olcowhand

Old #115 developed some strange swelling the last several days. Her jaw area swollen so much she could only drink...no opening it to eat. Left front shoulder swelled also. Never seen one quite like this! Poor old cow had her calf yesterday & was in terrible shape. She couldn't even lick her calf clean, so Josh & I got the calf into the milk parlor & washed off with warm water. It was shivering cold. Got the cow up & attempted to get to market today, as it's the last sale tomorrow till January ...

Got the new oil-less Bou-Matic vacuum pump installed after milking this morning! This one is inside the parlor & quiet enough not to be a bother at all. Outside, you can't hear anything at all! It has 2 large mufflers, one inside, then another outside. Fred won't hear us when we're milking at all. Before, he could hear the drone of the old pump. The old one will stay in place as backup, running it at least once a month to keep all in working order. After lunch, we're putting the milker pulsator ...

My last couple days have been a mixed bag to say the least. The good yesterday was the easy job taking the parlor equipment out where we bought stuff at an auction, then bought ourselves a Massey 362 tractor for odd jobs on our farm. But also yesterday, I awoke to find a 300lb heifer had got knocked into a concrete U-shaped feeder & wedged upside down. She was dead. Then after morning milking yesterday, we found a dry cow dead in the field.
My day was today was great for Thanksgiving, ...

I did the morning milking, then had to install a new magnetic switch for one of my cooling compressors. It quit last night, but we limped through with the one cooling unit. The 2nd compressor is now back online. Now on to the furnace that finally gave up the ghost. Won't light up at all and so old I didn't want to put a $150 circuit board that it needed.....maybe NLA anyway. So yesterday I located a lightly used furnace that was changed out to a larger unit. Have the old furnace in, and after ...

Drove an hour to a dairy auction today. Looking to bid on a newer vacuum pump. Ours is a 7 1/2hp unit & just barely enough vacuum for our system. This auction had a 6yr old oil-less modern style unit, and 10hp with plenty reserve vacuum for our parlor. New is almost 5 grand. This one had a 3mth old new 10hp electric motor. Bought it for $2900 complete with muffler system and water trap, so a good deal. Also got the entire milker pulsation unit. A few years ago we paid 4 grand for a 12 pulsator ...

Been repairing some fence. Man is it different driving steel posts at 53 than it was at 30yrs old!!!!

Today I have a water line leaking going to the cow water tank. Dug a big hole, but can't find the leak. Almost looks like the tank itself may be cracked. Letting it leak a while to see if the trail shows itself better. And my milk vacuum pump drug itself down to low speed 3 or 4 times. We have a backup pump system, BUT one of those pumps is stuck solid! Went to jog it the other day for good measure & found it stuck. Now I have 2 problems going on with lots of other work getting ignored. ...

Trimmed cow hooves all day after morning milking. Couple of them were getting pretty lame, plus the big herd bull. Trimmed 16 cows and the bull for total of 68 hooves. Was a long hard day, and every part of me is sore. The bull pretty much quit doing his job due to his bad right rear foot and wasn't sure if he'd fit into our trim table. He fit in, but sure filled it up, and when the head lock shut, his neck was really tight in there. Got him all tilted over, figuring he'd fight, but he laid ...

On 3rd day of hauling manure. Should finish after lunch. Seems there's always jobs stacked waiting for me. I really NEED to finish my house siding, but always a job on the farm needing done. I just hope to salvage some time before it gets cold. Siding doesn't like being worked with when it's cold.

Been a hard 2 days. State milk parlor "Survey", aka state health inspection, which is a special inspection done once a year. If you score below 90% you FAIL! If they find one speck of buildup anywhere inside the milker system where milk contacts, it's a 10 point deduction, so things have to be CLEAN. We spent the last 2 days busting our humps getting the parlor clean, from the ceiling down to the floor drains.
While taking a break, and just after taking care of a couple small things ...