All in a Days Work

It seems like every couple of months I tell myself that things will slow down soon at the farm so that we can have a somewhat life outside of the farm. Unfortunately time off and dairy farming aren't two words that usually go together.

There are always cows to be checked

And of course milking 2 times a day

Andi prefers to chase cows in her flip flops, you would
think she would've learned by now..

 People will ask me if it's a lot of work to live on a dairy farm, well umm yes it is!  I think one week working on a dairy farm would pretty much make you appreciate whatever job it is you have! Some days it really just makes me appreciate school, hard to believe I'd even say that. But if it's something you love then it doesn't seem like a job, just a really intense hobby. But I think it's great because there are never 2 days that are the same, and as a person who hates repetition it's something i appreciate a lot.

For example right now most people in Nebraska are harvesting, nearly67 % of the states corn is already harvested. Well my dad has just started harvest, partially because he planted late (we're Konecky's we're usually always late) but mostly because he's been busy doing other stuff.

We're just finished putting up our fourth cutting of alfalfa, there isn't much to put up because it has been so incredibly dry but the alfalfa flowered (sprouts little purple flowers) so we have to put it up anyway. So I would guess that so far this year we've put up probably close to 1,500 to 2,000 small square bales and 50 round bales of alfalfa, along with 450 small squares and 25 round bales of brome. Now I don't know about you but I still think that's an awful lot of hay!

Mowing (swathing) hay is a common summer activity

A couple of weeks ago I was sent out to mow the fourth cutting
of alfalfa, it was pretty thin.

After we mow the hay then we run it through the
small square baler (above).

Plus for about 3 weeks in July and August we've been putting up corn silage for ourselves and the neighbors. Because of the drought many neighbors were worried about what they are going to feed their cattle this winter because there wasn't going to be enough hay and there sure wasn't much corn. So because dad has a chopper and a bagger, he basically rented them out to his neighbors to help them put up silage. As one would imagine in 3 weeks of straight corn silage chopping there were a fair share of problems, mechanical or otherwise, but everyone got enough up to last them through winter, hopefully!

We store all of our silage in those long white bags, silage bags

So needless to say it's been a pretty busy summer/fall and doesn't look to slow down anytime soon! I guess it's all in a day in the life of a farmer.