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Around the Campfire / Re: Life on the Farm
« Last post by bjrogg on January 13, 2026, 04:17:09 pm »Burnsie we grew up very much the same.
I grew up on a dairy farm. My grandpa shipped his milk in the old milk cans. My dad switched over to a bulk tank with a cooler and agitator. We still carried all the milk to the tank by hand and dumped it in through a filter. I remember when we got a “modern “ pipeline. That really helped. The milk was carried to the tank by the pipeline and it saved a ton of work. In the summer you could look in any direction and see Holstein cows grazing in a pasture. 30 to 60 milk cows per herd.
We raised sugar beets and edible beans. Both of which had to be cultivated and hoed by hand. Believe me. I know where the saying “He got a hard row to hoe “ comes from. Of course we had hay to bale and straw to. We learned really young never to complain about being bored. Dad could always find something to do.
We were pretty good at finding things to do to. Didn’t take much to entertain us. We got rid of the milk cows in the 90’s and raised beef cattle until 2012. My son still has beef cattle and I help him out to.
Same here. A few Dutch farmers started up much bigger operations and now they are pretty much the only dairies around. I guess they can have it. I certainly don’t miss the cows. Did I mention it was twice every day. Plus all the other stuff. Cleaning pens, feeding calves, breaking in heifers that had never had a calf and been milked before. Dehorning and casturating calf. Not to mention the very important job of getting the cows bred back so they would have another calf and produce milk again. I honestly don’t know how those big operations do it.
I much prefer the crop side now. It’s still a lot of work, but I enjoy it. I find it challenging and rewarding. Not so much financially, but it’s good for my soul.
Bjrogg
I grew up on a dairy farm. My grandpa shipped his milk in the old milk cans. My dad switched over to a bulk tank with a cooler and agitator. We still carried all the milk to the tank by hand and dumped it in through a filter. I remember when we got a “modern “ pipeline. That really helped. The milk was carried to the tank by the pipeline and it saved a ton of work. In the summer you could look in any direction and see Holstein cows grazing in a pasture. 30 to 60 milk cows per herd.
We raised sugar beets and edible beans. Both of which had to be cultivated and hoed by hand. Believe me. I know where the saying “He got a hard row to hoe “ comes from. Of course we had hay to bale and straw to. We learned really young never to complain about being bored. Dad could always find something to do.
We were pretty good at finding things to do to. Didn’t take much to entertain us. We got rid of the milk cows in the 90’s and raised beef cattle until 2012. My son still has beef cattle and I help him out to.
Same here. A few Dutch farmers started up much bigger operations and now they are pretty much the only dairies around. I guess they can have it. I certainly don’t miss the cows. Did I mention it was twice every day. Plus all the other stuff. Cleaning pens, feeding calves, breaking in heifers that had never had a calf and been milked before. Dehorning and casturating calf. Not to mention the very important job of getting the cows bred back so they would have another calf and produce milk again. I honestly don’t know how those big operations do it.
I much prefer the crop side now. It’s still a lot of work, but I enjoy it. I find it challenging and rewarding. Not so much financially, but it’s good for my soul.
Bjrogg
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