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OT Never been so tired

R

rrlund

Well-known Member
The corn's all picked,stalks are baled and I finished weaning calves about mid afternoon yesterday. I got the gates put away and the adrenalin must have stopped running for the first time since about March. I sat down in my recliner and literally pretty much couldn't move again the rest of the day. I managed to crawl into bed about 9 and didn't get up til 7:45 this morning. Sure feels good to be done for another year.
That's the one thing that never happened when I was milking cows. I was never done. Sure,I'd be done at night,but it always started over the next day. There definitely IS life after milking cows!
 
I wonder why some dairy farmers never get into a partnership of some kind. Like I milk on even days, you on odd. Sure the income would be half as much but you would be getting time off as needed. Sort of like a fireman, in many situations one on.... two off.

Just a thought.
 
When a cousin of mine was big into milking, he did it in the morning and paid a neighbor gal to do the evening.

Worked out good for both of them.
 
It's not just the milking. It's all the other things that HAVE to be done everyday too. If I don't haul manure until tomorrow with these beef cattle,it's no big deal. Same thing with something like grinding feed. There's never been a day that they didn't get grain,but if the grinder broke down and I couldn't get it fixed until tomorrow,with the dairy cows,it would mean lost production,but with the beef cattle,oh well,they'd survive alright on silage and hay. These beef cows calve mostly all at once,or at least during "calving season",but with dairy,it was year around. Fresh heifers to break,new calves to feed....it all wears on you after 30 years or so. It's just unbelievable how good it feels to be FREE even now,seven years after I got rid of those black and white (whatever you'd call something that's dragging you to your death).
 
There's generally not enough money in dairying to split the work without doubling the herd. . . and then there's twice as much work, so you gotta split it again, and so on, and so on.

When dad was dairying, he used to set up the card table once a month, right after the milk check came, and pay bills. When he sold the cows, he said it was because the money marched right across the table every month and jumped into envelopes and went out in the next day's mail, and he never could divert any of it into his pocket. He finally decided it was too much work to do it just for the fun of it.
 
I don't know what part of Ohio you're in,but did you see that Vrebahoff Dairy with 5 locations in southern Michigan and Ohio has had their loan called in by the bank? They owe better than 55 million. Gonna be a lot of Mexicans looking for work if they close all 5 dairies.
 
my uncle had a dairy farm in ny state, never could get ahead , no matter how hard he worked, he passed away with cancer at a young age and his family sold the farm.
 
Didn't mean to imply my cousin sat in the house watching TV. The gal doing the evening milking gave him time to do everything else that needed to be done.
 
Each to his own. I have milked cows for 30 years, and I still enjoy the dairy. Beef producers around here ALL have off farm jobs to stay ahead of the bills. I think that if you expect to get a full years pay , then you should expect to work every day. Life after milking cows ? That is when your son becomes the farmer and you become the help . As I said , each to his own, with all due respect.
 
No offence taken. I did it for all the years that my mind and body could take it. They paid for a lot of real estate and equipment,but the boys didn't want it,so they went. The beef business is doing a lot better than even I expected. When I sold the dairy cows,I figured we'd pretty much live on what the wife made,but she hasn't worked in nearly 2 years and I don't care if she never goes back. Life's good and the money isn't all that bad either. You just have to have a low debt load and a pretty good volume.
 
My wife's father just passed away this summer. I believe he was 87. He was born and raised on a dairy farm, and ran it until his death. He did have children who were active in the farm, but he worked every day on that same farm his entire life. He was hauling manure the day before he died. The dairy farm continues.
 
Got that right. My wife's a nurse and made good money,but it's nice to have somebody around even if it's just to open a gate or hold a wrench when you need them.
 
There's folks around that can do that. All I ever wanted was beef cattle when I was a kid,but my dad and his dad before him milked cows,so I did too until the first day that I figured I was well off enough to live without that milk check. Now I'm finally doing what I always wanted to do.
 
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