LIVE Q&A

hi everyone welcome to some clay yeah welcome everyone yeah it's Kevin and I we're gonna be doing it tonight we're gonna be answering your question we'll just kind of give a couple minutes for some people to show up and then we'll start answering yeah just send us a comment let us know where you're from or what the weather is like where you're at we are it's been a beautiful day today yeah humidity yeah they're talking Tuesday we could be close to 100 he doesn't yeah so maybe summer where you guys are all ready could be hotter yeah but it was about 78 I think I saw today so that's like perfect yeah that's very nice weather so and sunny we're doing very well all of us let's see the boys are the older boys are outside cuz they were gonna be in here yeah they work at that but last minute something broke happenings something broke so they they gotta fix it the college get fat yeah that's to do with the skid loader again yeah but it's a different a different problem yeah let us know how we're coming in can you hear us and you see us okay yeah somebody says really hot it's really hot it's cold over here cold no thanks well yeah um let's uh what do you want to do well sir some of your questions so if you guys have questions you can leave them in the comments but we have a few weeks ago it's probably been close to a month ago I sent out a shot in one of my videos saying that we were gonna do a Q&A and a lot of people asked questions so we're gonna try to answer as many of them as we can tonight but if you have a question leave it in the comments and we'll peek at the comments now and again we don't have anybody else here Mackenzie's out with friends well see Andrews could you just slide in and look at that comment so yeah we're gonna start with the first question oh I wanted to do a shout out to thank you thank you to kind of Dean he I got his email earlier today you wonder if I got my packet I did and this came in the package so it's a mug that says mom and Kevin got one that says dad and he gave us a whole bunch of fun things from where he lives so yeah there you go and we wanted to say thank you she ate it I absolutely love mugs so this is like right up my alley I absolutely love it PLU is his when he drinks hot cocoa but I'll use mine all the time thank you all right first question is and I don't have names for everybody who asks these I'm just gonna go down good yeah you remember okay all right do we graze the cows on alfalfa and clover or clover we actually do clover and grass are a little bit of pasture that we have basically just like a rye grass clover mix and yeah they do you ever have a problem with blow no never had lots of things that kind of comes from like if you turn them out on a straight alfalfa I don't know that and like my dad always said to give them some dry hay eliminate that okay do you uh-huh deep very many twins or triplets born to milk cows I have to get the kitty she's being naughty twin wise we have probably because how many we birth about 250 but not twins probably four or five sets of twins yeah we I don't think no we came in on the table I don't think we've ever had triplets no we know a few in the area have though we never have yeah so Jenny wants to say hi first she's uh she's really curious so okay that's all all right um how many bowls do you have for your herd we run Jersey Holstein crosses there look they look similar to an Angus but they're all in all black well right now we have a couple of them a couple of them that are white a little bit of white a little bit more Holstein Holstein lookin but we like to stick with a cross gules I don't know how many we have I was asking you I know I'm trying to think I have several several around I think there's six or eight oh yeah the next question do you have I don't I tried planting a bunch of different fruit trees years ago but it was on a drought year it was really bright it did not make it they were just little seed saplings or whatever and they all died there in clay is so hard to dig a hole is ridiculous no you know they didn't make it but I would love to have an orchard and well we don't have to trust either because the citrus doesn't grow around here so I think they're just down in the southern state yeah I don't really know do we have any beehives we don't have beehives no I don't mean I love them beehives but there is a lot of time yeah and our being on the farm we spray fur flies um inside the barn so I think it's kind of not wise Happy's that's good cuz we spray that we spray to get rid of flies yeah we try to limit the amount of spray and we have sticky yeah we gotta like fly traps or trying to get away from ya Sydney has made several different types of flying flying traps and we're experimenting probably down the road as to what works better than the other cat drew blood oh really whole bunch of them let's try it let me look at yours alright yeah what was the hardest part of starting our farm or your own farm um sure let's see as I started we just just passed their 25th anniversary of milking cows so I've been doing it for 25 years um the hardest part probably exciting to get started but then 2001 through 2006 it was really um but we were determined to stick with it I mean I mean I can do other stuff but I guess I just like the lifestyle and stuff like that so so yeah there's some tough years determination to do it I mean if there's a will there's a way yeah alright and then uh do you like driving the tandem me I guess outline yeah the team you get used to I like the Volvo just because of it it's more comfortable yeah it's more of our Cadillac of trucks nicest one so it's easy short all right I get the tractor out of the mud oh oh you've got a right little meter okay yeah the Challenger we didn't get video footage of it bummer because we went back with one my brother's Patrick's a team at sea and pulled it out we we're all busy that day so we didn't have a lot of time to make video footage yeah okay next one Stan well you know how many times a day do we milk our house we're uh twice a day we did do three times a day for how many years oh it was then Sydney and Ethan were little kids so when we did it for a while we did three times a day for a while three or four years but I don't think there's enough benefit to it some guys like it because it lowers our somatic cell it makes a little toss up on milk production because I think a lot of that comes by how you feed them so for us we saw a little bit of an increase but then we got into it a couple of years and it just doesn't seem like it was really no different so we quit so here we're paying labor and everything to do it big-time they just seem like you're never done either yeah cuz three times a day somebody's got to do it at night during the night and yeah I just didn't I just personally economically I don't think it benefits did you irrigate your crap I've never shown irrigating crap oh yeah we're talking about we can irrigate my two brothers irrigate some and we are set up to irrigate some awesome so last year we didn't irrigate because it really didn't he had so much rain yeah and then during the summer it seemed yeah but we do we can irrigate the ponds that we have out back is our rainwater and everything from the farm water runs to that pond and so we can irrigate out of that through the people surrounding fields around us yeah we can irrigate quite a few acres around so but there again that takes time and work yeah do you use liquid fertilizer I'm assume you're referring to liquid 28 probably I think there's a couple questions about the fertilizers so I'll look for the other one because we use a combination let's call it pop up fertilizer we use a liquid 28 we put down in the roll when we play it when we spray can we put water on but then we come back in with urea like a dry fertilizer trying to get it just before a rain and washes it in that system seems to work pretty well few years ago we used to put down a lot of liquid fertilizer but we get all these heavy rains and a lot of it gets washed away so we've we've gone to more they call it spoon feeding a little mound sign over the season and I think to work a lot better he does sometimes like at the supper table all right so the liquid nitrogen that you put down how far down go do you put it like um well we do it on the corn seed well you can't you can't put it on if you put any fertilizer on the city to keep it from germinating or it could burn so we play it two inches to the side and two inches seed sprouts its first rips will run into it and so the other than manure and the only other fertilizer we use as urea that would yeah and how corn seeds do plant per acre do you know okay we uh we actually planners we do 30 inch rows for your village and then we do 15 inch rows for corn silage there's a lot of research you can find it on the internet about 15 inch rows you can plant a little bit thicker thirty controllers a plant like 30 mm and then 15 inch rows we go up to 36,000 37,000 and I know the University of Wisconsin figures three ton more two and a half to 3 ton more that's why we've been that's why we've run to plan there's a light and a kid because we swap back and forth but yeah we do 15 intros he's been doing it 15 that's a long time 20 years so yeah it's interesting because I I like to experiment a little bit and that's been a good all right let's stop here a second and we're gonna do Oh commercial commercial yeah this is our commercial so we still have hats available if you didn't know yeah everything did you get it fixed awesome alright sorry about that Oh lookin good so we have hats available we have several different varieties and you can look in the description below in the description of this video and it will take you to my FC store and you can purchase these hats at the store and for today well this week we are doing a coupon so you can have two dollars off your order at so we have all kinds of different hands there's red these are our mesh these are structured we I think we have a few unstructured ones left this is black with white match this is our newest looking one it's camo this does have a match it is structured a little bit it is structured but it's also a little bit ragged looks a little bit used on the bill but those are our cats double if anybody hasn't purchased the Hat yet you can do so at our Etsy store oh and the coupon code you're gonna need that so the coupon code to get $2 off your order is hats and the number two has h80 and hats is all capital and that's also in my description below in case you forget okay alright two bucks no don't okay I only know American money I do have one navy blue hat left I do believe we're here if you're gonna talk real close dear I had none all right next question these are some of the most recent ones I think um do you rate than a beef no no we don't have room for beef no I know we're not into that it's not Darry um how are the milk prices how I think that's what you wrote yeah how are the milk prices are they up well Colvin hit that really pulled I mean it really took bottom right out of the prices we will a co-op that we fund whether they're talking eleven dollars for me yeah eleven dollars per hundred pounds per hundred pounds you're an estate that's what we go away last month a lot of guys got from I've heard from nine to thirteen it's not good so they say may is gonna be the hardest they're probably the lowest month and the futures all they're looking real good I mean we can be way back yeah it looks good for the future definitely jump so June the futures right now are predicted in probably 20 I mean we haven't seen 20 in a long time since last fall twenty yeah yeah oh yeah alright um somebody asked are you dumping milk no I never had to our co-op was good about that um we never had to dump any down journey keep it moving all right yeah cash corn 273 no yeah not good for you guys either cash croppers but it's good for me so we good all right next question do you have goats ah no no no more girls yeah dairy goats for a while Sydney did said they played around with him he was um what did he get this one I think ten or eleven he started on dairy business yeah there you go then he went mouth seven years until you graduated high school after he graduated then he sold them sold yeah all right who's the better and mechanics dad or the boys I mean he's done a lot of studying on electrical a lot of circuit boards diodes good on I don't know bodywork yeah just general maintenance and mr. all-around okay no just general maintenance and I mean I can overhaul an engine or whatever if you can't figure it out you look on YouTube you'll learn it's trial and error sometimes how big is your firm I don't know it's this big we're more than two acres what is this okay I think we're gonna do this one oh okay please tell the herbicide plan for your ride that you're chopping so each ride have been three weeks again already okay so we're almost - Wow I know month ago um why is part of well we use it to replace haylage because it's a high-volume crop and so what we generally do is we'll come in and take your eye off wheel disc it and then plant corn into it and then we we are on don't put down like pre-emergents we come out and we kill yeah once it horns up probably six inches mmm yeah through and burn everything up and with 15 inch rows that shade so much quicker so I mean that's a very cheap economical program um so yeah it works well for us do you have a lot of rocks in your fields oh we're on clay though if we have a rocket really a big one but not a lot of them we do have a little bit of gravel soil and then you get a lot of small ones five six inches we don't have a lot we don't really go around picking rocks Oh like some farms but when we show some day but yeah we'll get those are not rocks oh there's boulders we'll get big ones yeah if one comes up it's a good size yeah or we also run what's that thing called no never mind yeah we pack it well anything yeah okay alright when do you schedule all your maintenance on your tractors and power equipment plating stuff that's more seasonal like the hay by in the chopper we typically every spring the oils get changed fluids get changed I mean basically in the spring or through the winter they get a service and they roll over here the tractors that run all the time like to mixer tractors good loaders typically we try to do an oil change stuff twice a year on those just because the hours we put on so that's kind of our main that's mainly Sidney's job yeah he's in charge and he keeps track of all that yeah he likes doing it all right and do you have any preference diesel engine oil not really we've values signal or pendal sometimes whatever is the better deal yeah all right this for me well it is do I like mowing chopping or driving truck I don't mind even any of those but I'm gonna say I don't know I think you like Johnson if you like to momen chop preferably do that over driving Chuck I'm drunk truck um many hours but well I used to drive yeah but then you I don't know well then I switched over and started chopping and I don't mind doing that that's kind of I think it's a little less it's easy because you're just not having to I don't know watch the road all day yeah this guy right did you start your fire from zero pretty much yeah this was a field wasn't a meal yeah that's here was but we yeah I started raising to have her kids I rented a farm so I mean that yeah we built this parlor and stuff in 96 well he did I wasn't here yeah I knew you - all right how ready okay does your milk go for cheese or milk going for cheese yeah yummy cheese is that you get on here wait does restaurants and stuff Oh where's Mackenzie you can tease with friends she's not the day at the lake today she'll probably be home in an hour yeah she's or whatever she's enjoying some time with some yeah um does your wife play pranks on the family no what'd you say [Music] I think Ethan and you will the most yeah Sydney see Sydney's good electrical but when it comes to well he does not like it my dad was a welder so he taught us Sanders would like to learn yeah you just need to practice yeah it's important as motivation I have a brother that weld for 11 and my older I guess there's I guess but my sister don't but there's three of us that well pretty good your cows produce last when it's cold outside no actually they produced better when it's cold yeah they don't they don't like heat heat that's harder it's hard for the cows none of this : so are you done done what your hand getting sore I can't all right what else hello from Russia do you know Russian no we don't know Russian we know English hello much are you being paid for your milk not enough well they got an April yeah what how much they got uh yeah we we got 2 bucks more than that in April huh um explain this explain this sinkhole the other from the other day oh the sinkhole was from a tile a lot of people don't understand what a tile is you can do this Sanders I think holy they don't understand what a tile is they understand like you need a tile around your house or something well they don't understand why a field wouldn't need to be tiled where we're at we have a lot of clay sand variations our soils not gonna stand on top of clay the water runs down to clay and a lot of times will seep out so so um basically we tile a lot of ground right around here style to get rid of the water because I mean otherwise we will have a lot of spots that we couldn't fire so the tile takes the water from the surface a little run to the tile and then it will take it River there's a lot of tile and if you want to know what tiling is just look it up yeah so I hit the bump and yeah that's all good now yeah it's just it was this place he didn't know that it was there I knew it was there last fall so that's why a lot of you question why we didn't play your or fill it in I kind of forgot about it we planted it and this thing it's not like it's always been there and we have heavy rains and that's what causes them all right do we raise any meat chickens I don't know I thought about it but I don't really have the room for a meat chickens and yeah so I only have laying yes you have a question sandy I was gonna ask you about are we gonna fix it oh yeah we think so yeah I'm gonna stay there no Ethan bought an old baler because he likes old that's who Ethan is he likes old stuff yeah he likes to tinker with that kind of stuff and he sells those little square bales at a local auction and he did very well last year so he was very impressed look um where was I Sanders what do you want to do when you finish school so uh he is finished this year school but I think what the question was what do you want to do when you finish school hmm he's only 12 so he probably hasn't given in can I have the notebook please didn't see that page says why do you have self-propelled equipment versus row-crop tractor with the hey mine or a corn chopper um I don't like I'm hooking and hooking and I'll be used to yeah I know they no fun so so yeah I really went all self-propelled it's just so much easier and it's so much easier to operate oh yeah I wouldn't be male if we had didn't have a self-propelled he used to go all the hey before we got there just stopped and fell and then self-propelled it's just so much faster and can be ass and same on the chopper to I said I made me personally I mean if you got any amount to do all right let's talk about this you want to yeah this is the connecting rod right that we replaced in our skin loader and some of you remember watching the video of Sydney replacing this and we are going to be giving this away in a future video we're gonna be the details yes so this is just a quick little glimpse of it and you gotta see the best part do you see how bent it is I don't know you probably need to see a straight one in order to see but it's definitely best got a nice curves there so and that's not supposed to be that way because took about eight of an inch out of the stroke so this is from the skid loader and we are gonna do a giveaway on this be asking a question about that video and that's gonna be in an upcoming video I'll give you the details about that are you in a very future you know throw a hat in with it - hmm should I throw a hat in it's the one that wins will get this and a half maybe ahead of choice that's an idea could do that - oh alright but thanks to a truck driver yeah hauls are milk he suggested that he gives us great ideas okay how long have you lived here or they're here well um we've been well I've been here since 96 so I've been here since 98 and we've started melting he lived here his whole life no well I lived across the way across the way but uh yeah I started milking and 1995 May of 1995 so well yeah it's been here and then we built here in 96 yes okay someone says they've never planted rye or triticale triticale we planted this year with our piece and they said why do you choose them and do you get more than one cutting um with rye it's kind of interesting because you can mole right before it heads out and you will get another not won't be as big but I just I like ride because it just produces a lot of high quality feed and a during the cold months because you can plant it in late September and here we chopped a huge cotton then first week of May make um yeah so um that's one of the reasons why we plant rot in critical the same way and so yeah you can if you get it before a heads out yeah well girl oh girl it won't be a real big cotton where did we meet that's a good question I worked for your dad he worked at so I grew up on a dairy farm and he my dad hired him to milk cows though and I was really happy what that was yeah yeah so that's how he kind of got to know my family I didn't know you until later when I grew up our Volvo truck has a d12 Volvo in it d12 yeah 911 it was the farmer's daughter and knowing the farmer's wife yeah so we do have the first kind of Hey done so I'm reading up the sunset in the camera oh is it let me see something let me move over here a little bit I think it's above all right it is kind of foggy a little bit you got something is out there oh okay here we go hang on you can make it any better so how do you like chopping and mowing when the ground is dry otherwise I prefer driving truck oh not how I all right how many yeah how many is that huh makers on average do you cut know how many acres on average do you cut an hour power yeah the question was what's the question so when I'm oh hey whoo I can cut well it depends on what I'm mowing actually alfalfa we can run if it's a nice big deal yes I mean you can do up to about 15 an hour but we get into 15 acres an hour but you get into the heavier stuff like sorghum arrived then we're down to six to seven acres yeah and it's like grass stuff grass doesn't cut as well in that like the last that I cut it I was down the four mile an hour so that was going really slow yeah grass it just depends how much Oh alfalfa is easy to cut yes oh that's easy kind of a hollow stem a little bit well not real hollow but I mean stem where you get into grass it's just so many more yeah so much more value so when am I gonna make a meatloaf would you like me to make a meatloaf yeah you can make something maybe maybe I'll make meatloaf this week um sure I can do that and put it on video I'll see once oh how the El Camino come and ethan's working on it yeah I think he was working on it this afternoon I think but yeah he's doing body work Bobby yeah it's getting ready it's it's kind of a long process um so but he wants it to look perfect before he paints it is still great be milk there no no gravy milk no great Bea's done I mean I know of yeah we only we only haul grade-a no button there how do you get how yeah how do I get all your vegetables to do good our tomatoes don't grow good um but Lenore and your garden work it in manure I don't know okay I I don't know it just grows tomatoes nato's seemed a girl real well yeah they do they need they need adequate sunlight and water [Music] I don't do anything special with my tomatoes I just plant them I don't put anything in the ground some people put eggs some people put different fertilizers I really don't do anything I just plant them and kind of stake them up so they can grow up mm-hmm but tomatoes seem to grow well well because our garden is and like you saw raised beds and amoenus we have better dirt than just the heart yes not clay clay they probably want as well yeah a curse of corn can you plant with the Ken the Kinsey planter did you already into that one well I said that we plan our lives within 30 inch rows for the yes how many acres can you plant with Mackenzie Mackenzie's a trial planner which is 20 foot so I mean yeah you can get 1112 an hour with it and Kenzie or the white planter that we use for silage corn you get 17 yes not as many no but together but gets done yeah all right um do we have any more questions any pigs there hogs no no our daughter we sold the last of her spouse should we sold them to a family up north well north of us up north I wanted to get back into pink oh yeah and do we have any equipment purchases coming up do we I don't know I just don't know what happened did I click something or am I still wide I think you're like okay push so I guess I'm not lying um equipment purchase I don't really know you're still I'm still alive okay uh do you feel as a team our mixer yeah yeah that should be in the other video yeah I do have a video of the mixer loading the mixer up a lot of questions you guys I think I'm weave in oh I haven't answered these um do you plant potatoes there you'll Oh potatoes are sugar beets I do plant potatoes I tried planting sugar beets once but um yeah we don't we don't use sugar beets I was gonna boil it down to make sugar but I chose not to those are state open like that playing like that no just watching you in the picture yeah I think we're still okay right guys yeah all right out with it does their state open yeah they're working at it they're getting more more and more things they're opening it up it'll be nice one every limited like the restaurants are gonna be opening this week and it's like half capacity right now I think is what she's saying and so yeah I'd be good when everything gets back to Rome yeah and we'll be doing yeah Oh what type of tragedy yeah for your crap anything ain't coming ACO is the choice they like to see when you show the cow you like to see the cows yeah comforters oh yeah well you go with the red Holsteins no we do have a couple we'd like our yeah it's mainly cross hello from the you pee hey Mackenzie is back to work she goes back full-time um we had cows out but we don't um she goes back to work full-time tomorrow actually she's been part-time for the last few weeks but now it's full-time um somebody asked you Mel cows have problems with foot rot from walking in the mud and barn all the time not really we we use a foot bath to treat I mean I guess if anything shows up we take care of it right away so I mean that's not yeah you do all the footwork hoof trimming yeah we don't have any Brown Swiss no do I make homemade ice cream that sounds good I do once in a while I should do that video about that ah I do have a good recipe so maybe um maybe one of these hot days I'll make some ice cream how old do you like your bull calves get before you sell them typically we like them oh the bull calves yeah we like them a few days old oh this guy says put dead fish um when working with the tomatoes so when I start my my tomato plants here in the house I have a fish fertilizer that I use and they all don't smell very good I don't think it smells the how so but I do think that fish fertilizer does help I get it in a liquid form and I just mix it with the water that I water them with and yeah it seems to work good yeah yeah all right let me see if there's any more questions anyway no I make a meal do you ever cook well I cut if I had to but you you take care of I do I try I can i from Canada I can do what I had to if he had to he knows how to scramble eggs fry sausage burgers grill a burger make him eyes I can make bread you can make bread I can make it yeah yeah sure oh the caning and the the caning is gonna be coming up soon I'll start um canning I don't know what would be first probably some fruit I know I've got strawberries come in and I don't know if I'm gonna make jam this year or not I'm still up quite a bit last year so let's wait and see we have a power ice cream maker in turn and that'll take a while yeah I have just you know the the kind that you plug in and has a thing that sits in the ice regular ice cream maker that you find in the store yeah works that works all right do you ever drive up no it's your Rockford no I've never been to Rockford so we never have we've drawn go we go past it never been into Rockford peach trees peach trees I don't have pastries but I love peaches and we always um trying to buy several bushel in order to can because well you guys love canned peaches yeah we go typically we go down south to get peaches yeah good love usually Wow the Amish carry em I mean and they have a good price hey from Hawaii me alright um do the kids show cows no they've never done any type of 4h or showing they've had no interest in any of that I think they just have enough farming that they don't want to I don't know you just never have shown never shown interested have we ever been to Jackson nope no I don't think you've ever been there we don't get out lunch remember yeah we do we get outside but we don't get up oh we just may not go to where you do you ever have to call the vet yes I have to call the vet to order medicine yeah does that ever come out no he has to do like farm analysis every year for the coop but otherwise yeah we don't we don't have a lot of issues but we kind of do so how many cows did you start with in 95 actually that's the interesting question because I used before 95 from 1992 to 95 I raised peppers and sold them so I don't know how many heifers I bought and sold but when I started milking cows we were at 6070 like that that's what I got going yeah uh do you use a lot of fertilizer fertilizer um we like to typically on our corn we like to put on 130 250 of actual and plus the manure so just to give you an idea what state are we from we're from the mittens day yep we're at we're in Michigan the moutains day the minton oh there's a huge gap lizard he's young and you're younger I'll let you guys guess I'll keep you guessing yeah hi from Carroll that's cool we've been there oh wait I don't care oh yeah we have we've been decay yeah Fergie Pulitzer so I don't remember that Barbie boys Journal it's a main story what state would you like to see oh oh anything that has a notion I've never seen the ocean he thinks you're 45 oh maybe he thinks I'm 45 in year 38 baby oh here we getting guessing no I'm 30 wow you guys oh thank you whatever all right what's for both for you which college at least favorite - number 58 I'll get out of fence Tamara what I don't know I've had Oh a while ago we got rid of number 19 because she just doesn't like anybody you're just a night out a road trip yeah where should we go you guys got some suggestions what kind of I'm sure they do a lot yeah it has to be local so I think we're gonna wrap it up are we yes is it time no okay well we think you all we thank you all for watching and participate in and leaving all your comments I hope we answered most of you guys's questions I'm gonna have to go back and reread all of these comments cuz I always do them and then if you have a question sir it we've been to Canada yes years ago for our 10th anniversary Canada did look a train ride so well everybody have a good night all right thanks guys for watching take care bye bye okay thanks X on the top right there Thanks

Channel: Acres of Clay Homestead

Views: 17,950

Rating: 4.9705338 out of 5

Keywords: Dairy farm, farming, homesteading, family farm, farm kids, farm, cows, cow, dairy, milk, homestead, country, life on the farm, diy, how to, Massey Ferguson, New holland, John Deere, tractor, crops, #homesteading life, #acresofclay, acres of clay, Michigan, dairy farm, calves, calf, homemade, canning, how to make, how the farm works, farmers wife, farmers daughter, farmboys

Id: X6gx-C0SN-s

Length: 56min 32sec (3392 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 07 2020