Want Milk? Need Milk? We Got Milk!

Earlier this year I had a post about Steffview Farms and the County Fair. Today I went out to find John and Paula, the owners of the dairy. It was early morning, around 8:00 a.m. but that was hours after the Steffen's and the crew were hard at work. Matter of fact, they were just finishing up when I arrived this morning. So I went in to check it out for all of you so you can see where your milk comes from!!

It was raining today so at the farm it was a mud marsh, you really do need your hip waders for this job, needless to say my tennis shoes where a little mushy after tromping around the farm.

These are the two big silos that house the corn to feed the cows, they use to hold silage, which is ground up hay, I really came out to check out these two big monsters. They happen to have a very cool pipe that runs up the side that looks really cool in your house. Ki, over at Junk Revolution, will be filling you in on that one.

Meet the milk machines.... they are all looking the same direction because its time to go out, they have all been milked and the next group will be coming in.

John is giving this cow a shot, that looks like a big needle!

This is the pit where all the milking machines are located that get hooked up to the cows. This is Cecelia, she is charge of changing the milkers. Pretty amazing, huh?

This is the BIG milk tank that holds all the milk that comes from the cows. You can even get a COLD glass of milk from this tank fresh from the cow. I don't think you can get much fresher than that!

This is Steffview Farms "Grade A" Inspection Report, John runs a tight ship....

This is the colostrum, this is the first milk from the cow after giving birth to her calf. It is saved and given to the bottle calves that get fed two times a day, morning and night. When a dairy cow has a calf it is taken away and fed by bottle. This way the cow doesn't have to nurse the calf, but will still produce milk.

Here's Paula, driving her chariot, the skid loader. She was just coming back from feeding the bottle calves. There are so many she has to use the bucket on the skid loader to haul the bottles and buckets over to feed them. Driving one of these is one of Paula's many talents!

Cheers! Nothing like a cold glass of milk straight from the cow at 8:00 in the morning...

There it is... MILK... in it's purest form.

If anyone wants to stop by the dairy John and Paula would be happy to show you around. Just bring your own cup!

Cammie(:

Summer Days At The Fair

Meet the Steffen family, Paula and her family are very dear friends of mine and this past week we spent a day working on some 4-H decorations for the stalls the dairy cattle would be shown in during the Cedar County Fair. The requirements were that the decor had to be something old, something you had at home, you couldn't BUY anything to use in your design, sooooo Paula knew just where she could find the old, rusty, extremely used junk to design this stall...

The recipe for the design was 4 milk cans, one with chalkboard paint, one garden gate, some gardeners burlap reused from graduation, 7 spindles, one broken headboard, swing set chain, old water faucets and door knobs, sand, chalk, some old rusty stars, stencils, we already had, some left over paint, and leftover chalkboard paint.

This is John and Paula with the four kids in the Steffen family that showed cattle. They own and operate "Steffview Dairy" at Hartington, Nebraska.

These were the stars of the show... John spends more time with these guys than he does his family, he gets up at 4 a.m. to start milking 300 cows, and then starts again at 4 p.m. for the evening milking. Dairy farming is not for the faint hearted.

This is some of the rest of the Steffen family, it's a family affair when it comes to the fair.

This is the youngest of the Steffen family, Keaten and Jordon, Keaton won a purple ribbon in the open class!

Here is the milk can creation, didn't it turn our adorable! Check out the spindles with the faucets and knobs. Very appropriate for a dairy cow!

Check out all the trophies, this is something to be proud of.....

This is the cool sign we made out of the broken headboard and swing set chain, I think the cows were admiring it....

Two boys on a fence.......... Keaton and Triston

Here is Keaton checking out the other kids washing their calves, a perfect end to a perfect day.

If your ever in the area come on over and check out the dairy, John will be happy to give you a tour, and probably feed you too, well, he will offer to feed you and Paula will do the cooking,

tell em Cammie sent you.

Cammie(: