Day 1 at the Dairy Cow Farm

I'm going to start with something totally unrelated, my trip to the doctor this morning. I finally went to see a doctor about my possible sinus infection this morning and it a very quick, painless, and relatively inexpensive process. I went to the accident & medical (equivalent of an urgent care) and for a visit with the doctor and 4 prescriptions it was less than NZD$130, that's about USD$115. That's amazing, at least compared with the US health care system! Nice! And he gave me prescriptions to clear up the infection, a medication to help with the congestion, and eye drops for my red and itchy eyes (may be an unrelated allergy). Now that that's all settled I'm feeling much better.

Now, onto the dairy farm. I drove down here to Morrinsville today over the lunch hour. It took me about 2.5 hours to get here as I took the scenic route and didn't bring directions with me and I arrived about 3 pm today. Vicki, the wife, came out to greet me and I spent my first hour here chatting with her and the kids, Ashton (10) and Jordan (11). After Nigel, the husband, finished up a few tasks on the farm he came back up to the house and we soon after went down to start on the tasks of feeding the calves and milking the cows. There were 2 sets of calves, the ones they are keeping and the ones they are selling. We fed each calf 2 liters of milk (they are fed 2 liters twice a day, so about a gallon of milk per day). Anyways, we first went to feed the calves they are selling (they keep these calves separate from the calves they are keeping). Here's a few photos of these calves:

After Vicki, Ashton, Jordan, and I feed those calves. we went and met Nigel who was milking the cows. So for a few facts now, they own 240 dairy cows (which apparently is not that many). Because most of them are pregnant right now, they are only milking about 25. As the rest of the 240 give birth they will go back to milking. Here's the ones he was milking today:

Nigel, trimming their tails.

What a view, ins't it?

After the milking was over, which didn't take long since there were only a few cows, we went down to feed the calves that they are keeping. Here's a few photos:

These two were only born today.

And a close up.

Here's a video from feeding those calves, staring Vicki. 

Next we went down to see the "early" cows - the adult cows that will be giving birth first, meaning in the next 2 weeks. There were two calves down there, born sometime during the day today. Here's a photo of one of them:

A view of the "earlies." There's a lot of them, aren't there. We are expect anywhere from 2 - 10 calves when we get there tomorrow. Beautiful clouds, aren't they?

And just a nice view. That's Vicki in the photo.

That's about all farm related for today. I have some more videos but don't have time to upload them all tonight. Will get to that later. Lots on the docket for tomorrow. We will be going to collect all the new calves in the morning, then feed the calves, do other things I don't remember. I'm so happy to be back out of the city again. It's just so nice here. And with such a wonderful family.

On that note, if you are wondering how I ended up here with this family, Nigel, the father/husband, was an exchange student at Stillwater High School in 1991. He stayed with a family that is friends with my uncle who connected us when he knew I was in NZ.

Okay, that's all for right now. I have so many more cow related facts to share but I'll save some for tomorrow.

Best!