Cow Comfort Process at Meyer Dairy

I put together a video blog on how we use recycled manure solids for bedding on our farm. This video was done for the AgStar Edge Women in Agriculture Blog.

Check out the video here.

Harvesting Corn Silage – 2013

I am very fortunate to be a contributing blogger for AgStar’s Women in Ag Blog. We recently finished harvesting our corn silage for 2013. Check out this video to see how we harvested the 160 acres of corn, packed the corn silage into a pile and then covered the entire pile with an oxygen barrier and plastic. The final step is covering the whole 85′ by 300′ pile with tires. The tires are recycled side walls from semi-trucks. Corn silage is one of the main ingredients in our cow’s diet.

Taking the silos down

This summer we removed three of our four silos. They haven’t been used for several years because we have our haylage, corn silage and high moisture corn stored in bags and in piles which makes feeding at our farm more efficient. Since they are no  longer needed we had a silo removal crew come in and take them down piece by piece. The smallest silo was still in good condition, so the majority of the silo was salvaged and used for other’s that were putting up a silo. Many of the silo staves were used for landscaping at our neighbors and we’ve kept some staves for future landscaping and other uses on our farm.

The before picture of all three silos. The room that connected the three silos was taken down first.

Taking down the first silo. The crew had scaffolding inside the silo and dropped each stave onto a pile of sand on the ground so the staves wouldn’t crack or break.

Another view of the first silo being taken down.

Starting to take down the second silo.

The third silo is almost down.

The remnants of the silos.

After the silos were down, The unused staves were hauled to a local cement plant to be crushed.

The area all cleaned up.

Straw arrives

We use straw as a fiber source in our cows and heifers’ diets. It is also used for bedding for the calves. Straw is the stalk portion of small grains, like oats, barley and wheat. Most of the straw we use is wheat straw. This evening our supplier from Canada arrived with a load of straw. Nick unloaded it and stored all the straw in the shed, as rain is predicted. Right now one load of straw will last us about three weeks.

Load of straw is ready to unload.

Nick uses the Bobcat to unload all the big squares of straw.

All the straw is stacked in our shed to keep it dry until we are ready to use it.

Black Lab Puppy

Smudge is our little Black Lab puppy.

She follows us everywhere on the farm.

She loves to play with the kids.

The kids helped build her dog house, and decided they liked it in there too!

April Snowstorm

This is the view out our front door this morning. Schools are closed today. The cows are milked, calves are fed, employees’ vehicles are unstuck. We’ll be hiding in the house until it’s time for afternoon chores to begin.

Basement Toy Organizer

A friend of ours had some great shelving units in her house to organize toys and many other things. I admired how well it worked in their house and knew someday we’d do the same in our house. We recently finished off our basement and our children’s toys had taken over the floor space. So we got this Expedit Shelving Unit from Ikea. Nick assembled it and secured it to the wall. I ordered some storage cubes and other organizers from a friend, who is a Thirty-One consultant. The storage cubes are nice because there is a window so you can see which toys are in the cube. We put legos in one, the play food toys in another. Now we are able to get most of the toys off the floor and into the storage unit. The kids can see which toys they want to play with, and our son enjoys parking his tractors in the “shed” on the bottom row of the unit when he’s done playing.

This is what the finished project looks like.

(Ikea didn’t compensate me for this blog post. I just really like being able the see the floor when we pick up now!)

New Pair of Work Boots

Yesterday I was working outside in the snow, when my sock started getting wet. Uh oh, I had worn a hole in my first pair of Red Wing boots, they had lasted me years. Thankfully, Nick was headed to town to get some supplies, so picked me up a new pair.

I love my Lady Red Wings. They are strong, durable, comfortable, waterproof, and well, the perfect work boot for me to wear on the farm. Best of all, they are made right here in Minnesota! Red Wings are Nick’s boot of choice too, the men’s style though, of course.

Disclaimer: Red Wing Boots in no way compensated me for this blog post, I just really like my Lady Red Wings!

2013 Class of National Outstanding Young Farmers

Nick and I had the opportunity to be one of ten couples from across the United States that were a part of the 2013 Class of National Outstanding Young Farmers. We were Minnesota’s state winners in 2011 and then competed at the national level.

We spent five days in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the Outstanding Farmers of America conference. There were interviews, tours of the Albuquerque area, speakers, banquets, and most importantly networking. We were able to get to know our classmates, learning about their farms, families, similarities and differences in the ways we farm. We learned about tropical fruits, orchards, and row crops that we don’t grow here in Minnesota. We were also able to meet past winners and learn about their farms as well. We made friendships that will last a lifetime. It was truly an honor to be a part of the 2013 Class!

Learn more about the ten honorees by viewing the below videos. Five families are featured in each of the below videos, narrated by Orion Samuelson.
The first Five National Outstanding Young Farmer videos.

The second five National Outstanding Young Farmer videos.

The “So God Made A Farmer” video which now includes a photo of each of the top ten finalists.

2013 Class of National Outstanding Young Farmers

2013 Top Four Winners: Brian & Stephanie Perkins, WI; Nick & Tara Meyer, MN; Greg & Gina Wegis, CA; Erik & Heather Teitig, FL.

Nick & Tara Meyer, MN

Grooming Stalls

One of the most important things that we do at Meyer Dairy is provide cow comfort. Every day we groom the cows’ bed with a stall groomer. Nick had done a lot of online research on stall groomers when we built the new barn and began using separated solids as bedding in the stalls. When the barn was first built we used a rake in the interim, and that was time consuming and labor intensive. We knew we needed a skid loader attachment to groom the stalls to be more efficient and do a better job for the cows. Nick found a groomer that he liked online, we tested another style which Nick didn’t like. So he drew up the features that he liked on paper and took it to a local welding and fabrication shop, Messer Repair. They came up with a design, Nick and the designer tweaked the design a bit and we now have a stall groomer we really like!

Nick is using the stall groomer in our dry cow pen.

Photo Credit: Mark Klaphake, Dairy Star