WHAT'S HAPPENING ON THE FARM
We‘ve been very busy at Miner Institute this summer! The summer interns have spent a large part of their summer here working with their show heifers to prepare for the Clinton County Fair in Plattsburgh, NY. They spent the last few months training their heifers to lead well on halters and were taught how to best set up their animal for the show ring. This year we showed a large string of animals including 3 milk cows and 7 Holstein heifers. During fair week the students spent some very early mornings getting up and milking, washing, feeding and bedding the animals. During the fair we focus on making a lot of positive interactions with the public about animal agriculture, as well as explaining some of the different things that we do here at the Institute.
After everyone recovered from the fair we invited the public to tour Miner Institute. We had over 800 people come and visit our farm. We had numerous stations set up for people to check out some of the cool things that we do here! We had stations on dairy cattle feeds, research technology, the milking parlor, cattle health, calves, water quality, field equipment, as well as an equine demonstration. We also had our museum open for people to walk through and see our newest exhibit. There were guided tours on wagon rides that took visitors through the main dairy barn and around campus. We also had a small wagon train of horses and cows for the kids to take rides on, plus interactive lawn games for them to play with. (See photos from our Aug. 1 Open House on page 8).
The cows have been struggling with heat abatement with this hot and sticky weather. We have a sprinkler system positioned over the headlocks to help cool the cows while they eat plus sprinklers while they wait to enter the parlor. We can easily adjust the frequency of the sprinklers as well as the duration of the mist, depending on the temperature and humidity outside. We also have fans positioned over the headlocks and stalls of all of the pens and the holding pen to help with heat abatement. We have the sidewall curtains in the barns open to increase air flow and movement within the pens.
We’re awaiting the completion of our new heifer barn, and are hoping to move in within the next month or two. We will then be able to renovate the current heifer barn, putting new rubber mats in the stalls and replacing some of the old freestalls and headlocks. We’re also planning on regrooving the floor. When all is said and done, we’ll be able to bring all of our heifers home. Currently we have about 130 bred heifers at an offsite facility.
We have been busy in the fields finishing up chopping, hauling and ensiling 2nd and 3rd cut haylage. We’ve had a few struggles getting into the fields on time due to some heavy rain. During the next few weeks we’ll start getting ready to chop corn.
— Rebecca Sprang
