Flat Aggie's Winter Adventures in New York

     My first view of the barn at Freedom Ranch-they really know how to do winter in Central New York! 

Freedom Ranch is a diversified livestock operation.  Scott and Sharon custom raise a variety of animals in a pasture-based setting for private sale.  When I visited there were meat and dairy goats, chickens, ducks, steers and a horse living there!  In the spring and summer there will also be pigs on pasture. 

They put me right to work, unloading the week’s grain. 

Since the ground is still snow-covered, the goats, chickens and even the steers get supplemented with grain and locally grown hay.  Once the grass starts to grow they won’t need grain or hay. 

Every morning Sharon milks her 3 dairy goats.  They are wonderful producers of rich milk, each producing between 1-2 gallons per day!  Sharon will use this milk in her home to drink and makes award-winning cheeses and yogurt. 

  

The kids (that’s what baby goats are called) drink their mothers milk during the day, and then the moms get the night off-duty and share their milk with Sharon on the morning.  I claimed to be an expert milker, but didn’t realize just how much milk Haley, her 7 year old Saanen doe, made!  I managed to milk 9.2 lbs. from her though.

Throughout my week at Freedom Ranch I was amazed at how cold hardy the animals are.  Scott taught me that if you can see snow on an animal’s back, that indicates their coat of fur is trapping their body heat in and keeping them toasty warm.  Who would think that these patient steers are really quite cozy?

 Even the does (female goats) and Levi prefer to eat their breakfast outside on a bright, crisp morning.  The meat herd consists of does that are boer/kiko crosses and are quite hardy.   However,  Levi (the horse) must think he lives somewhere tropical and did not grow a winter coat, so he requires a blanket to stay warm!

 

The chickens have a cozy coop area inside the barn where they spend the winter.  Chickens do not like the snow, as their feet get cold in it! 

I enjoyed checking in on the hens each day and collecting the wonderful eggs they lay. 

Did you know eggs come in a variety of colors?  I found pink, light brown, dark brown and even blue eggs! 

 

There were a few freshenings (or kiddings, as goat births are called) while I was visiting.  Ramona had triplets, which is not unusual.  Scott, Sharon and I worked together to help the does dry the kids off and dipped their umbilical cords in iodine to prevent infection.

There is a corner of the birthing stall with a heat lamp to allow the newborns to stay cozy for a few days after being born.  I quickly realized why the kids love cuddling up in there!  The lamp emits a red light so the kids can get some sleep without having a bright white light keeping them awake. 

 

  Sharon also loves sharing her knowledge with students at the local school, Hamilton Central.  She spent a few hours one afternoon teaching the ag students about the basic principles of cheesemaking.  The students got to make three different ricotta cheeses and taste the results too! 

Happy trails…until we meet again after my next adventure!!

Flat Aggie Visits Barbland Dairy Farm

We were so excited to have Flat Aggie visit Barbland Dairy Farm, LLC! We are located in
Fabius, NY, which is about 30 minutes South of Syracuse, in the middle of New York State.
Living in upstate New York, means that we get to enjoy all four seasons. Our 5 year old
daughter, Brynley, showed Aggie all around the farm today and they had a great time getting
to know each other!

(Pictured above: our farm sign at Barbland Dairy and an aerial view from on top of our gain
bins overlooking our farm!)

At Barbland Dairy farm, we milk 1,800 dairy cows three times a day! Our cows produce an average of 10 gallons of milk per day. 10 gallons is about 170 glasses of milk per day. How cool is that!?

(Picture above: Brynley was excited to show Aggie the milking parlor! This is where the
cows come three times a day to give milk. It only takes 5 minutes to get milked each time.
The rest of the day, our cows are back in the freestall relaxing.)

The milk from our dairy farm goes to several different processing plants, including:

1. Chobani, to be processed into yogurt.
2. Garelick Farms, to be processed into fluid milk.
3. Kraft Heinz Foods, to be processed into cottage cheese and sour cream.

(Pictured above: we haul our milk to the processing plants. These are the trucks and milk
tankers that haul our cow’s milk to the processing plant. Everyday we ship two full tanker’s
of milk!)

With 9 essential nutrients in every glass, milk is a super-food! Kids’ growing bodies need
protein foods, like milk which delivers natural, high-quality protein, because from muscles
to hair, bones to teeth, the body requires protein to be healthy and strong. In addition,
protein impacts many different functions, including building lean muscle and maintaining
bone health.

There are 6-10 calves born each and everyday at our farm, 365 days a year! A cows gives
birth for the first time at about two years of age. A cow is pregnant for 9 months, and the
average weights of a calf when they are born is 90 pounds! A cow must give birth in order
to be able to produce milk. Dairy cows generally have one calf at a time, but every once in
awhile we do have a set of twins born on the farm. Female calves are called heifers and
male calves are called bulls. A female is not considered a “cow” until she has had her first
calf. Special care is taken of both calves and cows after birth to ensure that each get off to
the best start possible!

(Picture above: Aggie was able to see this adorable calf born while she was visiting our farm today! Newborn calves lay in straw to keep them warm and dry.)

Holsteins are the breed of dairy cows that we have at our farm. Holsteins are easily
recognizable because of their black and white spots. Did you know that Holstein's spots
are like fingerprints, and no two cows have the same spots? They are also the largest
breed of dairy cattle, with cows averaging around 1,500 pounds and standing up to (and
sometimes over) 60 inches tall!

(Pictured above: Brynley toured Aggie through the freestall barn to show her our Holstein
cows. Did you know that Holsteins can be either black and white OR red and white!?)

We work 5,000 acres of cropland to feed our cows throughout the year. The crops that we
raise primarily include: grass, alfalfa and corn. A cow will eat over 120 pounds of food and
will drink a bathtub full of water everyday!

(Pictured above: Aggie had fun checking out the food our cows eat. A cows food is mixed
well so that every bite they take is the same. The picture on the right is a picture of us
planting our corn in the Spring time.)

Our cows stay in barns called “freestall barns” because they are free to walk around, eat,
drink and lay down whenever they want.  In the barns they get to lay on sand, just like being
at the beach!

(Pictured above: Aggie had fun checking out the sand bedding that our cows enjoy. She said
it felt just like being at the beach!)

Visit All About Dairy for some classroom resources and ideas.

An Apple A Day or a glass of Cider! Flat Aggie visits Berne NY

An Apple A Day or a glass of Cider!

October 2018

Hi Flat Aggie here!

It is Fall time in Upstate New York! It was a bit cool and I sure wish I had my jacket, instead
I had some hot apple cider and that did the trick to warming me up! I am visiting my friend
Sarah who lives in a small rural farming town of Berne, NY (about 20 minutes Southwest of
the Albany- the capital). Sarah grew up on her family’s apple orchard and she is a teacher
that has a passion for agriculture of which she incorporates when teaching her 5th graders
and FFA members.I learned so many interesting facts when visiting NY. Did you know that
the pilgrims planted the first apple trees in the Massachusetts Bay Colony! Wow! The history
of apples in the United States stems from the Northeast Region! New York is ranked the  2nd
largest apple producing state in our Country. Can you guess which state is ranked #1 in
apple production?

While visiting New York I spent a day at a local Orchard, Indian Ladder Farms (see below).

It was a rainy, gloomy day so we went inside the old barns of the Farm Market. The minute
you walk in the door the smell of apples, cider, and cider donuts was overwhelmingly,
delicious smelling! There were about a dozen varieties of apples you could buy!

Also in the store they sell locally produced milk, organic eggs, cheeses, and meats!

I chose to purchase a half peck (about 8 apples for $11.50). It was expensive, but it was a new variety of apples called Snapdragon and I really wanted to try it. Cornell University’s apple breeding program (located in New York) spent 10 years perfecting this type of apple and it sure was crunchy and very juicy!

The wonderful part of purchasing fresh fruit from a local farmer is that you can even Pick your Own! There were many families there in the orchard picking their own apples, laughing, and enjoying time together. It is a tradition to go apple picking for a lot of families in this area.

Downstairs in another part of the 50 year old barn, is where you can watch the workers make fresh cider out of the apples they picked from the orchard behind their barns. Apple Cider is a natural juice made from pressed apples. It is naturally unsweetened and unfiltered- just pure sweet juice! Check out this video of how they make cider at Indian Ladder Farms!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YWpll-6WhI

Here I am ready to pick apples from these dwarf apple trees for cider and put them in these
large wooden crates. In order to make sweet tasting cider, farmers use many different
varieties of apples in each batch of cider they make. For example, they pick Cortlands,
MacIntosh, Red Delicious and Molly Reds, of which each apple has a different flavor, but
when juices are combined creates a delicious sweet cider! It takes about 36 medium sized
apples to make 1 gallon of cider! Good think I was here to help pick the apples!

The apples are then sent through a conveyor system where they are washed, and shredded
into smaller pieces in order to more easily extract the juices. In the background of this picture
you can see the UV Treatment machine. It is the law in New York State that in order to sell
fresh cider to the public for drinking purposes it has to be pasteurized first.

• Pasteurization: After pressing, apple cider is heated to 160 degrees Fahrenheit for a few

seconds, which is sufficient to kill any harmful bacteria that may be present. Pasteurized

cider is then immediately cooled to maintain the cider’s flavor and nutrients.

• UV treatment: After pressing, apple cider is exposed to UV light, which kills any harmful bacteria that may be present. UV is a non-thermal process, so the cider is not heated in the process (www.nycider.com)

I watched the workers press the shredded apples and voila! Apple cider is made!

I was also invited to Sarah’s apple farm during my visit. Here is her brother (3rd generation) pressing cider for their family in their 1860’s barn. It was a much smaller production then Indian Ladder Farms and requires more handling of the apples and more family members to make this cider production happen, but they have been making cider for over 35 years!

After a long day of picking and eating apples and all that work making cider I was really hungry! Thankfully there is the Yellow Rock Bistro within the old farm at Indian Ladder and I had some fresh hot apple cider and a turkey apple sandwich made from their apples!

Back at the school where Sarah teaches, the FFA students organized a Big Apple Crunch Challenge for the elementary school that the FarmOn Foundation puts on every year. It is where people all over NY take a bite of a locally grown apple at 2:00 on October 25th in order to promote eating healthy and locally!

I assisted an FFA student in organizing apples to give to every class in our elementary school.

Here is the Big Crunch with 411 students Pre-K- 6th grade! If you look close you can see the apples in their hands! Can you find me in the “B”?

It was a fun time visiting upstate New York and learning about the process of apple cider making and how important small farms are to the economy of New York!