Dairy Princess Ball Recap

Last night we attended the 54th annual District 3 Dairy Princess Ball.  Our good friend and cousin, Rich Silacci made the trek up from Cal Poly where he manages the dairy there, to be the Master of Ceremonies for the event.

My front row posse, Logan, Carson, Derrick, Bryce, Cameron, Paige and Leila saved me a seat with the best angle so I could get some good pics.........

The responsibility of the District No. 3 Dairy Princess and the first alternate, will be to act as a goodwill ambassador for the dairy industry.  They will speak at schools, fairs and many other community events, about the importance of  dairy products.

This year there were four contestants vying for the crown. And here they are:

Carly Miller.  An active member in FFA and has also worked at 4H camp for six years as a staff member.  She has also been involved with raising jersey bulls as part of a veterinary science class in high school.  Carly says, "I believe in the importance of agriculture education and know the value of it to all ages."

Amanda Moretti.  Daughter of dairy farmers and will be studying animal science at Cornell in the fall.  Amanda is an active member of FFA, 4H and the CA Junior Holstein Association and has served as an officer for her 4H club, Tomales FFA, Sonoma Section FFA, North Coast Region FFA, Redwood Empire Junior Holstein Association and CA Junior Association.

Amanda says, "If selected as District 3 Dairy Princess, my main goal will be to bridge the gap between producers and consumers.  I hope to dispel any misconceptions individuals have about the dairy industry and encourage not only the youth, but adults as well, to learn more about the industry and its importance in our everyday lives."

Maria Camozzi.  Grew up on a family dairy run by her parents.  After high school graduation, Maria will study agriculture business at Cal Poly.  Maria has served as president of Petaluma FFA and is a member of Redwood Empire Holstein Association. 

Maria says, "I hope to educate the public about the important role that the dairy industry plays in our community, state and nation."














Samantha Spaletta.  Daughter of a fourth generation dairy farmer, she works on the family farm and has her own 75 head herd of cows.  Samantha has been a member of her local 4H club for 10 years and served on its board, she is also a member of Petaluma FFA and serves on the board.

Samantha says, "I want to share my knowledge of dairy products and the industry in California.  I want the consumer to understand that dairymen treat their animals humanely and the California farmers are hard working people.  My hopes are that the small family farms will be around for a long time."

While the judges were making the final decision, the introduction of the Milk Advisory Board Representative; Dominic Carinalli, North Bay Dairy Women current president; Audrey Wheeler and Contest Chairperson; Judy Buttke were introduced to the crowd.

And retiring dairy princess, Emilie Strand says a few words and

 presents her retiring court, Regina Camozzi and Stephanie Rowley, gifts of appreciation. 

Over the past year, I saw Emilie in action holding her title as Dairy Princess at numerous community events. She did a phenomenal job connecting with the public, teaching kids about dairy products, making herself available when called upon by the community and always with a smile on  her face.  Nothing ever seemed to frazzle Emilie. She is a fantastic role model for all kids out there, and especially for our young girls.

The evening moved on and the contestants then came out in their white gowns for the conclusion of the ceremony.

Carly......

Amanda.....

Maria.........

Samantha........

The 'Miss Vitality' award was given to Maria.....

The judges, James Garner, Dr. Marit Arana, Ph.D. and Kevin Blount had made their decision.

Anticipation.................

First Alternate was awarded to Samantha Spaletta!

The newly appointed District 3 Dairy Princess title goes to Amanda Moretti!

Amanda gives her acception speech to the crowd of over 700.

Next on the agenda was a delicious dinner and of course some dancing.

I'm sure that at one point there were more little kids on the dance floor than big kids and adults.  Definitely a family friendly event.  Bryce loves his cousins:)

Paige and her cousin, Leila, followed the Dairy Princesses around, I think all night!

My nephew, Cameron, showing off his dance moves.......

Lots of Daddy-daughter dance time too...........

It was midnight before we arrived home.....my kids don't even go to bed this late on New Year's Eve!

The quotes above, by the contestants, were taken from the Petaluma Argus Courier.

Here is last year's contest, where Emilie Strand was crowned Dairy Princess.

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Brittney the calf and the Ferorious Beast

The area in front of our house this time of year contains 15 or so calves....well, right now there are eight because the other seven jumped the fence into the heifer pasture, but that's a whole other story. 

It's fun to have Brittney near our house {she's on the right with the mostly white face}.  These girls have a pasture full of belly high green grass, but they still smash the fence down  to get to the grass on the other side. 

Just like a girl to keep all options open at all times, right?! {or maybe just never satisfied}

Well, my little ferocious beast, Chloe will keep them in line.

This little fluff ball of a dog, loves to have a herd she can call her own so near the house to keep in line.

She has stepped up to the plate and taken on the responsibility that any good 'cow dog' would.

We're going to the Dairy Princess Ball tonight, what are you up to this weekend?

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A Girl And Her Horse

Paige is my horse lover in the family.  Girls and horses, they just go hand in hand, it seems.  Maybe it's their long mane and tail that initially attracts a girl to ponies.  What ever the case, the attraction was immediate for Paige....immediately after the first time she laid eyes on a horse.

We had some bonding and grooming time with Joey yesterday.  We were waiting for the farrier to arrive for a scheduled manicure/pedicure for Joey, and Paige helped give Joey a much appreciated grooming.

Most of you know, Joey has been in 'lock-down' for over a month now.  He's not allowed to have this rich, lush, green grass because it causes him to founder.  But to get Joey from his paddock to the area where the farrier trims him, we had to walk knee deep in the stuff. 

Not an easy task to lead a food obsessed horse through knee deep green grass.  I won't lie,  he did nab a few bites without permission. 

So after a 20-30 minute lesson in ground manners to 'refresh' his memory, he was much more calm and relaxed.

But not much later, he was done with the photo session.

His evil eye was telling me 'enough already!'

Joey is doing much better since almost foundering over a month ago.  His soreness has seemed to totally disappear.  After he loses about 100 pounds, we may even get a ride in.

Thank you to Verde Farm for hosting Farm Girl Friday!

 

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Twins

Part of the fun pet sitting at my sister's house when she's away is catching a glimpse of all the twins that have been born recently.  My sister's brother-in-law {who also lives on the ranch} raises organic lamb and sheep and while I was pet-sitting her furry critters, the pasture along the road leading up to her house was filled with these cuties....

I wish the kids and I could have gotten closer to them, but without looking as though we were practicing for  mutton busting or maybe, more appropriately, a sheep scramble competition, it wasn't happening.  They're wild little critters and wanted nothing to do with me or my two kids in tow.

So we just observed them from a distance.

Which was just as beautiful......but not peaceful.

"LOOK AT THAT ONE!" ~ Bryce

"THERE ARE TWINS OVER THERE!" ~Paige

"CAN WE CATCH ONE?!" ~Bryce

"CAN WE TAKE SOME HOME!?" ~Paige

And so on, and so on, and so on, until we reached my sister's house.

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Crazy Calves

We have a fenced in hillside between our house and Great Grandma and Grandpa's house and during the spring time, we put a hand full of 5-8 month old calves in it so the grass can be eaten down.  This is the first time these calves have been out on pasture.  At this age, they can leave the safety of their barn, they're big enough that predators, such as coyotes will leave them be. 

I missed the opportunity to snap photos when Dominic trailered them up, I was at gymnastics with Paige.  So I thought I'd hop the fence and get a little closer to them to snap some cute photos.  They should all recognize me by now.  My cute Brittney is in this bunch, she'll come over to me for sure.

Ha!  Scaredy calves not only high-tailed it away from as fast they could, including Miss Brittney, who was the front runner! {you can see her in the above photo - she's the mostly white calf}

one of them even jumped the fence! Oh, Dominic is not going to be happy about this.  The calf is fine, she jumped into the heifer pasture to hang with the big girls.

And then they were gone.....over the hill.

Hmmm.......should I tell Dominic what happened in person or let him read it on this post??  Regardless of how he finds out, he'll ask me one question.......Did you get her back?

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Top Tips I Learned at a Digital Photography Class

This past weekend, I attended a four hour Digital Photography Class that was held at our local junior college.  I was expecting a class of around 20 people or so, but no, close to 50 people were in attendance.  I guess I'm not the only one who has a 'big' camera and needs to learn how to properly use it.

The four hours flew by!  I've had my camera for about 5 years.  I've self taught myself as best I could, but there are questions, there are always questions, aren't there?!

The instructor went over every part of a digital camera and I was able to take the things I found important and learn about them.  I am glad I waited until I was familiar with my camera before taking this class because I was able to get to the area of the camera she was speaking about without trying to figure out how to get there first.   

Here are some of the top tips that I found very useful:

You may remember a previous post of mine, "My arms aren't long enough", referring to my eyesight and how I now need reading glasses.  When I take close up shots, I usually have the camera on auto focus because I don't want my photos to come out blurry if I'm not wearing my reading glasses.

But on manual focus....there's a problem.

Well, who knew what a 'diopter' was for?!  Certainly not I. 

It's the little, tiny dial right next to your view finder that......okay, sit down, this is huge!......You Can Adjust To Your Own Eyesight!!  What?! 

Just like reading glasses built in!  How did I not know this?

Another tip, the 'auto focus area modes,' you can change them to 'single area focus'.  This is another biggie for me.  I now have only the center mode turned on for auto focus.  So all I need to do is point that center mode on what I want to focus on and not worry about the other modes auto focusing at the same time.  The center mode is doing the job.

Many times I'll hold my shutter down half way to auto focus on a subject and while still holding down the shutter half way, re-frame my photo so my focused object is not in the center of the frame and when I'm ready, press the shutter the rest of the way down to snap the photo.  So having only one mode 'on' is going to make my life much easier when taking photos.

Flash:  turn off when indoors {which I like to do already} and turn it on outdoors, on a sunny day, if you're dealing with shadows and high contrast.  If you're taking a portrait photo outside and your subjects face is dark, turn the flash on and it become bright for your shot.

White Balance.  My camera has it, as do most digital cameras.  Do I use it, no but I will now.  For instance if taking a photo of a sunset, turn your WB on 'cloudy' and it will 'warm' up your photo, leaving a brighter sunset pic. 

WB has many different settings to use, depending on the lighting you're shooting in.  Use this feature and do less with your photo editing program.  It saves time.  Just don't forget to adjust it when in a different setting.

Continuous Shooting or 'Sports Mode':  Definitely want to use this mode for action shots.  This will allow you to shoot pics continuously with one press and hold down of the shutter, without blurring.

Your manual is your best friend, if you've lost yours, you can probably download it online.

Now I can't wait for the next level class!

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Meet the Dry Cows

Our 'dry cows' are not only dry because of all the nice spring weather we've been having, but this group of ladies are called 'dry cows' because they are on break right now.  They are on hiatus from milking for 2 months.

All they need to worry about is eating, basking in the sunlight {if it's not cloudy} and sleeping.

When our dairy cows are pregnant, they are given a break from milking in the last 2 months of their pregnancy to concentrate all of their energy into the soon-to-be newborn calf that will be making an appearance soon.

Paige and I took a little stroll out to their corral to check on them and say hi.....the laundry that is piling up at the house can wait for another day.

In no more than 5 minutes, we were surrounded by them all.  They're all so very curious and sweet:)

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Radiation in U.S. Milk

Because of the tragedy that happened in Japan, there is no doubt we've all been affected in one way or another by it.  You've probably seen the news reports telling us radiation has reached the United States and has been found in the U.S. food system, including dairy supply.

I, like you, immediately became concerned over radiation entering our food supply and wanted to know how this would affect my family, our dairy farm and our country.


Once I found out about the sample tests taken earlier this week, in milk from Washington, California and Arizona, in which the government found extremely low levels of radiation that are more than 5,000 times lower than the thresholds set by the FDA, and far below levels that would cause any concern for public health, it helped to put my mind at ease.

According to the EPA’s statement, milk, water and other select products were tested for radiation. These very low amounts were anticipated, and will likely continue to appear over the next few days of testing. Federal and state government officials, and medical experts from around the country continue to underscore that minuscule levels of radiation detected do not pose a health concern to the U.S. food system, including U.S. dairy products.

According to Patricia Hansen, FDA senior scientist, "Radiation is all around us in our daily lives, and these findings are a minuscule amount compared to what people experience every day. For example, a person would be exposed to low levels of radiation on a round trip cross country flight, watching television, and even from construction materials.”

So, as I sit here and write this blog post from my laptop......on my lap {which I'm actually much more concerned about, since this is an frequent occurrence for me}, I know that milk is one of the most highly regulated and tested  food products in the U.S. food supply and strict government standards and ongoing monitoring help ensure that milk remains safe, wholesome and nutritious.  If you were worried about radiation in U.S. milk, as I'm sure you were, I hope this has eased your concern in some way.

For the full EPA press release on this matter, click here: Radiation Monitoring

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Future 4-Her

There is no way I could deny my youngest the opportunity to become involved in 4H.  With Bryce, beginning 4H at 5 years old, we found to be a  fantastic experience.  We didn't start him off with animals, he was more interested in cooking so that's the project we signed him up for.  Now, in his second year, he's into photography and cooking.

Like her brother, Paige will also sign up for cooking, since the meetings are held at our house, it's kind of a given.  But I think I see the purchase of a bunny hutch in our near future though.  The other day, at Marin Farm Day, my sister had her kid's 4H bunnies on display.  Remember Cinnamon?  Well, he was there and Paige was more than happy and very proud to take responsibility for showing him to all the kids who attended Farm Day.

Paige & Cinnamon sat with cousin, Leila and Dominic at the Marin Co. Farm Bureau table which was conveniently located right next to our 4H club's table and enjoyed showing the Holland Lop, Cinnamon to all who passed by.

Great life lessons can be learned from owning pets.  I know Paige will share her thoughts and secrets with her future bunny, just as she does with her stuffed animals now.  Having a pet she can call her very own will teach respect and responsibility for other living things.

Having a pet bunny {or any pet} will also provide a more in-depth lesson about life, reproduction, birth, illnesses and eventually death and bereavement.  Even though I don't like to think about the last two lessons mentioned, it's part of the circle of life.

If you want to see what Cinnamon and the other bunnies that belong to my sister looked like when they were babies, just click over to my Hoppity Hop post....Cinnamon was TINY! {she's the only brown one in the photos}

Did you grow up with a pet of your very own?

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Benefits of Testing Milk

Last night we attended the annual Dairy Herd Improvement Association's {DHIA} annual dinner and award presentation.  DHIA tests the milk from our entire milking herd on a monthly basis.

This is not a mandatory test, this is a management tool that some dairies choose to use. The testing tells us how many pounds of milk each cow produces, the percentage of butter fat and the percentage of protein in the milk and also provides information on somatic cell counts on each cow.

{This is not to be confused with the mandatory testing that occurs with each and every truck load of milk on a daily basis that tests for antibiotics}.

You can view how the milk is tested and read more about the benefits and why we test our milk on a previously written post, Milk Testing, Why We Do It, if you'd like.

Sixty-four dairy farms in the North Bay area of California participate in this milk testing program.  Within our North Bay area, out of the 64 herds, awards are given to the 'Top Ten Herds Milking'.

And you can't have an award ceremony without some good food.  Appetizers were delicious!  Bryce was all over the fruit platter.

And when he finished with the fruit, he went for the garnish - kale- surrounding the fruit.

And then he went back for seconds and thirds of kale.....no kidding.

Jimmy's Catering provided the food for the event and it was so good.

And after dinner, a little juke box dance party happened.

A late night for the kids, being a school night and all.  I guess once in a while it doesn't hurt.

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