High Grove Farm Journal – September 2025
Oct 09, 2025 (Westby, WI)
Welcome to High Grove Farm! I am Jessica. I am so glad you stopped by! Every month our family shares what it is to be dairy farmers and while our boys , Carter and Caleb have been very busy with football practice and games, farming is a family affair and they’ve helped out a lot with extra chores and harvesting too.
September is a “get ready before the cold weather comes” month, so we start early with all those projects! Laney our oldest daughter has been working hard on her daily home school work and has taken on new responsibilities in the barn lately. Our youngest Tulsie has been busy exploring the farm and popping some new teeth this week, which has made her extra clingy to mom.
While the kids enjoy the beautiful fall weather for their play and sports, my husband Drew and I seem to be scrambling to get it all done. We just finished harvest and are entering the last year of transitioning the farm to organic, which takes extra planning and work. The weeks fly by and the projects and chores are relentless, but the cooler weather towards the end of the month has helped some. The cows can stay out on pasture all day when it’s cool and that cuts down on some work for us.
Our organic corn being chopped. We had to make several different bags of feed this year, a small one for conventional corn and the rest organic.
Planting fall crops and hauling manure that was stockpiled for after the harvest has been completed now. Drew worked on cleaning out his machinery shed and moved all the equipment back into it. He also fixed the four wheeler that had been broke for some time, and he welded new gutter grates for the barn. The bulk feed bin needed fixing and he welded that up as well. I’ve been doing as much deep cleaning on the milk house, as a state inspection is soon to happen. The changing seasons always make me want to deep clean, so I’ve started on the house as well. I’ve also been pressure washing the house siding and deck and washing exterior windows.
Walking the milk cows out to their morning pasture after chores.
We bought 17 fresh heifers and young cows this summer and they are doing great! All registered Holsteins from two beautiful herds of cows in Wisconsin. We sold a few of our bred heifers, and soon it will be time to bring the rest of the heifers home from their summer pasture before they start calving in.
As those cold months keep creeping closer to us, we’re going to stay busy preparing for them! Mowing has slowed down in most areas of the yard and now it’s time to prune up some things for the winter and to finish tearing down gardens and to rake leaves, dig potatoes and I also usually clean out the basement this time of the year.
I’m so glad you stopped by the farm today! Thanks for visiting. See you next time or follow along on the Creamery’s Facebook and Instagram to see daily farm life at High Grove!
Jessica Rogers is a Westby Creamery farmer-owner who is sharing glimpses of farm life with us.
