High Grove Farm Journal – Feb. 2023

Feb 27, 2023 (Westby, WI)

By Jessica Rogers

The month of February went by very fast on our farm this year and I have to say, I was happy about that! It started with very cold weather, a slight warmup in the middle and then ended with a major winter storm.

Beautiful sunrise after the storm.

The storms didn’t make things too difficult for us. It was mostly just a gross day of chores out in the wind and sleet. We also didn’t get a lot of snow – maybe 3 inches? It is hard to tell when it rains on top of it. We left the cows in for that whole day when it was storming, which we don’t usually do. The next day quite a few of them were playing in the cow yard, butting heads all full of pent-up energy.

Carter feeding cows their breakfast.

Every February we have our annual tax appointment for the farm. It always seems to land on my birthday. Not my idea of birthday fun, but it must be done! As it happens each year, we were amazed at how much money a dairy farm, even a small one like ours, spends locally to operate. The number of materials, supplies and feed that it takes to run a dairy farm results in a whole lot of spending at local businesses. You would probably be shocked to see the numbers. I know I have been in the past, but anyone who farms understands it well. Dairy farms take a lot to operate!

For those who don’t farm, here are just some of the businesses our dairy farm utilizes daily, monthly and yearly. We need milk hauling/trucking, dairy supply companies, farm stores, hardware stores, veterinarians, hoof trimmers, milk testers, custom harvesting crews, feed stores, equipment sales, tractor and equipment parts, fuel, excavating companies for sand and rock for cow yards and gravel for driveways, tires, animal nutritionists, custom baling and bale wrapping, custom planting, seed for planting, lumber, equipment rentals and the list goes on and on!

Country living and small town life is truly so special. Knowing that the hard-earned money we spend to operate our business goes back into our community’s businesses and neighbors is so great. So much of it stays right here.

It was a good year for our farm, and we are thankful for that. We made some big changes in the last few years. One of those being that we started grazing our cows more intentionally. The outcome has been wonderful, and we saw that reflected this year in lowered feed costs, harvesting costs and healthier cows, which lowered veterinarian costs immensely.

But anyone who is in agriculture knows, it’s all in God’s hands, from the weather to the milk price. We do the best we can and never stop learning and growing for the betterment of our farms!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Jessica Rogers is a Westby Creamery farmer-owner who is sharing glimpses of farm life with us.

A new farm journal comes out each month. Missed last month’s journal? You can find it here.