Planting Alfalfa (and its still winter?!)

I know that as farmers the weather being strange or changing patterns is supposed to be normal.  That's just part of our job.  The risk we take.  And one of the big reasons why so many of us realize how we need to rely more on God than our own understanding of "Mother Nature."
As the old saying tells us: The only thing that stays the same is everything changes.
So why do we continue to worry and make a huge deal when we see record highs, lows, rainfall, etc...?
Well, I don't know why. But we do.
80 degrees and sunny for a whole week in the middle of March is just CRAZY!
We are not really sure if we are making the right decision but one of the Core Values of our business/farm is Make Hay While the Sun is Shining. And boy is it ever!
So here you have it...planting alfalfa before the calendar even says Spring.
Another fun fact for you:
This feild shown here is right behind our house and for the past 5 years it has been corn. This is what we call Crop Rotation. Changing things up to replenish the soil. When you plant alfalfa the seed usually lasts for 4-5 years- not like corn or soybeans that we have to plant every year.

pink Slime

I just spent most of my night reading through several reports and many comments on the Pink Slime stories from ABC and Huffington Post.
Why do I do this I ask myself? Well...
1) I am passionate about my work. Producing food for people is my family's responsibility and our livelihood- not a J-O-B.
2) I didn't have time (or any fresh fruit in the house) today to pack my kids a lunch. They all had hot lunch and I never gave it a second thought.
Enter in the facebook and twitter posts that force me to view pictures of raw (and gasp! PINK?!?) meat. Now I am guilted into believing I have put my children's health in jeopardy.
No... I am tired of the media using a couple of gross buzz words and close-up shots of raw meat to make me doubt both my parenting and livelihood all in a 2 minute timeframe.
Just 3 points that I came up with tonight so I can sleep and once again, not think twice when kids walk out the door in the morning with no lunch sack.
1. This is a comment that I really appreciated from "pjcamp"

" Have you seen what is in a chicken nugget?

Connective tissue gelatinizes under heat. That is what makes pot roast and barbecue so lip smacking good.

Ammonium hydroxide is chemically related to sodium hydroxide which is an essential ingredient in making hominy, lutefisk, green olives, canned mandarin oranges, pretzels, Cantonese moon cakes, zongzi dumplings, Chinese noodles and ramen noodles. So it isn't intrinsically hazardous, and is used in some pretty tasty things. The FDA classifies both as "generally recognized as safe."

None of that means this stuff is nutritious. But it doesn't mean it is bad for you either and so it shouldn't be used in scare stories. "

When we hear terms we are not familiar with it can be scary. Do a little bit of digging before you freak out! What if they started spraying everything with Di-Hydrogen Oxide?!? (AKA H2O)

2. Pretty much this "slime" is fat that is cooked and cleaned and added back in. Not artificial or substitute. When we send our deer to be processed I ask for beef fat to be added in to the burger! The venison will be too chewy for my high class taste buds- texture is important when it comes to my chili.

3. So this 7 million pounds of pink slime that are going to schools should now go where, Jamie Oliver? In the dumpster? To the dogs? I don't want to be the one to tell the starving children of Africa.

Robot Dairy- Month One

--An update on the first 5 weeks at the Robot Dairy--
I can't believe it has been 5 weeks already! It has been quite a ride! While it has been challenging both physically and mentally for our team- but nothing beats walking into the barn at the new dairy! You can just sense that the cows love it there.
The cows have been averaging right around 97lbs of milk per day and milk quality is excellent (SCC under 100,0000)!
I do need to mention here that we hand-picked these cows from our herd. They are all younger (1st or 2nd lactation) cows too because the older ones are more set in their ways and may take longer to train. After the first week we did end up taking about 10 cows back to the parlor because their udder was just not the right shape for the robot or they were just weren't getting it.
At start-up we had 360 cows to train and since we have been adding 10-20 cows every week. In a few more weeks we will finally be at capacity- 500 cows. What this means is that there are 10-20 cows every week that have needed to be trained. This will be the case too after a cow has her first calf she will need to be trained. It takes about 1 week for the cows to "get it" so until then they need to be ushered to the robots 3 times per day.
Some other firsts this week:
-The first cow to go into the "sick" pen:(
We have a separate pen for cows who need extra attention located right next to the vet office. The vet came to check her out and she's on the road to recovery. Until she is 100% the robot will be dumping her milk.


-We were able to move cows into the heifer and dry (the ones that don't give milk)cow barns at the Robot Dairy today!

This means that the biggest project in the history of SwissLane Farms is wrapping up!
It has been great to work with such good people from our community to bring this dream together.
We want to express true appreciation for:
Kaeb Sales
High Tech Dairy
RA Holmes Construction
Steadfast Construction
Huderman and Son's Redi-Mix Inc
Skyline Electric
Sikkema Equipment
GEA Norb-Co Equipment
Bakker Welding & Mechanics LLC
Timpson Transport
Kyle's Computer Solutions
Huisman Construction
Great Lakes Concrete Pumping
Brink Consulting

It was quite a challenge making sure things stayed on schedule but we couldn't be more thrilled with the focus and professionsalism that each of these businesses brought to the project. And guess what.... we are already talking about Phase 2 of the Robot Dairy!!

Robot Dairy- Week One!

We made it!
Yes, I know its only been one week but you need to celebrate small victories, right?
Actually, the week went amazingly well!
"Better than expected" is what I would like to say but honestly, we had NO idea what to expect!
All we know is that the cows are loving it!
The best indicator is their milk production. If you want to know if a cow is happy, stressed, comfortable, sick, healthy, if she's eating right- you look at how much milk she makes that day. Our cows have been averaging around 85 lbs of milk every day for the last few years.
The average pounds of milk for today at SwissLane 2 (Robot Dairy) was 102 lbs!!

It took about 8 hours to haul all 350 cows from SwissLane 1- only 8 at a time.


This was the first cow milked last Tuesday.


Cows are creatures of habit to the tenth degree. Anything new is such a big deal for them! So, a new barn AND being milked by a ROBOT was a lot for them to take in. We had a crew of 16 people (4 at each robot) for the first day to help usher the cows into the robot to be milked. They were so hesitant!

For the first milking, the Robot had to be trained too!

We had to sanitize the udder

enter the cows ear tag number and steer it so it could find the teats.


The robots scan the cows ear tags so each time she comes in it will remember the shape of her udder and teat placement then it will automatically sanitize and place the milker on the udder. (If you look closely at the picture above you can see the laser on the udder.)
One of the incentives to get the cows into the robot- besides having a full udder- is they get a little treat to eat while being milked. There is a little trough in the robot and it will dump a certain amount of grain in there depending on how much milk she gives and how many times she is milked that day.
Some of them have to be limited on how many times they get milked because they will just come in to have a snack so the robot just kicks them out!


It is just amazing how much information we have access to! We can tell which quarter of the cows udder produces the most or how much she weighs at each milking. We can even track how often a cow is chewing her cud!



High quality milk is the most important thing on our dairy farm. The robot uses a laser to scan the milk to check for inconsistencies and color. If it senses bad quality milk it will dump the milk and alert the herd manager.

It is so fun to watch the cows enjoying their new back rub brushes! Merry Christmas girls!


The most amazing thing that I've seen this week had nothing to do with the robots though....
Over this past week there were 52 people who came to help us with this monumental endeavor. I was overwhelmed by the support from the farming community, our family, and friends. We are so blessed.

Is teaching kids work ethic going to be against the law?

I just submitted my comments to the US Department of Labor(USDOL) about the proposed changes to Child Labor on farms. You have until Dec. 1st 11:59pm. Follow this link the Document Type is Proposed Rule and I'D is 1235-AA06 to submit your own comments.



This is my night-time calf feeding crew practicing for the 4-H fair this summer. My kids, my neice, and cousins. If the USDOL changes go into effect, this kind of picture faces extinction.
The porposed changes would effect our family farm because we are in a partnership and there is not just one sole owner.

Here is what I had to say:

I am a 4th generation dairy farmer and mother to 3 children. I am deeply concerned with the proposed changes to the Child Labor Laws as they pertain to farms.
Currently, we have 38 employees and 19 people from our family work on the farm 8 of those would be effected by these rules.
Since 1915 our family has been built on the value of hard work. This work ethic has been passed down through the generations by children working side by side their parents and grandparents. We understand the importance of farm safety and make it a priority. Safety is something that is practiced on a daily basis and becomes natural. It is not something that just happens because a child has a birthday. Working as a family also passes down a deep commitment and understanding of the importance of being a steward of our land, animals, and natural resources. Children taught at an early age have a true appreciation for agriculture that will spark a passion for providing others with food and fiber.
I understand that my children will still be allowed to participate in some aspects of the farm but at a much different level than they currently do. Giving the children incentive to work by receiving a paycheck is not only rewarding them but also giving them an opportunity to learn to manage money. This is something that most of society and even our own government needs some practice at.
Making such broad and over-reaching changes to the way our family runs our business is going to put our family farm's legacy in jeopardy.
Thank you,
Anna Link
SwissLane Dairy

History In The Making- Swisslane2/Robot Dairy

A new era has arrived to Swisslane Dairy Farms!  In just a few hours, 300 cows will begin to be trailered over to Swisslane 2- or as we like to call it The Robot Dairy. 
It is just a hop, skip, and a jump to the north of our original farm.
We will start at 10am ushering the cows into the robots to be milked.
Over the past couple of years our family has done a lot of soul-searching, brainstorming, business planning, and most importantly praying. 
Now the current owners of the farm (my dad and my two uncles) are nearing retirement age and a solid group of generation nexters (my husband and I, two of my cousins, and my brother in-law) are ready to pursue enterance into the family business.
We needed a plan that would ensure the farm's sustainsbilty for years to come.
When we first met last winter to formulate this plan, all ideas were up for consideration.  Some ideas thrown out: cheese/milk processing, raw milk/cow-shares, buying a farm in Ohio, expanding the original farm, rotary or parallel parlors.  Everything was on the table.  One by one each idea was held up to our circumstances and our Core Values.  And in March of 2011 we made our proposal to the bank for a loan to build a farm for 500 cows with 8 Robotic Milkers and in 2-5 years we plan to begin Phase 2 and milk another 500 then.  
We broke ground in May and here we are- 6 months later- ready for opening day!
The three selling points, if you will, where robotic milking lined up with our Core Values were:

1. Light Years Ahead (This is cutting edge stuff!)
2.  Focused On The Cows (The cows will love consistency of the robotsand the cows get to decide when they get milked!)
3.  Turning A Nickel Into A Dime (Making a capital investment to reduce cost in the long run.)

Stay tuned for more updates and thank you for your prayers and support!

Birthday on the Farm!

We are so thankful for all the kids who have come this year to celebrate their special day in a farm-tastic way!
These are a few of the images from those events. 
Included in every party is: use of the barn, picnic area, barnyard friends, corn box, straw maze, bottle feed calves, hayride, and dairy snack.
Most people bring cake and ice cream and sometimes food for their guests.
It's a fun, easy, and unique way to make memories for a lifetime!