We milk 150 head of cattle twice a day, starting at 2:30 in the morning and again at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. It's hard work, but it's taught me lessons in frugality, personal responsibility and respect for the land.

GOT MILK?

To make 9 gallons of milk a day, a cow must drink 18 gallons of water.

The gestation period for a cow is the same as humans (9 months). A newborn calf weighs approximately
80-100 pounds.

A cow chews her cud from 6 to 8 hours each day.

Many kinds of cows produce milk. The large, black and white Holstein, like Nathan's cows, are the most common. Other breeds include Guernseys, Jerseys, Brown Swiss, Ayrshires, and Milking Shorthorns.

When a Holstein cow is milking, she weighs between 1,100 and 1,500 pounds. A Jersey cow weighs between 700 and 1,000 pounds.

No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.

For some interesting information about dairy farming and milk production, click here. For a great link for kids, go to Milk Rocks and Got Milk?

To learn more about life on a dairy farm, click here.

Life on the dairy farm

Nathan's family farm has around 350 total Holstein dairy cattle --- from babies to mature cows, and they produce over 400,000 gallons of milk every year. Around 150 cows are milked twice a day starting at 2:30 am, and then again in the afternoon at 2:00 pm. The farm grows over 80 acres of corn, which produce normally around 1,800 tons of silage --- for you city folks, that's grass and other plants that are stored in silos to feed the cows in the winter ;)

The farm grows over 60 acres of alfalfa, which normally produce around 250 tons of hay each year. The farm has over 200 acres of pasture for the cattle to graze and produce straw bedding and grass hay.

With only three inches of rain since the first of May, the drought has dramatically impacted crop production on the farm this year. Because of the drought, they are purchasing many tractor trailer loads of hay from the Western United States.

This year represents the 40th year the Ramsey family has farmed in Fairview. Nathan and his brother Bart are third generation dairy farmers in Western North Carolina.

The dairy's milk is shipped to the Milkco plant in West Asheville and is sold at Ingles grocery store, where it makes to your table every day.

For further information on North Carolina's dairy farms, click here.

More pictures from our farm

Click on any of the thumbnails below for a higher resolution version of the corresponding photograph: