I think we’re close to being halfway through building… hoping to be done by November!  We made some significant progress this week as now the south side roof matches the north side roof.   Even though they’re not finished with the roof, it’s big enough to be over the area where the robot will sit, which means next week they’re moving on to putting insulation & steel on the area of the roof they’ve put up.  That way we can start working on getting the robot area ready!  Here are photos throughout the week. 

Another HUGE move forward this week was getting our milking robot!  She arrived on Tuesday and is now all tucked in until her permanent home is ready in a few weeks.  By the way, she doesn’t have a name yet, and people are asking, so we’re taking suggestions before we decide.  Ideas???

Dan had lots of meetings this week too!  We had a visit by some guys from Galaxy USA, our milking robot company – including the guy who will be helping us at “start-up” – the intensive beginning when the cows (and us!) are learning what to do in this new milking system.  Do you know how to interact with cows and want to help us get started that first week?  Let us know and we’ll let you know how you can help! 

Dan also met with a dairy nutritionist (that’s right, cows need to eat the right stuff & have special nutritionists!), a guy about the bed area that the cows will sleep on,  made a visit to our county FSA (the USDA Farm Service Agency) to get a few details ironed out on our cropping acres, and the manure equipment dealer stopped by to do some things for the manure system!  Plus we had some new calves and some sick cows at the current farm.  It was a busy week to say the least! 

Remember to vote for us on the Coalition to Support Iowa Farmers’ Facebook page!  Head to our Facebook page and it’s the top pinned post.  Click on the picture to open it up and then LIKE it.  And we’d love for you to share it too!  We’re the only obvious dairy farmers (or livestock farmers at all) entered so far.   Thanks!