Monthly Barn Report: September

Here comes the 5th Monthly Barn Report: September. At this point we were wondering how in the world it was already September! Throw in a construction project to daily dairy farm life and the days seem to just disappear in minutes. By the first of September it was thankfully still dry (notice no mud!) and we were able to get the footing ready for the manure tank crew to arrive. Lots of gravel and leveling but we were glad they were finally going to be arriving. The boys were enjoying the last couple of days of summer. While Mason was excited to start school he was pretty bummed that he was going to be missing out on seeing all the daily action, he really had enjoyed the crew and getting to help! The beginning of September saw DeLaval starting their install in the milk room. The electricians also moved in to start wiring. By September 11th we were ready with plan C for the robots rooms and poured the concrete for them September 14th. Plastic sheeting found it’s way into the milk room. As a clean room the milk room must have a washable and clean surface. It was fun to see it all covered in shiny white. By September 25th the tank crew had the foundation ready. So much rebar! We were also pretty pleased with how the robots rooms worked out. Definitely not our first and hoped for plan and a whole lot more work to finish completely. Better than no robot rooms! The crew also got the  beams for the raceway constructed and welded to the barn. Instead of doing everything underground all the lines that go to the robots (milk, water, electricity, feed lines) all lay on the raceway overhead. This will make them easy to access in the case of maintenance or issues. We also poured the last important piece to the robot rooms. The clean access walk way. We ended September still dry and poured the end concrete lane where the feed pusher will drive. The electricians were still hard at work but unfortunately we were still waiting on the electrical company to approve our plan. We honestly weren’t sure if we were ever going to get power. That waiting game was really rather stressful. We had already gone through submitting plans and waiting for the last two months. It was definitely beginning to feel hopeless and we were rather surprised after thinking about it that we had built an entire barn on generators. That’s a wrap for Monthly Barn Report: September. With school starting, adding a whole other element to our schedule this month seemed to fly by at the speed of light! We enjoyed the rain holding off, but were sure it was due any day as October began.