We were hard at work this Halloween. Things are looking a lot different around the farm. We have moved a lot of dirt around the outside of the freestall barn and started pouring some concrete to get ready to add the buildings for the robots.
We still made time to be festive though. We put up our usual Halloween and fall decorations. We have two 55-gallon drums going down the driveway with some spooky Halloween art painted on them. They even light up at night like huge jack-o’-lanterns.
All of our family has definitely been spending more time on the farm trying to prepare for what is coming. I didn’t realize how much work was actually involved. I knew there would be a lot of decisions to make, like where to place the robots, cow brushes, new office, and so on. But little did I realize how much more was to be decided. What type and placement of flooring, interior walls, exterior walls, windows, doors, gutters, steps, and lighting . . . those are just a few of the things we have to decide. There is so much to all of this, but it is definitely exciting.
We are, for the most part, right on schedule with everything, which is a blessing. It has definitely been hard work, but we do realize it is going to get harder before it gets easier. Our staff has come together and taken on more work to help out for the new projects ahead of us.
The weather has definitely cooled off in the last two weeks, which has been a plus with all the extra workload. High temperatures during the day have been around 75°F and lows at night are around 50°F. You can’t really ask for better weather through all of this!
I hope all of y’all had a Happy Halloween! I’m sure most of us farmers tried to get done with chores at a decent time to eat some candy and catch a scary movie on TV!
Mark and Caitlin Rodgers are dairy farmers in Dearing, Georgia. Their “Father and Daughter Dairy Together” column appears every other Thursday on HD Notebook. The Rodgers have a 400-cow dairy that averages 32,000 pounds of milk. Follow their family farm on Facebook at Hillcrest Farms Inc.