Stories of life, love and the pursuit of passing the farm to the next generation.: Just another day in the life of a 2 year old cattle feeder...

Something we have always made sure of is that our kiddos know where their food comes from. But, for some reason, our kiddos also find great excitement in knowing where their food's food comes from. It's fun to think back to Squirty's first show and tell day in preschool. While sitting around the table for supper, we asked her what she wanted to bring to school the next day. Without ANY hesitation, she said silage, mom. It was a super proud mommy moment to hear her explain the contents of each plastic bag of feedstuffs. Fast forward to today... Mr. B decided this morning that we should ~~play in the~~ check feed while checking pens.

First Stop of our feed tour, checking cows...

Naturally, one uses pink binoculars to look for new calves that just so happen to be right in front of you!

Next stop, wetcake...

Wetcake is wet and sticky and 1,000 times more fun to play in than sand. Wetcake, also called distillers grain, is a byproduct of the ethanol industry and is a great high protein livestock feed. Interested in learning more about the ethanol industry? Check out our friends over at the Minnesota Corn Growers Association.

~~HEY,~~ I mean HAY (good lookin') It's hard to find something that smells better than freshly ground hay.

Not all hay is created equal! Our feedlot critters are able to utilize lower quality hay than our friends over in the dairy industry. The highest quality hay (in terms of protein and other nutrients) is needed for lactating dairy cows, this type of hay would be too rich for most horses or beef cattle.

Mommy, you eat it!

I take that back, there's nothing better then the smell of freshly chopped silage!

Corn silage is the whole corn plant "chopped" while it is still green, rather than allowed to ripen and only harvested for the ear for grain. There are many options of preserving silage, at our farm we chose to pack it into large plastic bags.

Once all of the previous ingredients are loaded into the TMR (Total Mixed Ration) Mixer, a special blend of minerals is added, it's kind of like daily vitamins for the cattle.