Holy Cow! There's a lot involved in taking care of cows.

November 12, 2008
Elmer Richards and Sons Dairy Farm in Skaneateles is lucky. As a dairy farm, it isn't as negatively affected by the poor economy as many of the nation's other industries.

Rose Burtless, head milker at Elmer Richards and Sons, explains that jobs cannot be cut in dairy farming. There will always be a demand for milk, and there will always be jobs that need done to care for dairy cows.

Burtless even said that the people who have lost jobs in the current recession should be looking for jobs on dairy farms--that is, if they can handle the work load.

Burtless describes herself as a jack-of-all trades because she does a little bit of everything on the farm. She's involved in many aspects of caring for both the calfs and cows, including vaccinating, ear tagging, and, of course, milking.

Burtless says she works less hours than anyone else on the farm, though. She says her day is done when she has finished all the work she has set out to do for the day.

Today, she was marking cows in heat so the breeder would have an easier time finding them tomorrow morning. This system of marking involves using different color paint markers--green for cows that need bred this afternoon, and orange for cows that can wait until tomorrow morning.

Burtless says the gestation period for a cow is nine months, and each cow spends at least 55 days with their calf. She said when it comes to breeding and milking, it's at least a 305 day cycle from one conception to the next.

To see an alternate version of the story above and a more light-hearted look at our adventures at the dairy farm, see the videos below: