Kia Lamica - Bilow Farms: Post #1

Watering the group housing after
covering the hay silage pile

Since I was a little girl, I knew that I would end up somewhere in the dairy industry. Growing up, I was raised to work hard and chase your dreams, cliche I know, but entering the real world, it could not be truer. My journey at Bilow Farms, LLC, has been a wonderful one thus far. I have learned quickly that my passion drives my motivation. I have worked six days a week since I have started, working at least 12 hours a day. I have found that my time at work doesn't really seem like I am working. I enjoying working for the people I do, and even more, I enjoy what I do.

At the farm, I am responsible for overseeing the calf program; this includes the daily operations and the future outlook of the farm. Our calf area includes roughly 212 single hutches and 19 super hutches that house 6 calves each, which brings our number of calves around 358 when we are at full capacity. We feed milk two times a day, 6 AM and 4 PM. It is always important to start with the youngest animals and work toward the older animals. The youngest animals are the most immune compromised. At Bilow's, we have split up the milk into two loads. Every Monday, I make a card that shows the calf feeders the amount of milk that each calf needs to receive. This helps keep the calves on schedule to wean them. Other daily operations include graining and watering the calves, along with bedding them. To take care of the super hutches, you have to take the TMR out of the feed bins and replace it with freshly made TMR. Each super hutch gets their water dumped every day and refilled; they also receive grain each day, some in the morning, and some at night.

Dehorning calves

When I started my internship, I was told that I was going to be in charge of getting all of the dehorning caught up. Normally dehorning is done weekly; I walked into the calf program when around 160 animals needed to be dehorned. They were roughly seven weeks behind on dehorning. With the help of another employee, I was able to get all of them dehorned in a little over two weeks.

As part of my postpartum management on these fresh cows, I occasionally have the opportunity to assist with surgeries. I had the opportunity to help one of the veterinarians with a displaced abomasum surgery. I have seen a lot and assisted with a lot of these surgeries, but this one was by far the most educational one. The veterinarian had me scrub up with him and glove up. Once he had officially diagnosed it as a displaced abomasum, he had me reach into the body cavity. I was able to feel around, get a sense of the internal organs, and to feel the actual DA. Throughout the surgery, he asked me a number of true/false questions, along with a number of open-ended questions, which allowed me to give a well-reasoned answer.

Tube feeding a newborn. 10228 was a twin heifer
who had a rough first few days of life

One aspect of any calf program is the colostrum harvesting and storing procedures. Their harvesting and storing procedures had room for improvements. In the refrigerator, I found colostrum that needed to be discarded. The veterinarian and I took samples from this colostrum, and sent it to the QMPS Milk Testing Laboratory for a bacteria culture. The results came back that we had E. coli, along with other pathogens in the colostrum. We made immediate changes to what we were doing. Every bag of colostrum that is harvested is cooled in an ice water bath prior to refrigeration. This is to drop the initial temperature down very quickly to reduce the bacteria growth. We also made the decision that colostrum will only be kept fresh for three days, and then discarded. Other changes in the equipment cleaning and sanitizing procedure were made. A second set of cultures were taken and sent to the lab, and came back with a tremendously lower bacteria count. Since the changes that we made, we have seen huge improvements in calf health within the first two weeks of life; our blood protein results have also increased to a more desired level.

Diversity blossoming at the farm!

As part of my internship, I have agreed to work on improving and developing protocols, as I have not done very much of this in the first half of my internship, much more is to come. So far, I have started to work on the current calf care protocols, however, in the near future I will be developing new employee protocols and schedules.

This week, I was able to have an amazing opportunity of visiting the satellite location in central New York. At the satellite facility, I was able to do some troubleshooting in the calf area alongside employees. While at the facility, I was bale to work with the herdsperson and help her through some of the adjustments of her new position. We were able to J-vac the entire herd while I was there. We also worked on calf vaccinations and dehorning. I was bale to work with the Hispanic employees in the parlor. While I was done there, her and I were able to attend a Cargill workshop that was put on for local farmers. The workshop was on transitional cows and more specifically a ruminal protected choline product that helps the cows through the transition period, in regards to the breakdown of fat in the liver, while helping liver function.

In my internship, I have experienced challenges and obstacles, but they are only preparing me for my future at Bilow Farms. Through the challenges and obstacles, I have learned to use my network to support my efforts and goals. This internship has played an important role in my future at Bilow Farms and the dairy industry.

7308's first selfie! Second lactation
Brown Swiss - a farm pet who
loves attention!