Girls Day Out???

As almost any girl will tell you, one of the most popular outings on a "girls day out" is a quick trip to the local nail salon for a group mani-pedi! I personally don't like getting my nails painted just because my hands are constantly getting dirt and I my toes are always hiding in boots, but the massage and nail care is a luxury that is not lost on me! It is actually very good for your hands and feet to get that special treatment every now and then as it promotes good nail health and foot hygiene--I'm looking at you, boys. Something I bet you didn't know about mani-pedis though, is that diary cows get them too!

The above picture shows a cow getting her hooves trimmed! Some dairy farmers to it semi-annually, but on our farm we have hoof trimmers come in once a year to get our girls' feet into tip-top shape! The machine you see in the picture may look horrible and scary, but it is actually very safe and keeps the cow and trimmers from getting hurt while the girls are being pampered. The cow walks into the shoot, she is secured in place by two very strong straps placed under her belly, and then the shoot tilts onto its side. The trippers then secure the cow's feet to keep her from kicking, which can potentially hurt the trimmers and the cow. It takes them about 3-4 minutes to trim up the cow's hooves into a healthy, clean state then back to the ground for Bessie and off she goes back to her feed bunk for a snack! The whole herd gets this treatment and it takes a whole day to get everyone done!

Hoof trimming is something that farmers invest in because it helps keep the cows from having foot issues that can cause them to become lame. Hooves are like nails in that they are constantly growing and if they go completely unchecked, they can get over grown and cause the cow discomfort when walking. Also, just like people, they can get cracks in their hooves that are very painful if the hooves aren't taken care of properly. In the industry today, most milking cows live in barns with concrete floors so foot health is very important to maintain because anything that could be wrong would only be made worse by the hard flooring. Many farms will call out trimmers for spot jobs when they have a cow with a bad hoof crack or anything that might be causing her discomfort when moving around.

Most farmers also use foot baths that the girls walk through on their way into or out of the milking parlor that are meant to dry out their hooves and keep them from getting cracks/sores from being overly moist. This is a very effective way to promote good hoof health in general in your herd, and the girls don't really even seem to notice the foot baths. The concrete barns are completely cleaned of any urine or waste material 2-3 times a day, but their hooves do still get dirty--just as they would in pasture--so the foot baths are very important to minimizing any hoof related problems. Dairy cows use a lot of energy to make milk thus they eat a lot. If their hooves are uncomfortable they get up to eat less. If they get up to eat less they produce less milk. For this reason, as well as all other production practices used, dairy farmers like to keep hooves healthy because it keeps their girls happy and happy cows make more milk! Herd health and comfort is always a top priority on dairy farms and thus, our girls get pampered like the dairy queens that they are!

So the next time you go out with all your girl friends to get that much needed mani-pedi, just remember that you aren't the only one that enjoys such luxuries! So do dairy cows!!

What is Hunger?

Did you know that September was National Hunger Awareness month? If you did, then you one upped me because I sure didn't. As a matter of fact, the only reason I even found out about it is because the scholarship program that I am participating in did a challenge revolving around National Hunger Awareness month this past week. Personally, I have always found the issue of hunger to be one that I have a hard time really connecting to. It may sound bad, but I feel like it is an issue that many people are desensitized to because they don't actually see it happening. We occasionally see the commercial about the hungry children in Africa, but it is so easy to see that and dismiss it because it isn't happening Here. It isn't happening in Our town or Our city or Our county. Well this week I realized that we are wrong. I am wrong. Hunger is something that is happening all over the United States and affecting millions of people a year. Did you know that 45% of SNAP (food stamp) participants are under the age of 18? Another 9% are 60 years of age or older.

Granted, those are just numbers and we once again are falling into the realm of desensitization. Anyone can read numbers. Numbers aren't what pull at your heart strings. Numbers and facts aren't what make most people realize the importance of most issues. It is being placed into the reality of the issue; that is what sways people's hearts and minds. This week I was placed in just such a situation with the issue of hunger. Tyson Foods sponsored the weekly challenge for the College Aggies Online scholarship program this past week. They challenged us to participate in the SNAP Benefit Challenge, which requires participants to commit to eating all of their meals from a limited food budget comparable to that of a SNAP participant - $1.50 per meal - for at least TWO days.

Take just a minute and let that sink in because if you are anything like me then your reaction to that price limit was something along the lines of, "WHAT!? HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?! IT CAN'T BE POSSIBLE!!!" But the fact of the matter is that it is possible. Most SNAP participants are on a food budget of about $4.50/ person per day. When you think about how much you spend on one meal at most restaurants, the idea of eating for a whole day on only four dollars and fifty cents is a little staggering. However, I decided to participate in this challenge just to see if it was really as bad or as hard as it sounded like it would be. As per requirements of the challenge, I needed to have a receipt for all of the food I ate during the two days, so off to Kroger I went.

Being the unexperienced college grocery shopper that I am, it took me a good bit of thinking before I figured out how to work each mean to fit under my budget. It also greatly narrowed the variety of food that I normally eat. I am a very active and busy person, so I prefer frozen foods that I can quickly throw in the oven when I get home and require very little prep time. Well, there was still very little prep time with the foods I bought, but frozen foods definitely didn't fit into my budget. For two days in a row I lived on yogurt and granola for breakfast, a PB&J and milk for lunch, and spaghetti and water for dinner; all at their recommended portion sizes as listed on the nutrition labels. 

Coming from a girl that is used to regularly snacking, loves her produce, and rarely stops for a break during the day, having to go two whole days on very plain, small, and not overly nutritional meals was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. I have not ever been truly hungry before in my life. Not really. Sure I get hungry in-between meal, but that isn't Real hunger. That isn't the kind of hunger that would be satisfied by anything, anything at all as long as you could eat it. I didn't even experience real hunger over the two days of this challenge. For the first time ever though, I ate and wasn't satisfied. I left each meal still hungry and wishing there was more to eat. I very easily could have cheated--I have four roommates so my house is full of food--but once I realized that this challenge wasn't going to be as easy as I had originally thought, I was determined to see it through.

I live in Athens-Clark County, Georgia. Thirty-five percent of the county lives below the poverty line.  Hunger is here. It is here in this city that I have grown to love so much over my time here as a student at UGA. However, after this challenge, after realizing what it is like to struggle to focus because my stomach is growling, after realizing that even as a young adult I am not immune to my body's need for adequate amounts of nutritious foods; I can no longer pretend that my love for this city stops at the edge of campus. My love can no longer only encompass the students who can afford $2,000 a semester for unlimited amounts of gourmet food in buffet lines.

I encourage you to look around yourself and see if you actually know what hunger is. Hunger could be the man you pass every day on the way to work. Hunger could be the old woman that smiles and waves every time you walk into the grocery store. Hunger could be the little boy that sits next to your son or daughter on the bus every afternoon on the way home from school. Hunger is real and it is something that affects people all around you, every single day. Do not be fooled into thinking that your life and the people you encounter are immune to this. I am not trying to talk you into joining the peace corps or trying to single handedly end world hunger, I am simply asking you to be aware and to CARE about the people around you. Donate to food pantries, volunteer in a soup kitchen, buy a meal for the man holding that cardboard sign.

I now know what hunger is, and it has truly changed the way I see the world around me. Look up and let it transform your perspective too! We can make a difference one helping hand at a time!

Drip, Drip, Drop

Today, I rolled out of bed, got ready for work, and walked out the door... right into pouring down rain. I was forced to retreat back into my house to get my rain coat before I ran back to my truck and headed towards the farm. On my way there I thought about all of the posts on social media I was sure to see through out the day complaining about the dreary weather and the cool air that came with it: "Summer, come back!" "What is the only thing worse than a Monday? A cold and rainy Monday." "I should have just stayed in bed today..."

Well lucky for me, I actually enjoy cool, rainy mornings (before it gets too extremely cold that is) and I love them even more when I get to spend them with my dairy girls! It is a good thing I enjoy them too because regardless, the babies have to be fed rain or shine. Thinking of all the people that were snug and warm at home in their beds while I was doing my chores, I decided to show you what a typical and rainy morning looks like for me and my dairy babies! So here we go:

I start off my feeding shift by tending to any calves we have that need to be bottle fed! The bull calf in this picture was born on Thursday afternoon (Sept. 25, 2014) and he is living in a covered barn with a couple other boys at the moment! I feed him milk replacer, which is the calf version of baby formula, so that he gets all the nutrients that he needs to help him grow and stay healthy. In the next few days he will be transitioned to drinking his milk from a bucket instead of a bottle, a process we call "bucket training" on our farm. We sell bull calves at our dairy, mostly because we don't have the space to accommodate them along with our heifers, and so it is important that we keep them happy and health until they are sold so that we have a good reputation with our buyers! The boys go on to be raised for beef, and we don't want to be known for selling weak, sick bull calves so we pride ourselves on getting them good and "on their feet" by the time they are sold. This sweet little boy wags his tail happily while he drinks his milk, even in the rainy weather!

Next, I move on to feeding the lower portion of our calf barn, referred to simply as Lower Barn by the feeders. This is where we house our calves from the time they are weaned until they are about 6-7 months of age or until they are big enough to be put to pasture. They are grouped in community pens of anywhere from 4-6 calves, and while they are generally organized by age, more emphasis is put on grouping them by their size. This is so that there is not one bigger calf in a pen bullying any smaller calves out of the feed trough! These sweet girls get both grain and hay twice a day, and their rations of grain depend on the huber of calves in the pen and the size of the calves in each pen. Each pens get different rations, because if the calves are over fed grain it causes them to scour--a fancy word for getting diarrhea. Once they start to scour they are very similar to humans when we don't feel well; they stop eating, start acting lethargic, and overall their health starts to deteriorate. As the calf manager, it is my job to monitor the condition of the calves' stool and adjust their grain rations if I start to notice loose or runny areas. The girls also get fresh water troughs regularly and their troughs are always kept full and clean. We regularly scrub them for algae to keep them from getting gross and unhealthy. I am also a stickler for clean barns so we rack up any hay the girls push out of their troughs and sweep the barn usually once a day.

One thing to notice about tour calf barn at the moment is how empty it is! We only have two of our six pens occupied and only four calves in each of those two 6-calf pens. This past week, we rotated a group of eight calves out onto pasture because they had reached a good size and were fully vaccinated! Below is a picture from our calf barn earlier this past week to show how full it was:

We rotate the girls so that they have more room to grow, but it is important for us to keep them in the calf barn for this portion of their life before pasture! This calf barn provides shelter from the elements and a way for managers/feeders to monitor them and their health until they are at a more stable and robust age. Even though they are mostly out of the woods once they have been weaned, it is not uncommon for young calves such as these to get sick and having them in this calf barn where we interact with them closely allows us to be able to see any sick calves and get them treated quickly. 

After Lower Barn, I move on to feeding the hutch babies! These are our calves between the ages of new born to about 6-7 weeks of age. They are fed milk replacer and a special calf starter grain that is specially formulated for pre-weaned ruminants. Each calf gets milk replacer twice a day, but the grain is handled a little differently. Every Mon/Wed/Fri morning shift we completely empty the grain that the calves may still have in their buckets and give them fresh calf starter grain. This is a way for us to monitor who is eating how much, when we need to bump calves up on grain, and also keeps us from wasting grain by constantly giving them grain that they aren't eating! The second picture shows the three buckets of milk replacer that I feed in the mornings as well as the buckets of calf starter grain that I used to empty and refill the calves' grain buckets. I also refill those pretty white water buckets, that you can see in the first picture, every shift! I love getting to feed the hutch babies because even in the rain they come running out of their hutches, tails wagging when they hear the truck pull up and they instantly proceed to holler for their breakfast up until the second you give it to them!

And last but not least, I feed the pasture calves! This picture is of the girls we moved out of the calf barn this past week in their new pasture. They now get fed silage and are top dressed (supplemented) with a bucket of grain every morning and evening. These girls have three huge water troughs that we constantly keep filled and are a bunch of hams to fed! You whistle at them in the morning and they all come running up the hill to greet you.

And that, ladies and gentlemen is what a typical morning on the UGA Teaching Dairy looks like from the calf side of things--minus the unglamorous tidbits about washing dishes and cleaning out dirty pens. I hope that this helps you understand what exactly I do on the farm a little better, and shows you just how much work goes into caring for and loving all these beautiful little girls! Come rain or shine, there is still work to be done on the farm.

Hello, My Name Is...

Hello my fellow consumers, Ag lovers, fence sitters, and just plain old common Joe's! My name is Madison Rose and I am a sophomore at the University of Georgia! I thought that as my first blog post, it would be fitting to tell you a little about myself, my background, and how I found my way into the world or agriculture and becoming an AGvocate!

Well, to go way back, I am originally from Knoxville, Tennessee. I lived there until I was about fifteen years old when my mom, step dad, younger brother, and I relocated to McDonough, Georgia. I had a pretty ordinary, run of the mill childhood in middle class suburbia. I never lived on a farm, I never had any animals other than a cat/dog, and I never thought I would be even remotely interested in getting involved in agriculture at all. I didn't have any experience at all with large animals or any other kind of animals until I started my first semester at the University of Georgia as a freshman.

I have wanted to be a vet ever since I was little--along with first woman president, teacher, and professional dog trainer, just to name few--but for the most part I had only ever seen and experienced the small animal aspect of that world. Upon entering UGA's College of Agriculture and Environmental Science as an Animal Science major, I was very unceremoniously thrown into the large animal side of things. I began my first semester in a poultry science class that required me to handle and dissect chickens at least once a week as well as an animal science class that required me to learn the basics in large animal nutrition, reproduction, and management. As the second semester rolled around, I enrolled in an animal practicum class where I learned how to set and sheer sheep, administer vaccinations, freeze brand cattle, and to ear tag any number of livestock.

In the middle of all the crazy classes, I joined a few clubs such as Block and Bridle, Dairy Science Club, GA Cattlemen's Association, the committee for the Great Southland Stamped Rodeo, and the professional agriculture sorority, Sigma Alpha!

Needless to say, once I got my foot in the door of the Animal and Dairy Science department, I was hooked! The more I got involved, the more I feel in love with the world of agriculture and large animal medicine! My desire to get even more involved and to get a little more hands on experience with animals lead me to get a job at the UGA Teach Dairy. I have been working there since January, and have already moved into the position of calf manager on the farm. In this position, it is my job to schedule vaccinations for our calves, manage their feeding charts, make any calls to the vet for medication or visits we might need, managing their weaning schedules, and getting them registered with the Holstein Association. I spend tons of time with these cute little faces every week, and I love every minute of it!

My involvement on the farm and my desire to be an AGvocate and spread the word about agriculture and its practices led me to creating this blog! I am currently involved in the College Aggies Online scholarship program and I am making this scholarship both as a way to enteract with the program and as a way to enter act with other people about my experiences in agriculture! Most of what I will talk about in the blog will relate directly to my life working on the UGA dairy, and my day to day interactions with the animals and people there. 

Even though I was prompted to create this blog to participate in a scholarship program, I am very excited to get started on it! I think that transparency is a very important aspect of the agriculture industry and I hope to be able to show people that not all production agriculture is bad! We love our babies and our milking ladies at our dairy, and all we want is for them to be happy and healthy!

 I hope that you subscribe and follow along on my days as a Dairy Dawg! Have a good day and God Bless!