Illinois Farm Families Blog

If you have never been on a farm before, here’s your chance to experience the real deal.

Linda and Dale Drendel are again opening their Hampshire farmstead to the general public for a dairy breakfast and farm tour from 6 to 11 a.m. Saturday, June 15.

The Drendels offer this unique experience to visit a farm and provide others with a better understanding of the origins of their food, such as dairy products.

“This Saturday morning, family activity is meant to be enjoyed by all ages,” Dale Drendel said. “We welcome visitors and hope they see this as an opportunity to learn more about how we care for our animals and produce fresh and wholesome milk.”

A highlight of a visit to the farm, known as Lindale Holstein Farm, is watching some of the 150 dairy cows being milked in the milking parlor. The modern parlor accommodates 11 Holstein cows at a time and offers viewers an up-close look at the farm’s automation and the transfer of milk from the cow to the bulk tank.

Milking demonstrations will occur from 6 to 9 a.m. during the tour.

The farm visit offers a tour of the barns to see the young dairy calves, heifers and cows. And visitors get chance to milk a cow by hand just as farmers used to do many years ago.

Visitors will see all aspects of dairy production, from the feed used in their special diets to the care taken by farmers to assure their animals are comfortable and healthy.

Besides the cows, visitors to the farm will see farm equipment used on the dairy and grain farm, and get to sit on the seat of a modern tractor.

To top off the morning, a hearty farm-style breakfast will be served complete with pancakes, sausage, applesauce, cheese, milk, coffee and ice cream, from 6 to 11 a.m.

A donation of $8 for adults and $5 for children (5-10 years) will be collected at the farm. The price includes breakfast and the farm visit. There is no charge for children 4 and under.

The Dairy Breakfast and Farm Tour is being sponsored by local dairymen from DeKalb and Kane counties who are members of the Kishwaukee Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA).

The Drendels are avid promoters of the dairy industry, whether it’s welcoming visitors to their farm, showing cattle at fairs, serving in leadership roles or educating others about agriculture. Dale serves on the boards of the Illinois Milk Producers Association, Foremost Farms, Kishwaukee DHIA, and Dairy Lab Services. Linda, a former teacher, also has an active role on the farm and serves on the Midwest Dairy Association.

The Drendels are also participants in Illinois Farm Families and host Chicago moms for farm visits.

Their son, Jeff, works alongside them on their dairy farm. Their daughters are Carrie Corson, public relations project manager for COUNTRY Financial in Bloomington; and Julie Ashton of Marseilles, farm broadcaster for The Big Ag Radio Network and Nelson Multimedia Group.

As livestock caretakers for the past 40 years, Dale and Linda Drendel hold themselves accountable to the hundreds of dairy animals on their farm.

“We take personal responsibility for feeding and caring for our animals,” said Linda, “and providing top-quality milk for consumers.”

They grow corn, soybeans, alfalfa, oats and wheat, much of which is used for dairy feed.

To learn more about the Drendels, visit their farm website at www.lindaleholsteins.com.

The Drendel Farm address is 15N057 Walker Road. Handicap parking is available at the farm.

For additional information, call Bill Lenschow, Dairy Breakfast chairman, at 815-895-9690.

 Reprinted from the Beacon News.

I’ve missed 114 milkings….in a row.  We knew this was coming, but counting them up just now makes me feel incredibly inadequate, and sad.  You see, I miss the cows.  I miss the smells (good and bad).  I miss talking to the cows.  I miss their mannerisms.  I miss knowing who is milking well, who is sick, and who calved.  I miss the schedule of it all.  I miss working with Brent.
Having a baby changes life.  Many people have laughed & giggled at me, when I tried to say, oh, they’ll just come along – I can still work.  This was true all throughout pregnancy.  I milked cows the night we went to the hospital, but now – someone else sets the schedule.  
There are benefits.  The house is fairly clean, I’m caught up on laundry, the farm books are up to date, and I’m able to prepare a real supper nearly every night.  A real supper – a main dish, vegetable, even the occasional dessert.  We still eat in the living room, but this is a good 1st step.  And, yes, I get to spend nearly all my time with our daughter. 
It’s November – the time of being thankful.  So, I’m thankful: 
For Family – those that are spending more hours in a barn, so I can spend more time with the newest member of our family
For Friends – those that come and help with milkings, and those that watch the baby while I go for X-rays
For Weather – that is fairly cooperative so that the harvest can be completed, and all the chores can get done, and allows for some excursions out around the farm
For Inspiration – Join us for 30 days: mycowsandpigs.blogspot.com, My Generation
For the Future – a beautiful, healthy baby girl that we can teach about farming, and will be milking cows with us soon.
This is why we farm!
Carrie Pollard Po-Cop Dairy Rockford, Ill.

 I had to chuckle just a bit when one of my girlfriends complained that it was too hot to take her kids to the pool this past weekend. "Unless you are in the water, it's just too hot to be outside," said my friend, who is a mother of two.
While most of the country is experiencing one of the hottest summers on record, and the kind of severe drought that hasn’t been seen for nearly a quarter of a century, farmers are the ones really experiencing the toll.

As a mother of three, I'm concerned for my children spending too much time outdoors in the excessive heat. "Drink plenty of water, come inside and put on more sunscreen, get in the shade!" I’ve been heard saying more times than I care to count. However, for many dairy farmers like my husband, Scott, they really worry about the cows and the crops.

Cows are much more tolerant of weather than people, but a farmer still takes exceptional care of cows, especially during this hot weather.

Our milk cows are housed in a free-stall barn, where they have 24/7 access to fresh feed and water, and can lie down or walk around at their leisure. The barns are equipped with large fans running 24 hours a day, so they can have constant cool air flow.

Our cows are also cooled off with sprinklers as they enter and exit the milking parlor. Jersey cows at Bohnert farm can lie down on new mattresses we added last month, giving them that extra cushion to help keep them cool and comfortable.

Like many dairy farmers, Scott clocks in many hours during the summer months. He wakes early to mix fresh feed for the cows to eat during the cooler mornings, and does it again after the sun has gone down and the thermometer has dropped, encouraging the cows to eat and drink as much as possible. All of our cows, both big and small, are closely watched to make sure they stay healthy.

Honestly, we can do more for our cows than we can do for our crops in the heat. We farm on sandy ground with no irrigation, which generally hasn’t been a problem until now. To say the crops need a drink of water would be an understatement. Our insurance representative is reporting a significant loss for our farm, but we try to remain optimistic. Others have it worse. We are fortunate at Bohnert Farm that we still have nine months of feed on hand.

Funny how we now consider mid-to-high 80s a cool front. However, these cooler temperatures brought much-needed rain —enough to settle the dust, make the corn stretch a bit, and give all our Jersey cows and kids of all ages a bigger smile.
And, for the first time in more than a decade of living in Illinois, I have gotten used to the heat and humidity. Not sure that's a good thing, but I realized that I can handle it, especially if my husband and so many other dairy farmers and livestock caretakers can work in this climate day-in, day-out, to assure that our animals continue to be cared for well.

Karen Bohnert
Bohnert Jerseys
East Moline, IL

 

 

 

Our granddaughter Olivia (age 5) and her mom, our daughter Carrie, will come see us this weekend. When Olivia comes, she helps me with the calf chores -- she loves the cows!  We visit the cows in the show barn; she knows them by name! She knows what to do in the calf barn and will pick up the milk buckets, push the grain cart, feed the bottle, etc.
 
Olivia "owns" three animals; she has shown each one in the show ring for three years now. Each phone call she asks me: How is Liv? Is she still giving 50 pounds (per milking)? How is Angelina? (She is expecting her calf next March and is now on another farm, but I see her once in awhile) How is Taz? Has she moved up to the next pen? (She is now in the heifer barn; the calves move through the pens as they grow.) Olivia is our farm girl!!!

Linda Drendel
Lindale Farms
Hampshire, Illinois

Linda and her husband, Dale, will be hosting some new visitors next month when the Illinois Farm Families Field Moms venture out on their first farm tour. Field Moms from the Chicago area will have the chance to meet Liv, Angelina, and Taz, as well as have conversations with Linda and her husband, Dale, about farming in Illinois today. Come back to watchusgrow.org to see the Field Moms' experiences and read about it on this blog!

 The cows needed a new barn.  (I mean REALLY needed a new barn!)  After nearly 40 years, the existing barn had simply run its course.  And, of course, we couldn’t just rebuild what we had.  You see, we’ve learned a lot about cows in the last 40 years.  The cow of today is not the same cow of 40 years ago.  She produces more milk, she is bigger, she eats more, she gets hot easier.  However, we hope to make life easier for our cows.  Unlike our house (or most other farmhouses I know), the cows’ house has ceramic tile under the feed bunk for easy plate-lickin’.  They also have bigger bed frames (we call them stalls), and more comfortable mattresses in those beds than the old barn.  We also added almost twice as much of everything to keep the cows cool in the heat:  natural air flow (via higher sides and bigger curtains), forced air flow (fans), and water space.  

 I’m sure within a couple years we’ll come up with the next thing that we’ve learned that will make life easier for the cows, and we’ll implement whatever that next thing is as soon as possible, because we always want what is best for our animals.  We are always learning, and we have to change or adapt whenever we learn something new.  We hope the cows will forgive us for temporarily disrupting their lives while we were under construction this summer, and hope that they will appreciate all these improvements, and thank us in the form of more milk.  The old adage holds very true.  If we take care of the cows, they’ll take care of us. 

Check out the process on Carrie's blog, My Cows & Pigs.

Carrie Pollard
Po-Cop Dairy
Rockford, Ill. 

 

We now live on Brent’s family dairy farm outside Rockford, where Brent farms full-time with his parents, milking 70 Holstein cows, and farming 600 acres of corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. Beyond helping on the farm when I can, I also work full-time for Bethany Animal Hospital, where I get to use my passion for pigs by helping pork producers across northern Illinois improve their farms.

I am excited to share with you where your food comes from, and hope you’ll ask us (those of us who spend each and every day raising food for your tables) all of the questions you have about where food comes from, and how it is grown. On this blog, there is no such thing as a stupid question! 

So, the other day, I called Brent while he was at the neighbor's to ask him to bring home a cup of milk for a recipe I was making for supper that night, as we were all out.  He laughingly replied, "You know we do have cows on our farm." We do have a dairy farm, with our own milk, but I still buy milk at the grocery store just like all of you. Why, you may ask?  We simply don’t like the taste of whole milk. Another reason is homogenization, the process of putting milk in solution, so that the cream does not rise to the top. This is simply a matter of preference, as Brent doesn't like the creamy stuff – and I have always had store-bought milk, so I don't know the difference!

I buy whatever milk happens to be on sale. I don't worry whether the milk comes from Holsteins or Jerseys, or whether it was produced on a farm with 16 cows or 16,000; I know that it is safe, full of essential vitamins and nutrients, and produced by farm families that care about their animals, just like the milk that is down the hill in our own bulk tank.

 So, I will remember to go to the store tomorrow to buy my own gallon (or two) of milk, and Pour One More! Read more about the day to day happenings at the Pollard Farm.

Carrie Pollard
Po-Cop Dairy
Rockford, Ill.