Westby Creamery News

High Grove Farm Journal – June 2024

High Grove Farm Journal – June 2024
Drew Rogers bales hay at the rented farm down the road from their homestead.
Jul 18, 2024 (Westby, WI)

“June is busting out all over!” The words to that old song keep playing in my head as I watch my husband Drew baling more hay. The hay and everything else is growing so fast in what’s turning out to be one of the wettest springs I can ever remember.

Dairy cows lazily grazing in pasture near large old trees while the sun sets.

June brings a beauty to High Grove Farm at the end of the day that is unsurpassed in tranquility, though the days are a bustle of activity.

Hello! I am Jessica and I am so glad you’re here to check out life on the farm! My husband and I sure enjoy sharing each month what it’s like operating a small family dairy farm here in Wisconsin, along with our four kids: Carter 15, Caleb 11, Laney 7 and Tulsie 3 months old. There’s always a lot to do on the farm and this month was no exception! 

The weeks have flown by in the pretty month of June. It was a flurry of long days and even longer nights making hay and wrapping it – and of course lots of field work too. The cows are grazing the rotation fields and we’ve had to clip their pastures because it’s growing so fast that they can’t keep up with it. We’ve moved all our calves out onto pastures since we have the space with the heifers gone and they are really enjoying the grass. 

The cows are in the barn as little as possible this time of the year, and it’s nice not having as much work to do in there with bedding and cleaning up. However, there have been some very hot days where we’ve brought them back home by late morning, and they spend the rest of day in the cool of the barn with fans on them instead of enduring the heat out in the pastures. 

Young boy forks out balage from wrap into dairy barn.

Caleb bringing wrapped hay, which is called balage, to the milk cows in the barn. Balage is a fermented hay that’s baled at a higher moisture and then wrapped immediately. It smells so good and the cows love it for its soft palatable texture and flavor!

Keeping up with the mowing and the weeding in the yard and vegetable gardens has been difficult this year because of the rain. Planting seeds in the garden and tilling have been squeezed into little windows of “dryer” weather, usually after only a day or two with no rain, which has worked but isn’t ideal especially for tilling ground. However I got everything in that I wanted to, and the gardens are now bursting at the seems and are growing fast! It’s looking to be a good year for the gardens if we can get things picked in a timely fashion.

Two children pick strawberries in large garden.

Picking and eating our strawberries is a favorite part of summer and a rewarding task when you get to eat while you work!

A vertical view of a vegetable garden.

It has been a wet summer at High Grove Farm, but we’ve managed to plant everything on the list.

Meanwhile at home, the kids have been enjoying summer and swimming almost every single day. Drew has been struggling with some health problems, which has been difficult but we’re praying he continues to mend quickly. The work doesn’t stop and we will continue to harvest hay at the home farm and rented farms. Soon we’ll be bringing home some of our heifers to get them bred. The sorghum is growing good but needs some dry weather to really thrive. But with last years drought still vivid in our memories, we’re so thankful for the rain this year and watching all the crops growing so well is a daily reminder of this great blessing! As the weather seems to be moving towards a dryer pattern, we’re hopeful to finish some large projects we have planned for this year!

Thanks for visiting the farm! We hope you are enjoying the sunshine as much as we are! 

 

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

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