Just Need the Cows Now

As readers may know from previous posts, we have been renovating our old barn to have a milking parlor (herringbone 8- which means milk 4 on a side at the same time in a herringbone pattern). This has been a long process as we have been doing the work ourselves with very little help. We did finally end up hiring someone to come for a few weeks to help with things that I am just not able to do or was working off the farm and wasn't able to help with. I can't lift the very heavy objects or go to high places, although I did suck it up a time or two in spite of the vertigo.

When we bought this farm in 1998 it was workable, but in bad shape. We have made repairs over the years but quit milking a few years later as milking under the pipeline with just one person (the hubs had started an outside job by then) was a difficult task and the kids were growing up and moving out. As a result of just using it occasionally to raise bottle-fed calves that eventually went outside to live, it went down hill like an unused home. The roof needed work, which we knew, just not how bad. The room that had been originally for the purpose of raising calves was in terrible shape when we bought it and my husband had used it to free-stall (let them run loose) the calves at one point,, promising to keep it cleaned up, but somehow didn't and wouldn't let me - since it was his mess! The outer walls were already rotted out at the bottom where it had not been constructed properly by whomever built it. There was a shed on one end where someone had put yet another poorly built wall to divide it off from the calf room. We had to shore up the roof and take out the two walls with this project.

Over the years, the winters had been hard on the floors of the barn and the milkhouse, which we thought was small, but since have seen much smaller and cramped conditions. The concrete was broken, literally, and heaved up off the ground. Apparently no one ever heard of re-bar! When we broke it up we found junk, actual junk, thrown into it to make it 'stronger'. It just made it harder to break up into pieces we could cart off. There are still a few aesthetic things that need done, but they won't stop us from being licensed to milk again. It's just for our peace of mind and remedy keeping the barn warm enough to keep the waterlines in the cow quarters (formerly where they were milked under a pipeline) from freezing. This has always been a problem.

We started out by demolishing the old milkhouse and breaking up all those chunks of concrete floor and outer pad (for some reason you have to have a porch-like concrete pad outside the milkhouse). We found where someone had another milkhouse built where the outer pad was - two previous layers. Talk about a pain to get out!

Then we poured tons of concrete for new flooring and porch, built a new milkhouse with an actual re-barred and concreted in foundation. (The old one- no). Then we demolished the that old calf-raising section, tore out that concrete, dug a hole for the parlor pit, lined it with plastic and Styrofoam sheeting and poured more concrete. There was a LOT of concrete work involved. We put up walls and the equipment and cleaned like crazy. We discovered that the people who sold us the parlor system (used- right out of their barn) were not completely honest honest about how well the system worked. HINT: If someone says it worked the last time they used it, ask if they sold parts off of it or if they were actually using all of it! We had to re-build or replace way more than we should have of it. We expected to replace gaskets, that is a given, but not electrical parts because they sold pieces out of it earlier, or they broke down and they just bypassed them somehow. We also discovered they had not actually washed the system, but rather rinsed it only, when they quit milking. That was really bad! I am the equipment scrubber and a lot of acid and elbow grease had to be used to get that old and rotted milk fat out of the system. You can shiver now! But it is clean.

Here are some shots, not previously shown, of before and after. Other pictures have been posted in previous posts.  There have been mostly shots from the milkhouse build so I'll concentrate more on the parlor here and finished inside of the milkhouse.

Not even kidding about how bad this room was. This is actually cleaned up some. The far right is where the re-entry walkway will be for the cows to go back into the barn. The old steel dividers and feed bunk are gone. They were really bad.

Tearing off the milkhouse.
Before the wall was knocked out. Still needed a little debris removal though.
  Knocking out the that rotted wall. The one on the right also got taken out.
Those walls are gone and the pit extends into the what was the heifer shed. The one wall is rebuilt (left side) and the other one is the original heifer shed wall. We did put up another wall between the far wall and the pit, and on the right side for the cow exit section.

Outside of the parlor. We did enclose the rest of the wall. We still needed access from the outside to that area for larger things that wouldn't make it through the other end. That open end is where the cows will exit the parlor and return to the living quarters. We put up tin on the outside to match the rest of the barn. The milkhouse got vinyl siding.
  

Inside the milkhouse. Plumbing cannot go inside the walls since they will freeze and access would be nearly impossible if need be. We put in a closet so the waterworks (pressure tank and heater) wouldn't be just sitting out in the open.
More milkhouse.

   Inside the parlor with the milkers in place!
Both sides from up-to where the cows will be.

 Parlor looking to the entry end of the pit. Ready to go. There are sliding doors at the opposite end of each side for the cows to exit.

It's been a long and hard road. We're looking for those ready-to-milk cows now to run through it. We have ten heifers that will be coming in in late January and early February.

Cow Punching and Barn Update

Cow Punching- Literally

My husband decided that since the cows I hand raised had been outside for a year and only come near him if he has feed (even then they stand back and wait until he dumps it out to go near it) that I needed to reacquaint the heifers with people.  I talk to them through the barn gate all the time, although for the most part they just ignore me, except for a couple of them. But that darn Jersey bull is a royal pain. He has taken to butting the ladies away from the barn and anyone who gets near them. So, I made friends with the bull.

First, I unloaded about fifteen bags (plastic burlap type) of feed into the feed bins (a/k/a metal trash cans with lids), and then I stuck my feed scented gloved hand out the gate as I scolded him for running off the other cows. He came at the smell and stayed for the scratching of the ears. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but now he sticks his head over a gate at the silo room when he hears my voice with an expression my husband describes as love struck. I told him I wasn't a cow, but he doesn't seem to care. I almost gave his nose ring a yank just to get him a little scared of me.

Flash forward a week and Chaos (the awesome companion Labrador retriever- not cattle dog) are out in the woods which are part of the cow's field marking dead trees before the leaves all fall off so we can make fire wood. She is wandering off and being older, she is going deaf and blind, and also having a penchant for chasing skunks, I was busy trying to get her to stay with me in case one was holed up out there somewhere. Next thing I know, I am surrounded by the cows and one love-struck bull. Everywhere I moved, there was that stupid bull! I kept a small tree between me and him in case he suddenly decided to charge and always moved backwards in order to keep an eye on him. Chaos finally decided to come to mama and she for some weird reason decided she was a cattle dog. Now, if she had been trained to move cattle I wouldn't have worried about it, but she isn't - she's a hunting dog, so I told her to get behind me when the bull pawed the dirt at her. She actually minded me and did it (trust me- there was a reason this amazed me). He wanted that dog bad. I finally reached out and just smacked him on the nose. "No dog! No dog!" I yelled at him. He actually looked disappointed. Hmmm.

I told Chaos to go home and she started that way, but hesitated when I didn't follow. I was keeping an eye on that bull as I walked slowly backward. There are a lot of holes out there and other cows, and I didn't think falling was a good idea. I was still taller than the bull and being on the ground could be dangerous. The cows finally meandered off, losing interest, I thought, and I was able to get to the pasture part of the field and we headed for the gate, not running because that could be trouble. Almost there and I hear the sound of hooves running. I turned around and those silly cows were running to beat the band to catch up. I held up my arms and yelled 'stop' and to my surprise, they did. Feet splayed out in front of them, they literally skidded to a stop- every last one of them. After I finished laughing at that ridiculous sight I backed up again, very slowly, because I was coming up on that very hot electric fence. I was too low for the dog to go under (and as stated before- I was not getting on the ground to do it either) and too high for me to go over. I got out my cell phone and called the husband. "Please turn off the fence for a minute so the dog and I can get out of the field. The cows won't leave us alone and the bull really wants Chaos." He asked what only once when he heard me belt that bull right in the nose. "I told you to leave that dog alone! Now leave us alone!" I yelled. He was crowding us to the fence. I heard my husband say real loud it was unplugged. I left the line open and pushed the wire down enough to get over it and then raised it for Chaos and then told him to plug it up quick. I knew when he did it because that bull hollered when he hit it.

I really don't think I want to go out there for a while. Maybe I'll carry a ball bat or something. I apparently am too good at making friends with the cows.

Now, onto the barn!

We finally have the siding up! I helped even though it like to have scared me to death once we got to the higher up part on the front. Heights and I do not get along. I got dizzy and nauseated. Yuk! But, it came out nice. We haven't quite finished the inside as we have to re-roof the barn first (it leaks into the new part- dang!) We are getting along on the parlor though. All the concrete work is done and we got the concrete sealer (garage floor coating) done yesterday. We still have to clear coat both the milk house floor and walls and floor of the parlor pit. I learned how to lay concrete block (foundation for the walls so the wood doesn't sit directly in water when we clean) and how to run a cutting torch (the steel grating for the guttering where the cows stand while being milked). I have epoxy in my hair, though nail polish remover got it off my hands and arms. I think I'll just let it wear off my hair; I just don't think acetone belongs on hair.

Pictures!

                                                        Siding going up- partially done

                                  Siding done! Yay! We had to push the bulk tank out to do the floor.

                          Some of my friendly cows! The bull cannot be disturbed for photographs.

Renovating a Barn

Several years ago we milked cows under a pipeline system. Let me tell you, while that is much better than hand milking and even what was once referred to as a step-saver system, it is still hard on the body. You have to squat between cows and attach the milkers to the cow's teats. This allowed for the cows to kick you if they wanted to, sometimes right in the head. A series of circumstances, including growing children who did not want to farm caused us to stop milking.

We opted to raise beef and dairy heifers which required bottle feeding powdered milk replacer and training them to eat feed and hay and drink water, just like we did with the dairy cows' calves. We also planted crops for sale.

Now we have decided to renovate that old barn and where was once a calf-raising room into a milking parlor. We had changed to using the milking cow's stalls and abandoned that section of the barn long ago. In the parlor we are building there is a central pit between two rows of cows where four cows can be milked on each side at the same time. More importantly, there is no getting kicked in the head or squatting under a cow. That is better on the knees and the old brain bucket!

In the years of non-use the milk house had been ruined from hard winters of heaving frozen ground that broke the concrete. We later discovered that someone had no only built it without a proper foundation, but on sand! This means the building will be razed, the original foundation broken the rest of the way and hauled away and all new concrete poured and a new building. Fun!

                                          Trying to pull up broken concrete pad outside the milk house.

                                           A large slab moved just to discover another one underneath.

                                                              The building coming down.

                                     It's gone! Now to demo the rest of that concrete and start over.
I rented a jack hammer this weekend. The guys at the rental center laughed asking if I was going to run it. Guess what! Yes, I did, and I broke a lot of concrete. Hopefully, weather permitting, we get the new foundation next week. Wish us luck.

                                                   Our ever present helper supervisor.