We are close to breaking a heat record today. They are predicting 90 degree’s the record is 91.

Things are starting to move in the fields near by. I will drive by a field on the way to work and by the time I come home it is all gone. Many of the large farmers are taking 200 acres in less than 9 hours. It will never stop amazing me how fast a field can be combined! So far most of the fields are corn but there are a few soybean fields being done.

Payton declare today a holiday from school – the first day of combining must be a holiday for a 6 year old. When I finally convinced him he needed to go to school and that he could come home early by riding the bus, he agreed to go to school. He made me promise to tell dad not to start combining without him. I hope he is not too terribly disappointed when he finds Kevin in the field when he gets home. I think he would be driving the combine by 9 if we would let him.

Kevin finished his corn silage two weeks ago. All of our hay is in the barns – although there are a few doing 5^th cutting for finishing 4^th this week.

Delana is on the washing path. She thinks we need to wash the Junior calf, Libby, that is going to World Dairy Expo – daily. Every day when I get home she goes and gets her pink rubber boots and says “Come on mom, Libby is waiting for us.” I am just glad the farm is not taking 20 head! It is amazing how much the kids love the farm but how they like the different sides to the farm.

Until next month. Enjoy early autumn. We are starting to pick pumpkins and put up corn shocks. Fall is here.

As life continues so does the learning curve. Especially about being a parent.

Payton has lost two teeth in the last week and has another that I swear he will swallow. No matter what I tell him he will not touch the tooth to make it fall out. I even gave him an apple to eat and hoped the tooth would get stuck in the apple. He decided he would cut it into pieces –however he forgot to tell mom he was using a knife. I didn’t know if I should be mad at him or me for the whole event.

Delana like to play office. She will sit and write “play” checks, letters and type on an old computer. While in the office this week she also decided that scissors were not only for cutting paper but also her hair. I know I could not have got closer to her head with clippers. Unfortunately or Fortunately (depending on how you look at it) she only did one side of her head. There was a handful of golden curls on the floor. She was so proud of what she had done and couldn’t wait to tell me. When I took her to the hairdresser to have it fixed she said there was nothing she could do until it grew out some. So we will enter into the fall with a unique haircut and hope it is the last one she ever has. I guess it could be worse – she could have blue hairJ

The learning doesn’t stop with the kids. We learned a great deal about relatives this week also. Kevin is getting closer to “moving on”. Keep your eyes out for a farm to share or rent to own. It is almost time to “leave the nest”.  There are so many times you say those words but who knows this might be the time in our lives we need to seriously consider the options.

I am just grateful I have two healthy kids and husband. I have two students in my classroom that are homeless, one with a dad and one that doesn’t have anyone. We are so blessed when I look around and I run home to hug my kids daily and tell them I love them. So many of my students have never had either.

I didn’t think anyone read this and all of a sudden I have received about 4 emails asking when I am going to update the blog again. Sorry for the delay I thought I was wasting my time – I will try to be more diligent on keeping up with the blog. I promise.

This past week has been a catch up week. It is the last official week of summer for the family. Payton started 1^st grade today and I officially start back tomorrow. Delana can’t wait to start school too but she has a little while to go.

The wet weather and humidity has cause a few problems with the cows. Milk fat is dropping and we are seeing some sore feet. Must be the mud they are having to walk through. Kevin sent me out after the cows on Sunday. He said I needed to walk because the lane was too muddy for the ATV to go through. Now I thought ATV’s were made for the mud – my mistake. So I took off as the nice wife and walked to the pasture. The cows took their time and 20 minutes late we all arrived – full of mud. I felt like I had just gone to the spa.

Saturday we lost a some beans – we have been lucky enough to have only a few blow down from the hard rains like our neighbors. A car forgot how important it is to yield at an intersection (especially when you view is block by 7 foot corn). Both the car and an on coming truck ended up in the corner of the beans. The police man said the insurance would pay for the beans. Might be interesting filing that claim!

Things are really taking off in the garden and the fields with all the rain and humidity. We had over 3 inches this week alone.  Area’s around us are flooding and near the Quad cities: Moline, Davenport, Bettendorf, & Rock Island; they are starting volunteer evacuation.

Stay dry and if you have an extra hand you can come help me can beans and pickles; they are starting to really grow. Too bad my tomatoes are so far behindJ

What a beautiful day. It is in the 60’s but it suppose to get cold next week so we need to enjoy it. It has been so warm this week that we have been in short sleeves. On Tuesday some of the kids even wore shorts to school. 

Kevin is getting his final bags of seed corn to start planting in the next couple weeks. This week we had a heifer with a displaced abomasums; or a twisted stomach. The vet was here to do the surgery on Wednesday.

Displaced abomasum (DA) is a repositioning of the abomasum (the fourth or true stomach) from its normal position on the right ventral abdominal wall. The abomasum becomes dilated with fluid and/or gas with subsequent migration to an abnormal position on the right or left side. Distention of the abomasum is caused primarily by gas and may be accompanied by an accumulation of fluid within the organ. Most displacements encountered are to the left.

Several authors have noted that DA occurs more frequently in high-producing, heavily fed dairy cattle, usually near parturition and possibly under stress. However, since the condition has been seen in heifers and bulls one cannot completely associate DA with parturition even though most cases occur within 30 days after freshening. The condition is occasionally seen in cows prior to freshening.

One of the chief symptoms of displacement is a sudden or gradual decrease in appetite. Cows have scanty bowel movements, soft and discolored with some occasional diarrhea. Cows may become weak and dehydrated and may fail to get up when prodded. Secondary ketosis usually develops unless the problem is corrected. About half of DA cows have uterine infections. The distinguishing feature between DA and ketosis is the discolored and diarrhea-like condition frequently observed in DA cases and constipation with ketosis. The field test for acetone in milk and urine is strongly positive for ketotic cows but only slight with the occurrence of DA

Here is a great site with some pictures. http://www.highgate-vets.co.uk/farm/case-histories.htm our vet does the DA’s standing up.

Today I am off to Chicago to pick up my brother Lonny and his son Zach from the airport. They are visiting from Washington State for the Spring break week. Lets hope the snow they call for is not coming.

It definitely has begun to warm up. Last week at this time the grass was brown now, after two or so inches of rain and 3 or more days with temperatures in the 60's we are green, at least the road banks and most of the yards. I see the winter wheat starting to change too. It always amazes me how fast the grass turns green here. You can actually walk away in the morning and come back at night and see the difference.

Payton asked me why the grass was green, with my Ag teaching background I said “The grass is green, for the same reason that the leaves on all plants are green. They contain cholorolhyll (used in photosynthesis), and cholorolhyll is green.” He looked at me and said “I’ll go ask dad!”

I am ready for the early spring. I can’t wait to get into the garden, I even did a little seed planting this week and sowed some indoor tomatoes. It can never come soon enough for me.

Dairy cattle judging is a popular activity for many 4-H'ers. The purpose of this activity is to judge the appearance of animals and then to place (rank) them based on how they look. Judges use five categories to place dairy cows: udder (40%), dairy character (20%), frame (15%), feet and legs (15%), and body capacity (10%). Judging activities help young people learn to make sound decisions and to defend them by an oral presentation of their reasons.

The first place to start when learning to judge is learning the parts of a cow the following web site gives you a great interactive way to learn: http://www.ext.vt.edu/resources/4h/virtualfarm/dairy/dairy_cow.html#

The good news is that Kevin has 4 heifers clipped and they are somewhat broke to lead for the shows. He has another 3 tied up right now.

Erbacres had a wonderful week getting ready for classification on March 15, 2007. All the cows were clipped and washed. Holstein breeders can have their cattle evaluated for type (conformation) through the Holstein Association's linear classification programs. Holstein breeders use linear classification as a tool to breed, develop and market higher producing, more durable cows. Classification is based on a 100 point scale with 100 being the highest. The highest score a holstein has received is 97 acheived by Linden Dictator Wimble Wimpy in 1963. The breakdown of the holstein scoring is as follows:

Name the 6 classificaiton brackets and scores for each	Excellent 90-100 points
	Very Good [VG] 85-89 points
	Good Plus [G+] 80-84 points
	Good 75-70 points
	Fair 65-74 points
	Poor 50-64 points

Erbacres had a wonderful day with 3 new Excellents. Our favorite is Erbacres Encore Leigh that went 92 as a 3 year old. Leigh has been shown at the state shows and at Expo where she stood 9th. Erbacres Connie went from 86 to 90, she is one of our locator list cows. The last new Excellent is Erbacres Cha Cha. Other cows that increase scores include Cheyene went from 82 to 88; Constantine went from 90to 91; Daisy went to 87; Dallie went to 86 Lexi went to 88; as did Lizzy; Mirage went to 87; Montecarlo went to 92; morgan to 85 and Sophie and sunshine to 86.

Excellent cows that remained the same were Carolina-Red at 90, Carnival at 92, Carnagie 90, Cilia 92, Claudia 93, Constance 94, Cortney 92, Felicia 90, Forsyth 92, Lacey 92, Precious 91 and Sasha 90. Many of these are pictured in the photo section of our web site.

We were lucky enough to have 6 sets of extra hands that day which allowed John the opportunity to picture many of the cows. Look for some of their new pictures on the web site soon.