Travis Johnson
Member
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I am not sure if everyone knows but I was laid off a few weeks ago as a machinist building boats. Its no big deal really and as luck would have it, two snowmobile accidents left the big farm with 2 injured hired hands. With nothing to do, a family farm that needed help, well it was easy to see what I would be doing.
Its been awhile since I have been on the south end of 700 north bound cows, and I can tell you this...I feel like I actually worked this morning. It was non-stop work too. The shift starts at 1AM so we can get done milking by 10 AM. We have to do that because the milk trucks picks the milk up at 10 AM and it has scheduled stops....it cannot be delayed. The evening milking shift will start at 1PM of course and run to 10PM...20 hours a day of non-stop milking...but with a different crew of course.
In terms of production, every day this farm ships about 32,000 pounds of milk (4000 gallons) with 4% of it being butter fat. Annual production is 10 million pounds,or 1,250,000 gallons. At around $1.50 per gallon, its a sizable small business really.
I'll just say, I am glad I have a place to go when the economy gets bad even if it is hard work and kind of smelly. I know others are not so lucky. I figure I may be a little tired, but there is nothing wrong with getting back to your roots either. Milk anyone?
Its been awhile since I have been on the south end of 700 north bound cows, and I can tell you this...I feel like I actually worked this morning. It was non-stop work too. The shift starts at 1AM so we can get done milking by 10 AM. We have to do that because the milk trucks picks the milk up at 10 AM and it has scheduled stops....it cannot be delayed. The evening milking shift will start at 1PM of course and run to 10PM...20 hours a day of non-stop milking...but with a different crew of course.
In terms of production, every day this farm ships about 32,000 pounds of milk (4000 gallons) with 4% of it being butter fat. Annual production is 10 million pounds,or 1,250,000 gallons. At around $1.50 per gallon, its a sizable small business really.
I'll just say, I am glad I have a place to go when the economy gets bad even if it is hard work and kind of smelly. I know others are not so lucky. I figure I may be a little tired, but there is nothing wrong with getting back to your roots either. Milk anyone?