Dairyman's Proud To Dairy site.

Month 4: If you could shadow someone's career in the dairy industry, what would you choose? (Veterinarian, nutritionist, dairy farm owner, etc.) What questions would ask him or her?

Do I have to pick just one? There is A LOT I donʼt know about ALL careers in the dairy industry, but if you make me pick just one, I would choose a veterinarian.

I guess I am choosing a veterinarian because in Ag class I am currently studying for the junior CDE competition in the Vet Med category.  We have over 100 tools and 100 breeds of animals to identify.  Some of the breeds I already know from experience.  Some of the vet tools I already know from experience, too.

My first experience with a vet started out very scary, but the he made everything all right.  We had just lost my first Ayrshire calf about four months before because of a dysfunctional stomach that caused her to bloat, but I had my new Ayrshire calf, Posey with me at the Sooner State Dairy Show in Stillwater, Oklahoma.  We were keeping a close eye on her and realized she was bloating up.  It was just before midnight when we had fed and our chores were done and we had come back, and had seen it and had told the breeder what was wrong.  He decided we should go ahead and call the Oklahoma State University vet hospital.  (Go Pokes!!!)  

We loaded Posey up and ran her there as fast as we could.  The breeder thought she had bloated up even more on the short trailer ride to the vet.  The man on call was really nice.  He was a giant, but he was a gentle giant.  He let us see everything.  He explained everything.  We figured out that Posey’s halter was tied too long which let her get into two other feed pans.  She was taking in too much grain for the amount of hay she was eating.  The doctor also had a student with him.  He taught her how to run a tube down Posey’s throat into her stomach.  We thought the girl would NEVER get it.  She would mess up, and he would demonstrate again.  Then she would try again.  Finally they got the tube in Posey’s throat and he poured mineral oil into her.  They kept her over night.  They said she COULD go with us, but she would have explosive diarrhea all night while the oil did its job and the gas came out.  So we left her there.  :)

Before we got there, I cried.  I didn’t want this calf to die.  The next morning, the breeder brought her back to us from the vet.  I hugged that calf and stroked her hair and petted her like I hadn’t seen her in forever.  If there weren’t a vet on call at a facility so close, I don’t think Posey would have lived.

The next visit to a vet was very interesting and not stressful.  Posey was born with six teats instead of the normal four.  We took her to the vet to get her shots, and her ear tattoos, and her extra teats removed.  I got it all on video.  The vet used a clamp on each teat and then removed the teats with a scalpel.  When he took the clamps off, there was no blood.  He sprayed a thick liquid on them to fight bacteria, and off she went!  She didn’t need stitches or glue or a bandage or anything!  Her scars are not noticeable unless you are looking for them.  As a cow, her udder is beautiful!  

I would think that the work of a vet can be interesting.  I think it can also be stressful working with some animals (and some owners) that are crazy.  I think it would be stressful to do your best to heal an animal and it died anyway.  I think it would be hard to see people not follow directions or not take your advice and not take care of their animals properly.  I can also see it being rewarding seeing the results of your hard work or seeing people that do what they need to to keep their animals in good shape.

I think my favorite vet med area would be reproduction.  That’s what the dairy business is all about, right?  You raise a healthy heifer to the proper breeding age.  You track her heat cycle.  You get her artificially inseminated with a semen that will improve her offspring.  You track her cycle to see that she passes over.  You wait a little bit to get her preg checked, and if it’s really important to you, you wait a little bit and have a fetal sex ultrasound done on her so you can see if she’s carrying a heifer or a bull.  There are several questions I would ask about ultrasounds and stuff.

   

  

How many fetal ultrasounds do you do per month? 

How long does it take to be certified on an ultrasound machine? 

What kind of education do you have to have? 

How much does a portable machine cost?

Where do I go to learn how? 

Same set of questions about learning how to do artificial insemination: 

How many do you do? 

How long for certification? 

Education? Equipment cost (a.i. gun, etc.) 

Where do I go to learn how?

I think veterinarians are a very important part of the dairy industry.  They can perform vaccinations, surgeries, and treat/fix things like hurt hooves.  One time, one of my friend's cows was standing cross legged, and the vet figured out her foot was hurt, so he made a set of blocks for her to walk on to take pressure off that hurt side of her hoof, and she walked normally while it healed up.

Veterinarians can teach owners how to better care for their animals so they don’t have to come to the vet so often.  Veterinarians can help with dairy cattle health in many ways I don’t even know about.  Sometimes, vets can help by doing a necropsy (which is like an autopsy in humans) so the owner can find out why an animal died and hopefully keep it from happening to any more animals.    

In the dairy industry, the animals need to be well.  The animals need to be free of antibiotics in order to sell their milk.  They need to be able to walk to feed and water in order to stay healthy to produce milk.  They need to calve in order to continue produce milk.  They need to have healthy udders. They need  to have as many heifers as possible to have future milkers!  Veterinarians can help in all of these areas. 

Women in Dairy

I got an email awhile back from the fabulous Emily Caldwell of Proud To Dairy.  She set up an interview with Sara Kitchen for me.  They want to feature me in the Women in Dairy issue of Progressive Dairyman magazine!

Sara is a sophomore at Penn State University majoring in Animal Sciences and Agricultural Communications. She grew up on a small dairy farm in central Pennsylvania, and she's been active in showing both Holsteins and Red and Whites. She loves promoting the dairy industry and understands how important it is to get everyone involved, no matter how old or how young!  I guess with me, that's the "young" part!

True Story

My Ag teacher (who is a lady) came into the classroom the other day and called my friend and me by name and said, "Girls, we're going to go get preg checked on Monday."

All the boys' eyes got big and they started making a ruckus.

A second later, my Ag teacher figured out what the problem was.
"NO!  We're going to take the ANIMALS to get preg checked!"

Thanks for clearing that up, Ms. Jennings.

The finished portrait...my first one ever

Well, here she is, JUICY, in all her glory.

My friend said that Juicy looks so good that she almost looks fake.

I've never had a portrait made of any of my animals before.  I wish I had one of every one of them!

Remember baby FARA?

Do you remember back in May when I was going crazy watching and waiting for baby Fara to arrive?   She was so cute.  I was so excited.

                                                 





Well, she's still cute, and I'm still excited, but she's FIVE MONTHS OLD!


Now that shows are over for awhile, I've got time to work with her.  We've messed with her a little bit.  We try to lay hands on her whenever we can.  We've caught her up and put a rope halter on her two or three times, but that's about it.


The day we took these pictures, I caught her up and put a rope halter on her, and when she was finished eating, I started leading her.  We even went outside the pen to work for awhile.

The next night we had to wait until after my grandmother's birthday dinner and party to go do chores.  That close to daylight savings time, the sun was fading faster than we could get done.


So I pulled her out and worked her in the dark by the light of the security light!  She did great.

I can hardly wait to show her at Local and County this spring!!!

Woo Hoo!!! I got a TRAILER!!!

God really does surprise me with some wonderful things!  Today He brought me a trailer!!!
No joke.  It even happened at church!

Sunday after church, my friends Staci and Brian and their little boy Jackson were getting into their pickup beside us.  Brian was talking to us and looking at my ribbons from Tulsa.  Then he said something about how he sold all his cattle, and then said, "You need a trailer?"  We were shocked.    We told him yes.   We told him how we had looked forever.  We told him that we had just decided to bite the bullet and make payments on a new one.  He said, "Just come get this one."  We told him we would have to pay him a dollar a week for the rest of our lives, and he said to come get it.  He said he would sell it for $3500.  The same thing new would cost me $4950 + tax.

Later that afternoon we went to their house and wrote up a paper and shook hands on it.  I gave him $200 cash as a down payment.  We drove away with a 2006 WW 16x6 trailer with a fairly new pressure treated floor.  It has been power washed every time he used it.  It is clean as a whistle.

I am so blessed.  There's no other way I could get a trailer as nice as this for this good of a price with no interest and be able to make payments as I can.

God is so good!!!

This is just one more example of why this is GODBLESS Dairy Enterprises.

Oklahoma Jersey Youth Achievement Award Application

The Oklahoma Jersey Cattle Club is getting ready to have its annual meeting.  There will be some people there that I know.  I imagine that three families in particular will be there.  The Thompsons from Kendrick, the Corleys from Tuttle, and the Cobbs from Perkins.  They each operate their own family Jersey dairies.   They are all really nice and do a lot to promote dairy in Oklahoma.

I found out a couple of weeks ago that I can apply for the Oklahoma Jersey Youth Achievement Award.  It has about ten questions on it.  It asks basically the same types of questions that the princess applications ask and that the 4-H record book asks about your story.  Since I've filled out three of those applications and three record books, I'm not really nervous about filling out this application.  I just have to remember to tell them about all the different things that I do with dairy.

This is only my first year to show my own Jerseys, so I may not even qualify to be considered for an award.  That's okay.  The experience of applying is good.  I'll be even more prepared to apply for it and for other things next time.

On November 17th, the Oklahoma Jersey Cattle Club will meet.  The adults will have a meeting and the youth will have their own meeting and elect officers.  Sometime during the meeting and the meal to follow, they will announce the winner or winners.  I don't know how many they award.  It might be just one.  Might be a 1st, 2nd, 3rd place.  Might be one winner per age group.  I don't know.  I guess I'll have to wait until the 17th to find out for sure.


***UPDATE***

The OJCC meeting was the biggest one that they remember.  They had to open up the other half of the banquet room to have enough seating for everyone.  We talked about the Jersey Field Day in June.  We elected officers.  We had a Jr. meeting and elected officers and our princess and queen.  We talked about the Southern National Show in April.  They announced the placings in the production and achievement awards.  There were twelve Jrs. that applied for the achievement award.  I placed 6th.  I'm satisfied with that.  I've only shown Jerseys a short while.  This is the first meeting I've been to.  I wouldn't have been surprised if I had placed dead last, but I did okay.  I'm happy.  They awarded me a really nice heavy nylon and chain calf halter.  I can sure put that to use!  It won't be on a Jersey this time, but I can sure put it to use!