High Grove Farm Journal – May 2024
May 24, 2024 (Westby, WI)
Hello! I am Jessica and this is our farm. My husband and our four children operate a dairy farm near Soldiers Grove, Wis. and each month I share a look at what goes into this special lifestyle!
As you can imagine, the list of spring projects on a farm are many and most rely on good weather to accomplish. Drew spent time changing oil and fluids in equipment, the skid steer which we use every single day of the year, especially needed attention. Hauling any stockpiled manure onto fields before they are worked is an essential spring job and through most of the month we had good weather for seeding, field work and fencing projects.
Lunch on the go! Bringing meals “to the work” goes hand in hand with farm life. Here my husband Drew and our oldest son Carter are taking a well deserved late lunch out in the pasture where they’re working on new fencing.
While Drew has worked endlessly to get field work, countless projects and repairs done and a crop of rye baled, us girls have been getting as much time in the garden in as the rainstorms will allow. The greenhouse is full and transplanting starts is such a rewarding job!
We harvested a nice big rhubarb 1st crop and put up diced frozen rhubarb for baking all year round.
There have been many calves born this month and while that number rises, the number of animals on our farm has lessoned as we’ve brought all of our older heifers to their summer grazing pasture at a friend’s farm not too far away. It feels quiet on the farm without all of them here!
Farm dog Roxy greeting the newest member to join the herd. Mama isn’t too sure of her getting so close to her baby!
The kids are almost finished with the school year and are certainly ready for summer to start! I on the other hand wish spring would last twice as long, and Drew probably wouldn’t mind the extra time to get farm work done either! But the long hot days of summer are fast approaching and although there have been many days of rain showers making planting difficult and several severe storms going through, we’re still so thankful for the moisture. Harvesting 1st crop hay is high on our priority list as the rainy days have it growing tall, very fast. We’re praying we get a nice stretch of dry days in a row soon, the danger being that heavy rains can flatten hay and make it very difficult to harvest.
The work never stops on a family farm and you start young to lend a hand! Our daughter Tulsie is two months old already and isn’t phased by farm life, having heard all these familiar sounds for nine months before being born. She helped bring lunch to her Daddy and Carter.
Thanks for checking in. We hope you are enjoying this spring as much as we have been!
– Jessica Rogers is a Westby Creamery farmer-owner who is sharing glimpses of farm life with us.
