Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 27 February 2024…
Hey Y’all!
Good evening and happy Tuesday from Air2Ground Farms! It was a freakishly warm February day today…sunny, 30-40 mph winds out of the south, 20 percent humidity, and temps in the mid-80s. Not to worry, the temps will drop below freezing tonight with a 60+ degree temperature swing in less than 24 hours. The top pics today are Happy, our A2/A2 Jersey. She is less than 4 weeks from having her calf and is getting BIG! We joke that she needs a “WIDE LOAD” sign to warn everyone. She is looking really good and all seems to be going well with her pregnancy. Our milking reprieve will be over soon. As soon as she has the calf, we will begin milking twice a day again. We will have to milk twice a day for at least a couple of months before the calf can drink enough to keep up with her production such that we can transition to once a day. She’s been eating hay only since we dried her off a few weeks ago. We will slowly start introducing grain back into her diet as we ramp up her nutrition for calving and milking. The bottom pic is the first load of two hay runs we made yesterday. The 120 bales we had starting the winter was not going to get us through to the start of grazing so we got 30 more yesterday. We are feeding the beef herd and sheep flock one bale per day and the dairy cows a bale every 10 days or so. We had enough to get us into mid-March and now we have enough to get into April. Last year, we started grazing a bit too early. The cows made it around the entire farm in about 2 weeks and we had to put them back up and feed hay to allow the grass to recover. We will hold them longer this year to allow the grass to grow a bit more before grazing. It’s all a balance with no right or wrong, just better and worse, and it varies each year. We just try to gain knowledge and experience with each year and make a better decision than the previous opportunity!
We loved having milk for sale during our milking season. We sold raw, A2/A2, full-cream, Jersey milk. It tastes amazing and can be used to make so many things. Our customers loved it and by the end of the season, we were consistently sold out. As you know, one of our two Jerseys got very sick and I had to put her down. So…we are going into this season with only one cow in milk. We seriously contemplated getting another Jersey in milk but ultimately decided against it. The amazing lady from which we purchased our two offered a great deal to replace the one that was sick, but she will be an A2/A2 bread heifer and it will be months before she is in milk. We also have an A2/A2 heifer that we will breed in a month or so but that means it will be at least 10 months before she is producing, assuming she doesn’t have the same disease as her mother (not a great assumption but that’s where we are). We will have one in milk with one/potentially two more in milk within a year. Thus, we decided against buying another cow in milk in the short term. That means that we will not have as much milk for sale this season. To compensate, we plan to do less with it here at our house making more of what we do get available for sale, especially to the families with children that can only drink A2/A2 milk. Dairy Decisions!
Yesterday we released a podcast discussing my mom’s current treatment plan, a bit of a detour from where we originally thought things were going. Check it out to hear what’s happening in her breast cancer journey.
Cheers!
Psycho & Shelley
We are praying for Linda, that her Master keeps her close!
Glad to hear your dairy decision, to put families with children first! ❤️