When we are giving a tour to people who stop by the farm, they always raise their eyebrows when we tell them that the cows have a nutritionist who watches their diet meticulously. I am sure the comment “You are what you eat” applies to our cows in ways that our forefathers never deemed possible.

Science continues to fine-tune the cow’s diet to improve her body condition, production, and longevity. Thankfully, we have people who specialize in this area and can help determine the best diet for our cows so we can have the strongest outcome for the farm.

I find it fascinating that even the smallest tweak in their diet affects production; our nutritionist does an amazing job at keeping tabs on what goes into their feed and what comes out.

There is no question that the cow is what she eats, and if we give her junk, we cannot expect a positive result. Not only will she feel bad, but we also put her health at risk. A twisted stomach is never a fun day.

Over our many years of farming, we have given cows magnets to swallow, in hopes that whatever hardware they ingested would attach itself to the magnet so the junk does not do more harm going through her digestive track. Sometimes it catches, sometimes it does not. It is evident that our animals pay little attention to what they are putting in their mouths, and they do not care about the results. They cannot rationalize what makes good milk.

A springtime childhood memory I have is lifting the lid to the milk tank to dip milk out for my mother and a strong garlic smell smacking me in the face. It was the result of the cows gorging themselves with the lush, spring garlic growing in the meadow. Processing at the plant took care of that problem, but it goes to prove my point.

The same is true depending on the type of hay that is fed to cows. We have all seen the result of rich, pure alfalfa being fed to the herd. Watch out when you are milking, working near the end of the cow is not the safest after that diet.

Sometimes curiosity gets the best of cows and they eat things that are not in the feed trough. Bale twine, sticky fly tape, or basically anything sitting within reach is subject to being chewed and swallowed as a result of their instincts.

More than once I walked past a calf hutch and pulled a long, gross, and slimy strand of bale twine out of a calf’s mouth. They got a hold of a loose end and kept pulling, tugging, yanking, and chewing. They just could not help themselves.

There is also the time that Duane and I had a weird virus on the farm — at least that is what we thought it was — until we discovered that the plywood dividing the pens had made the calves’ health deteriorate over the course of a few weeks until they needed to be culled.

We cannot always control what our animals come in contact with, but we are guaranteed if they come across something that looks tasty in their eyes, they will take a bite or try a lick to find out.

At the other end of the spectrum, we know that science and research has been a friend to farmers with the knowledge we have at our fingertips. Our nutritionist knows exactly the right ingredients to formulate a complete recipe for our cows. Not only does this keep our animals healthy, but it also helps us be more efficient as dairy farmers. Getting the most productivity out of our herd within our means is the goal, and that takes balanced decision-making.

Cost always weighs in on that formula. There are some ingredients that especially tip the scale on cost, and we have to decide if inclusion in the diet is worth the money. If the cost is more than the return, then we have to consider tabling that addition until the price goes down or the need is apparent.

I am going to shift gears and go another direction for a moment. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and we were discussing how social media feeds are out of line, and there are people who are caught up in what they consume on various channels. I understand that social media has a place, but continuous digesting of negative comments throughout the day feeds our brains a pile of junk. And the same philosophy that we apply to healthy cows needs to be applied to our own lives.

This is not just in what we physically eat, but also in our reading, listening, and watching habits. That does not mean that I only take things in through rose-colored glasses, but it does mean that I need to trust the information source, making sure that it is factual and does not offer inconsistent, inaccurate, conspiracy-driven garbage. Just like my cows, there is no reason for me to swallow something that is not good for me.