High Grove Farm Journal – July 2023

Jul 31, 2023 (Westby, WI)

By Jessica Rogers

Thanks for stopping by! It’s been another beautiful four weeks. The days just fly by, and there’s truly nothing like summer in Wisconsin on the farm.

Our land and crops look refreshed and relieved after receiving several heavy rainfalls in the last few weeks. It’s such a blessing after the drought conditions so many of us have suffered through this summer.

Our cows are enjoying their pastures as we graze the same “wedge” around our farm that we setup in the spring. Starting on one end and grazing a section every 12 hours, they move along the pattern until they come back to where they started. It takes about a month to graze it all, and it’s fun to watch the cows move around the farm. I especially enjoy watching them from the living room window at night when we finally put our feet to rest after a long day.

One of our new calves this month.

We continue to have a few new calves joining the farm each week and have more to look forward to this coming month as well. Most of the calves are from heifers (a young cow who hasn’t calved before) and who we’ve raised since birth. We only have one that you have to watch out for when milking as she likes to kick the milker off. She doesn’t care to look to see if your leg is in the way before attempting to remove the milker with her hoof! She’ll come around though. I call Drew the “cow whisperer.”

We’re focusing on a few fencing projects and finishing the perimeter of our farm.

This week we will chop our sorghum Sudan crop and bag it. It was just a few weeks ago we weren’t sure if it would even germinate with the drought, then we got rain and it’s three feet tall and ready to harvest. We’re so thankful! Third crop hay will be done next week. I have a feeling it will start to feel like a change in seasons since we will be approaching fourth crop.

The kids are enjoying summer to its fullest, and we’ve spent a lot of time at baseball games, swimming and playing with the four new barn kitties. My gardens are full of rows of potatoes, trellised tomatoes, green beans and more. I haven’t put up much yet, but we have been eating very good! I braided all the garlic I harvested and need to start preparing beds for fall planting.

We’re enjoying all the fresh vegetables from the garden.

I say this every year, but summer please slow down now! I am not ready for it to be over. We are thankful that you visited and hope you are enjoying the delights of summer as well. See you next month!

-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.