Summer is the laziest time of year for a dairy farmer but when Wayne and I started writing a “to do” list yesterday, my head began to spin a little. Not satisfied with a mild head rush, I went on to draft a rough calendar:

The Annual Milk Maid’s To-Do List

Lazy Summer Days

• Milk cows
• Pay bills
• Deal with crises (pump breakdowns are popular this season)
• Begin drying cows off for their annual holiday
• Make hay
• Have we conserved enough fodder? Consider buying more
• Begin feeding silage, crops and hay
• Return cow effluent back to pastures
• Spend a day changing rubberware in the dairy
• Control blackberries
• Vaccinations, drenching, branding, preg testing
• Big maintenance projects (the stuff you put off the rest of the year)
• Dream of the next Great Leap Forward

Autumn Anxieties

• Milk cows
• Pay bills
• Deal with crises (milk quality issues popular this season)
• Continue drying cows off for their annual holiday
• Special feeding regime for expectant cows
• Welcome and nurture new calves
• Test soils for nutrient levels
• Repair cow tracks
• Sow new pastures
• Fertilise pastures
• Return cow effluent back to pastures
• Chase revegetation grants and order trees
• Maintenance
• Still feeding silage and hay
• Nude rain dancing in full swing

Winter Woes

• Milk cows
• Pay bills
• Deal with crises (calving emergencies popular this season)
• Welcome and nurture new calves
• Fence and spray areas for revegetation
• Spend a day changing rubberware in the dairy
• Feed three groups of cows different rations
• Mating program in full swing
• Consider another drenching
• Buy new gumboots and practise rain dancing in reverse
• Redo budgets after milk factory announces opening price
• Keep chin up

Supercharged Spring

• Milk cows
• Pay bills
• Deal with crises (unpredictable weather popular this season)
• Train the new members of the herd
• Visit the accountant (and maybe the banker)
• Fertilise, fertilise, fertilise
• Vaccinate and wean calves
• Thoroughly clean and disinfect the calf shed
• Plant trees
• Control thistles
• Make silage
• Sow summer crops
• Make grass angels

I know I’ve missed stuff – lots of it – but it should give you an idea of what happens day-to-day and season-to-season on our very average Australian dairy farm. So, dear Reader, as we head into 2013, what do you want to know more about?