Slavik Farms: New Additions

My first baby of the year was born February 6. I went home this weekend to see it. It is fuzzy and very healthy!! He was running around when I went out to the barn Saturday afternoon.

This is our new beef barn!! We have pens on the left side, and are able to store our farm machinery on the right half of the barn. It is really nice to have a barn separately for our beef cows.
This a picture of our new lagoon (aka poop pond). As our farm is increasing in size, we need a place to store the manure from the cows. We can't always apply manure to all of the fields all of the time over the course of the year, so we need to have a place to store it.

This is a picture of our new milking parlor. We converted our tie-stall barn into this system. We are able to milk, quicker and more efficiently while producing an even better quality product!

Things are rapidly changing at home - too bad I have to miss out on some of this, being at school most of the time :(

The Scoop from the big Grand Rapids! GLRDC 2009

So this year's Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference has come and gone! It was jam-packed of informative and exciting speakers.

Thursday
The opening session was all about the dairy industy and the new global environment by Jay Waldvogel. Then, an Wayne Humphrey an Iowa farmer gave an inspirational speech, "Leading with Your ACES."

• Attitude
• Communications
• Enthusiasm
• Sincerity

Later that afternoon, Dr. Gordon Atkins stressed the importance of cow conformation and breeding for cows that will live for a long time. Additionally, Dr. Nigel Cook took some time to discuss cow comfort, and how a comfortable cow will make a happy, healthy cow and in return a profitable cow.

Friday
I was all over the conference on friday, bouncing between some of the regular workshops, the Michigan Dairy Ambassador contest and some of the Partners' Program. There were a ton of excellent speakers there this weekend, it was difficult to pick only one!

I first sat in on Tom Earleywine's session on heifer calf management. He stressed that many farmers were underfeeding their calves and suggested feeding less per feeding, but increasing the feeding times to three (generally most feed two).

I then jumped over to the room where the Michigan Dairy Ambassador contests were to sit in on their discussion they had - after they listened to a presentation from Annie Link about farm tours that they have on their farm (Swissalane Dairy) and how people are able to discover how their dairy operation works. It was very interesting to hear their ideas. I know that the dairy industry has a bright future with people like them! These are bright students, who are passionate about this industry, willing to make a difference and show people that the animal ag. industry is all about producing a safe and quality product.

Later that afternoon I sat in on a discussion about a grazing farm in New York and the young women discussed how their family operated and worked together to be profitable and met their goals. It was very interesting to hear how different their farming techniques were from my own farming experiences. With their grazing farm, cows will start calving in March and they will milk them just about until the end of the year. They have two months where they aren't milking (or getting a milk check for that matter). I saw that their way of farming was much less stressful, however learning how to stay on a budget during those months with no income could result in stress.

After I went and picked up some Moo-ville ice cream, I went to listen to Amanda Nolz speak about the future of the ag. industry. She is a student at South Dakota State University and grew up on her family's Limosine farm. I could really relate to her speech, as I am also facing the dilemma on future plans: life after school. I know that I would love to have a 9-5 job with a steady income, but I also know that I love the farm and the animals in which that job is all about. Sometimes God's plan for our life is not always what we had in mind, but with trust and faith - his plans will endure.

Later in the evening at the Dairy Recognition Banquet, Brittany Westendorp and I had the pleasure of introducing the 2009 Michigan Dairy Ambassadors! This year's Junior Michigan Dairy Ambassador is Matt Mann from Hillsdale, Michigan. The 2009 Senior Michigan Dairy Ambassador is Nicole Schaendorf from Hopkins, Michigan. Congratualtions to both!


GLRDC 2009, was a huge success! Next year it will be back in Frankenmuth, Michigan and I hope to see an even better turn out again!

Dairy Days

Wow...this is pretty late! I had a crazy semester at school. I was working a lot of long hours at school and at home. Our family just finished putting in some new additions to the farm with a new double eight milking parlor and a barn for our beef cows and farm machinery. Hope everybody had a wonderful holiday season!!! I know that I have definitely enjoyed some time off from school.

I have yet to finish up writing about events from this summer!

"The Great Dairy Adventure"

I had a great time at "The Great Dairy Adventure". It is a fun filled day where day cares, summer schools and any children and adults can come to East Lansing and learn about dairy! There was ice cream, milk mustache's and really neat and fun things that can be learned about the dairy industry and the cows that make the milk.

I had the pleasure of helping with the milk mustache booth. We gave each child and willing adult a stick-on mustache and were able to have their picture taken with a professional athlete or celebrity Got Milk? poster. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed seeing how much fun all of the children had getting their picture with a mustache standing next to a giant cardboard cutout of Spongebob Squarepants. While many of the children and their chaperones were waiting in line, they had a chance to visit with and get autographs with some of the Michigan State athletes.

The Michigan State Dairy Club and its members were working the "I Milked a Cow" booth, where visitors had the opportunity to milk a real cow! There were other booths there that day to help the visitors to learn more about where milk comes from and how it gets to the carton.

Dairy Days

Also being held during the same week of "The Great Dairy Adventure" was the dairy youth and open shows. I personally did not exhibit any cattle myself, but had the opportunity to help the Michigan Holstein Association and the Michigan Jersey Association during the open show by lining exhibitors in order and getting them in the ring. I am not completely familiar with how the state dairy shows work, so it took a little while to get the hang of it, but I eventually did - what I thought - a good job and had a fun time chatting with some of the exhibitor and watching a great show. There were some beautiful females there that weekend!!

That week they also awarded the 4-H participants in the youth show and skills contests. To wrap up the week, they had a dinner and banquet. I had the pleasure in helping them celebrate in their hard work. Brittany Westendorp and I helped lead everybody in the "Pledge of Allegiance" and the "4-H Pledge". We also helped pass out the awards from each contest to the respected individual and team winners.

I still have a lot of events to catch up on from the fall...so be lookin' for them!

In The Home Stretch!

So I am in my last few days as the "reigning" Senior Michigan Dairy Ambassador. I am trying to finish up some projects and get things squared away for the conference, all while carrying the load of my busy classes. I think that I am beginning to know what it is like to be an adult, or as my mom likes to say, "Welcome to adulthood."

Anyway, I figured that I should finally finish up writing about some of the activities I did over the fall/winter.

"Autumnfest"

Waaaayyyy back in November, the Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference along with the Michigan Dairy Ambassadors sponsored a booth at the largest tailgate of the year - Autumnfest. Brittany Westendorp, Sara Long, Krista Beeker and myself (along with the help of my mom - Doreen and little sister - Kylie) had a booth featuring Earlene the cow and "Count Chocula". Earlene is a wooden life-like cow that offers a hands-on experience of milking a cow, but without the worry of being kicked. The idea behind "Count Chocula" was to promote chocolate milk and remind people of the healthy benefits of drinking it. Also, we wanted to remind people to be eating and or drinking at least 3-a-day of dairy.

We had a lot of positive feedback about the booth. I heard people saying that it was educational and fun. Everyone really like the chocolate milk as well. The chocolate milk came from our very own Brittany Westendorp's family farm and creamery - Moo-ville Creamery in Nashville, Michigan. We had such a great response that we were awarded the first-ever "People's Choice Award".


Chocolate Milk - Beverage of Champions

• "Chocolate milk contains both carbohydrates and protein that are important for an athlete's health; carbohydrates in milk fuels muscles after exercise, and protein helps maintain healthy muscles. From bone building to muscle strengthening, the nutrients in chocolate milk provide a variety of positive health benefits."

• "Chocolate milk provides important nutrients in a convenient great-tasting, relatively inexpenive package. According to the 2005 Dietary Guidelines and MyPyramid recommendations, Americans of all activity levels should include 3 servings of low-fat or fat-free milk or milk products in their diet every day. Chocolate milk provides another option for meeting these recommendations."

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005. 6th Edition, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, January 2005.

• "The preliminary research on chocolate milk as a recovery beverage is promising. However, additional research needs to be done to help further support chocolate milk specifically as a post-exercise recovery beverage."

The End of an Era...Part II

Okay...so I left off last with the dairy show on Thursday morning.

Pretty much directly after the dairy show I had to set up the dairy area with dairy promotion items for Kiddies' Day. I brought some bull calves up for the day so kids could help bottle feed them and pet them. Also, some kids who came a little early were able to see us milking "old school" with the old pump and can milker. For a while we thought we would have to milk them out by hand! Once all the promo. items got put up and organized, we pulled out the ice cream freezer and made some soft-serve ice cream for the kids. I think that the kids really loved the ice cream because Thursday was unbearably hot! It was just the treat to cool you down!

I wish that more kids would have came out to the dairy tent, but by the time the show was over - a lot of kids were already on the carnival rides for their Kiddies' Day Special. Overall, I learned a lot from this event and it really taught me that I shouldn't take on more than I can handle. I was entirely exhausted from the show and the heat, that it was difficult for me to show the same amount of leadership as I usually would have. I also think that it would have went more smoothly if we would have been able more easily tie the two schedules together. Nevertheless, I am still glad that I did it, because I feel that the people I was able to talk to and that came over were able to have fun, cool down or learn something new about the dairy industry!

Friday was sale day at the Gratiot County Fair for Youth. All in all, I would have to say that we had a good livestock auction. A lot of the animals sold well, other than the occasional super high and low sellers. I love to see all the business and people from the community coming out to support our youth! I think that it is awesome, because in the long run, they are supporting Gratiot Counties future generation. Some kids will take their money and save it for college, others will just barely have enough to break even, but in the end, most kids have gained so much more by being in 4-H and being an exhibitor at the fair. I get a little discouraged when I see some of the power-house families in the county getting prices that are far higher than all the other exhibitors. Regardless on how hard they work compared with other kids, it isn't fair that they are getting higher prices because of their last name.

Brady Brecht is a 4-Her from my county and he is a great example of an honest, hard-working individual who is passionate about learning, serving and being a great example for other 4-her's. He was interviewed by Farm World and they wrote an awesome article about him. To read more about Brady and his passion for being supportive of everyone around him visit: http://www.farmworldonline.com/News/NewsArticle.asp?newsid=6427.

Saturday was finally a day for me to relax and just have fun. I was able to sleep in...do all that stuff that one should be able to do on your week off from work. Our county fair always has Ag. Olympics for the exhibitors and kids at the fair. This year was probably the first year that I actually went up to watch in a really long time. I ended up helping out with some of the interesting and hilarious games! The staff of the Gratiot County MSU Extension had come up with some truly unique games that were related to agriculture and the fair. They had relays like Sugar Beet Shomanship (they basically dragged a sugar beet down and around a cone with a rope halter and or a scoop shovel), Feed Bag/Three Legged Race, Wheel Barrel Races, Egg Relay on a spoon, picking up as many cucumbers as possible in a short amount of time and probably the grossest and yet funniest was the manure identification. They went around and collected manure samples from all the barns and the kids had to visit different stations and identify them. I was the lucky volunteer to be holding "chicken poop".

I am releived that the fair is finally over, but a little sad that I am no longer able to be an exhibitor. I am sure that I will be back again for years to come as a 4-H leader!

The End of One Era - The Start of a New One!

Every summer since I was the age of nine, mid to late July has always been the busiest time of the year - between harvesting wheat, playing sports and getting my 4-H projects ready for the fair. Whether it was putting the final stitches into my jumper I made for my sewing project or working with, washing and clipping my animals to perfection from dusk 'till dawn, 4-H wasn't just about exhibiting projects at the fair to see how much money I would make, not even about how well I was able to compete against the other exhibitors - I received much more by being in 4-H for 12 years! I have learned many lifelong skills and noble characteristics from my parents, 4-H leaders and other 4-Her's I've met along the way! Throughout my 12 years, I have learned to be a responsible, caring and enthusiastic individual - ready and eager to learn and serve! 4-H is an awesome way for kids to get involved in pretty much any area - if you can think of it, they probably have something out there for you!!

This summer had pretty much the same 'ring' to it - but maybe a little less involved at home (seeing as I am working during the day on campus). This year my 4-H projects consisted primarily on my Dairy cow and heifer, as well as my Holstein feeder calf. Although this year, I felt myself starting to be molded into a 4-H leader - as I was helping younger kids with their projects. They extended the fair week this year - which kind of was a little discouraging for many exhibitors and their parents - but by the grace of God I am pretty sure everyone survived! Tuesday was the beef and feeder judging and I truly felt blessed when I won the Reserve Grand Champion Feeder honors this year at the Gratiot County Fair for Youth. Wednesday was another long day - beef and feeder showmanship - here I didn't come out so lucky, or at least that is how I felt. I ended up getting 3rd in a super close call between the top three showman. Personally, I felt a little cheated from what I thought was a pretty awesome job by myself - but the judge had his own personal preferences. The judge gave us three showman opportunities to come to the microphone and he asked us questions on the spot - One of the major questions he talked about were issues facing the cattle industry: The first kid that went up to the microphone addressed the issue of feed prices (corn prices being at around $6 a bushel causes the feed prices to exponentially increase greatly) and how big or a role that will play on the producers in the industry as well as the quality of the product. I then proceeded to go to the microphone and I addressed the issue of Animal Welfare and certain ethical issues that the livestock industry is facing today! I also mentioned how important it was for me as a producers to make sure that I am promoting our industry as positively as possible. I thought I did a good job addressing the issue and stating my claim. Another issue that I think that could have been addressed was environmental restrictions (I should probably write a little more on that another time); however, the third person was asked a totally different question that isn't really relevant to the other questions we were asked above.

Finally Thursday rolled around - time for another exhausting day! The dairy show was bright and early and I rolled out of bed a good half hour before the sun crept over the horizon. First was showmanship, so I decided to take my cow out - big mistake. She didn't want to cooperate very well and because of my cow, I wound up getting third again while my brother Garrett took the 1st place honors!! My mom was just about in tears because Garrett felt so bad for beating me - because it was my last year and because he knew that I worked harder than he had. I came back though in judging and won my class with my heifer and ended up winning Reserve Champion Junior Holstein Female, Champion Senior Female and to top it off Supreme Champion Female! Now that is something I could smile about!

Wow, there is a lot to write about and its getting late...I will have to finish this story in another blog later!!!

Summer is Flying By So Fast!

Wow! I can't believe that it is already July! Happy Ice Cream Month!!

Sorry I haven't written anything in a long time, summer got super busy real fast. June was filled with working everyday, helping out on the farm and getting ready for the fair. Not to mention going to open houses, church softball and just enjoying the beautiful weather.

Here is a recap of some of the events that occurred through the month of June:

June 20 - Made an appearance at the First Congregational Christian Church in St. John's for their Auction Fest 2008. Helped serve ice cream and was able to test their knowledge of the dairy industry by asking them questions and handing out a few prizes.

June 23-27 - My little brother and sister were exhibitors this year at the Gratiot Ag. Society Fair. They both showed scramble animals - my brother with a steer and my sister with a pig. My brother Garrett won Grand Champion with his steer and my sister, well didn't come out that good. Then, Thursday after the sale, my brother caught another scramble steer! Then on friday one of my older brothers, Wade, was in the the first ever adult calf scramble. He and his partner had to rope the calf, halter it up and get it to the fence. There were men of all ages, from 18 on up. It was pretty entertaing to watch.

June 29 - I went to the Annual MMPA's OYDC Picnic with my family. My parents were the 1998 OYDC's and since then have attended almost every picnic all around the state. Fortunately this year we didn't have to travel very far. It makes for an enjoyable afternoon when all the farmers can sit around and eat and talk about each others families and farms. It was nice to hear current issues and news from MMPA top guns - Ken Nobis and John Dilland. They talked a bit about where the industry is going - the prices, bulk milk, etc. and also about the success of the farm bill.

Well, I probably better get going. I have a freakishly busy next few weeks. This week I am getting things around for the fair. I will be doing a promotional and education event this week at the fair for Kiddies' Day. I will also be exhibiting a dairy feeder as well as showing in a heifer and a cow in the dairy show. This year at the fair, I was given the opportunity to run the dairy judging clinic - that should be exciting!!
The week after that is Dairy Days down in East Lansing, Michigan! Youth from across the state will be meeting in the middle to compete with their animals, as well as against eachother in different activities such as dairy judging, quiz bowl, and showmanship. There will be a ton of cool activities going on. Be sure to be there on Wednesday, July 23 for The Great Dairy Adventure! If you want more information on that, check out my link to the UDIM page. I can't wait!!

I will be sure to post any or all picture from the next couple weeks!