The news at Howell Farm this week is that our Jersey cow, Daisy, is pregnant. She’s due to have her calf next summer, in mid-to-late June.

I spent some time in the barn this morning taking with Intern Jake as he hand milked Layla, a Milking Shorthorn. Layla is a big cow with a lot of milk to give, so it’s a considerable job. On a good day, Layla can give nearly four gallons of milk. It usually takes Jake about 45 minutes to finish the job. Add in the time it takes him to sterilize the equipment, get the cow into the stall, put the milk away, and put the cow away, and the whole process requires nearly 2 hours each morning.

“If you’re thinking of getting a cow, you’re going to have to plan to put some time in,” Jake remarked.

Previously, Jake worked on a diversified farm that had a small herd of cows it milked commercially. Using modern milking equipment, Jake was, by himself, able to milk 10 cows in about 2 hours.

Jake told me he hopes to have a farmstead of his own someday, and that vision includes animals. He says he’d probably want one cow and would milk it the old-fashioned way, if for no other reason than that the set-up is much cheaper. Milking Layla by hand, the most significant piece of equipment is a large, stainless steel bucket. A modern milking parlor requires machines of all sorts Jake isn’t sure he’d want to purchase for just one cow.

Besides the milk and other dairy products, Jake sees a lot of additional value in keeping a cow. They mow the grass, provide manure, and provide baby cows as well. Jake has an idea he might use oxen for some jobs on the farm.

After milking was finished, I followed the milk bale down to the Howell Farm “milk house,” which is the kitchen of the old schoolhouse. Jake poured the milk through a filter, weighed it, recorded the results in a ledger book, and then deposited it in the refrigerator.

Elsewhere in the kitchen, the making of feta cheese was underway, using a new recipe. Farmer Rob tasted the results of his trial and reported that the recipe still wasn’t perfect, and would require some modification to make it a little more, but not too much, like the old recipe.

It's already time to start plowing the fields for autumn planting. Following our traditional COWS rotation (corn, oats, wheat, sod) the spring oat field is now being prepared for direct seeding of winter wheat. This year Howell Farm will plant two different varieties. One variety is an older type that's taller and has more stalk. The second variety is more modern -- it's shorter and has less stalk. The modern variety has certain advantages, but Howell Farm's circa 1900 harvesting equipment is optimized for the older, taller varieties of wheat.

A group from the New Jersey Historical Commission came to tour the farm today and helped out by taking a few rounds behind the walking plow. Farmer Jeremy reports that the soil is as wet as it can be for plowing without causing problems. If it gets any wetter plowing might be delayed. It was a very gray day today, but the rain held off.

Our spring chicks are now full-grown chickens. They made the move last week from the brooder house to the hen house, taking the place of last year's spring chicks, who were sent off to auction.

The essay below is by a Howell Farm intern, Jake, who recently visited with some Amish farmers.

It is not often that I get a chance to go to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. So when I was offered the opportunity to join Farmer Ian on one of his occasional trips to the Amish heartland, to purchase and repair some horse harnesses and other equipment, I did not hesitate.

What started out as somewhat of a joke actually materialized into a farm visit to an Amish dairy. The joke was that Ian would drop me off on an Amish farm when I had located “the one” and that is exactly what happened. We were passing by a rural community when I spotted a farmer spreading manure with two horses and a mule. I knew this was “the one” and within minutes I was talking with the farmer’s 13-year-old son, Andrew. After relaying a thumbs up to Ian from afar, Ian drove away to go about on his errands.

 Andrew’s father, David, came thundering in with his horses and mule hitched to a mechanical manure spreader that was powered by a small combustion engine. Almost as if he knew, David’s first words were, “Looks like we’ve got a helpa here.” I was interested in helping, but it looked like Andrew and David had everything under control. Andrew was scooping up manure in the barn with a bobcat loader and dumping it into the manure spreader. This was all being done with clean work clothes — white dress shirts and slacks— that made me feel like I had underdressed.

I was able to help Andrew move the 30 Jersey and Normandy cow from one pasture to the barn for a water break and then back out into a new pasture. I realized that these farmers were using electric fencing to contain their cows. Andrew told me that they rotate their cows through various pastures. Later, I asked David about the cows’ diet. David replied that the cows just eat grass, hay, and whatever they find in the pasture.  The only grain they get is whatever happens to grow on the stalks of mature grasses. David proceeded to tell me that they only milk the cows once a day. This freed David and Andrew in the late afternoons to spend more time with the rest of their family. David also claimed that milking once a day is the most profitable way to run their dairy.

I spent the rest of my time talking with David, riding with him on the forecart to and from the fields where he was spreading manure. We discussed various subjects that were very personal and I was pleased to hear this Amish farmer’s opinions on farming and about where his opinions originated from. What I took away from the visit is that some Amish may utilize modern technology, but beliefs in farming practices and methods are more concrete to their culture and traditions. As for David and Andrew, they rely on modern technology to operate their farm, but they practice a type of farming they believe to be more down-to-earth and natural.

When Ian pulled up to the farm with the minivan, David and I were still busy talking, and I probably could have spent another hour with him. I thanked David for welcoming a stranger to his farm. With Ian in the background, David kindly remarked, “Patience is a virtue, but I hate to make the other man wait.”

At last, Howell Farm has seen a few sunny days back-to-back.

Unfortunately for many of our pumpkins, the wet weather of August and early September was too much to handle. Many of them are rotting in the pumpkin patch. The rest have been harvested, and we hope many will still fulfill their destiny as Halloween jack-o-lanterns.

There are several new faces around the Howell Farm barnyard this autumn. New piglets are in the pigpen, and a new farm cat is in the barn. Then there's Layla, a milking shorthorn, who arrived recently with her spotted calf, Ray. Layla produces a huge amount of milk every day.(The Howell Farm milkers report some tired hands.) She's also physically larger than Daisy, our Jersey cow, so Farmer Rob and the interns spent some time today modifying the milking stanchion so she can fit her head.

Ray will only be with Howell Farm for a time, and will eventually go back to the farm on which he was born. But while he's at Howell Farm, he'll likely get some training in the ways of oxen. Ray's father is of the Normande breed.

Farmer Jeremy, winner of this year's Howell Farm plowing match, was back out in the field of his victory this morning, running over all the plowing match plots with a disc harrow. He's smoothing over the plowed spots so the next time the entire field needs to be plowed everything will be even. Jeremy then spent the afternoon in the barn, shoeing horses.

With all the rain this week, there hasn't been much fieldwork to speak of. But a brief break in the rain this afternoon provided the opportunity to catch up with the draft horses, grazing on lush green grass in the upper pasture.

August's record-setting levels of rainfall and flooding seem to have continued into September. It has rained steady at Howell Farm for the past two days, and more heavy rain is expected tonight. "Dry Run Creek" which runs through the heart of the farm, is running hard and still rising.