Off to work

[Gem's Mom]

Well, first time on this forum and I'd have to say it's pretty darn cool. I'm looking forward to posting more in the future :-)

Now though I need to head off to work. Have to milk them cows! I'm trying to get there early tonight because the crew we had last night was kinda slow... as in we got done 2 hrs later than normal slow. I'll be glad to be back on days next week!

[JackieB]

Great, Gem's Mom! We're so glad to have you.

[vicklynn]

Welcome to the forum!!

[Gypsy Rose]

Glad to have you here! Welcome to the forum!

Have fun milking those cows- I can actually relate, because I did that one whole winter- about a hundred head. That was a long time ago, and never again!

[PoniesRock101]

Welcome!

[Remali]

Hi there! I like your avatar picture!

[Miracle Whip]

How much do you get paid per hour to work in a dairy? We have a couple dairys in my area but the pay is about $8.25 an hour and its a 35 mile drive one way. Does your dairy operate year round? The one that I applied at did not milk in the winter.

[Gem's Mom]

Well, I'm back from a fun filled night at the dairy. Quick snack, shower and back to bed to get up again and go back to work tonight! Nights are so strange because when you go to bed you wake up and it's still the same day... Luckily tonight is my last night for this round (we rotate, so I don't do it again for anther month).

Miracle Whip: the dairy I'm at milks year round. They plan the breedings to slow down the calving in the dead of winter and the hottest part of the summer, other than that it's all go all the time. We're milking around 550 right now. Luckily the parlor is a double 13 so we can get 26 through at a time. It still takes forever though. When I'm on nights all I do is milk. When I'm on days my main job is feeding and taking care of the calves. I love it. They're so darn cute! Then I also milk for a few hours and do other random stuff (bed cows, sort cows, whatever needs done).

As far as pay I'm getting 9.45 an hour and I think starting my next paycheck I'll be able to get the "milk incentive program" money. If our milk meets/exceeds standards set by the processors who buy it then we get paid more for the milk. That ends up in our paychecks at about .30 more an hour. I do drive right around 30 miles one way and it takes 40 min. Kind of annoying but we've figured if I'm still there in a year and still loving it we'll look for a farm to buy in that direction so I'll be closer to work (and have the horses at home!).

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_53YAnhL9yaw/SM1lRcsQ7lI/AAAAAAAAA6w/f3tMTwoH7qE/s128/CIMG0834.JPG
Pic is me teaching a calf to drink out of a bucket. Right now they get 2 bottles of colostrum (first milk from mom) then they get switched to milk replacer. We have them drink out of a bucket then when they figure that out they drink out of a trough in groups of 8. Once our new calf barn is built though we'll be able to keep the calves in individual pens until they're weaned which will be awesome because right now they suck on each other all the time.

[Miracle Whip]

Sounds cool. I have only been to one dairy here and I did not care for her veal calf set up. They were living in hog huts basically, knee deep in poop. I didn't think I could handle being around the calves...sounds like yours is a nice place. You should post some pictures for us of the setup.