A Day in the Life

It has come to my attention in recent months that there are a lot of people in the world who don't know anything about where their food comes from. While they say ignorance is bliss, ignorance about food production is just, well, ignorant! To this end, I have decided to give you all a rundown of my average day when I don't go to school.



8:00 am


The dog, Mindy



Wake up. Get dressed. The cows don't want to smell you. Shortly after my brief beautification session, I head outside with either Mom or Dad, or sometimes no one. Regardless, we are greeted soon by the dog, a red heeler named Mindy, who is anxious for human attention after spending the night in the barn with the cats. After feeding and kenneling Mindy, the real chores begin. Depending on the time of year, we may have as many as 20 head in the corrals that need to have grain for breakfast. This job is considerably easier in the fall, when the buckets are light and the ground is neither icy nor muddy, and increases in difficulty as the winter progresses. As we have only a small operation, we fell that it is worth while for us to weigh out exactly how much each animal should get, every day, twice a day. That means that after the buckets have been emptied into their respective pens, they are refilled at either the 9 ton or 4 ton grain bins. The 9 ton bin holds finishing barley for the market animals, and the 4 ton bin holds our secret recipe show ration, which we feed to any animal not going to market. After the buckets are filled, weighed, and ready, we feed anything that doesn’t have a round bale in their pen some hay, and then retreat from the brutal cold or blistering heat to have some breakfast, usually around 9 or 9:15.

10:30am

Sometimes the cows out in the field need hay, depending again on the time of year. We feed hay all winter, usually setting five bales out every 6 to 7 days. This chore includes bring the cattle in from the pasture to a holding alley nearer to the barn, where we lock them up as we put their food out. Bring our cattle in is usually fairly straightforward. Get a bucket or two of grain, walk to the end of the alley, and call Duchess. "Say what?” Duchess is the matriarch of the herd, not because of her age, but because she has lived on our property the longest. AT only 7 years old, she can bully our herdsire around as well as everybody else. Everywhere Duchess goes, the herd goes. So, after all 20+ animals have made their way into the alley and are locked up, the tractor is started and the bales are set out. Unlike some farmers, who roll their bales out every day, we feel it is more effective and easier on our pastureland if we feed in the same area every time. For this, we have upright "hurricane" feeders, or feeders with slanted slots that make the cows turn their heads to get out and, in theory, makes them drop the food in their mouths in the feeder rather than out. After the bales are cut and the feeders wrapped around them (a process that takes longer as the temperature drops. It is an exact correlation), it is time to release the masses and allow them to return to their mindless lives. It is also an opportunity for us to again retreat to the protection of the house.

Uncooperative weather can make things much more difficult

12:00pm



On some days, the cattle in the corrals or out in the pasture need vaccines or other treatments to keep them healthy, such as deworming. On these days, the cows are again brought in with grain, only this time they are moved further into the corrals to the crowding tub and handling chute. From there, five or six of the cows are pushed into the alley leading to the chute, where they are processed individually. Usually, their weight is recorded along with the treatment they were given, and they are released straight back to the pasture. Sometimes this can be an eventful process, such as when you do it with your sloth-like brother, or like the time the entire side panel opened on the chute and the herdsire wanders around the farm for a while. If all goes without incident, Mom and I or Dad and I can finish processing the entire herd in about an hour, or three-ish minutes per animal.

1:30-2:00pm
If there is any yard work that needs to be done, such as mowing our 14+ acres of lawn, or moving feed from the arena storage to the tack shop, or cleaning out the barn (a task Mom threatens to do every year and one she is yet to complete in it's entirety, help or no), we do it during the afternoon. If there are daytime off the farm tasks that need to be done, they are done now. The time from noon to about four thirty is one rarely spent indoors.

4:30pm


The morning chores are repeated, only this time later in the day. Generally, this brings an end to the normal work around the yard, and the rest of the evening is devoted to housework, paperwork, dinner and finally, at around 9 pm, an hour or so of television. A day in the life on the Olson family farm.





It's all worth it in the end