Feed Straw

For three years I've been explaining to people that the research I'm doing is to prevent negative energy balance in dairy cows after calving. In July I got to present my research at the American Dairy Science Association meetings in Montreal. The graph above is from my presentation. Notice the green line. That represents the cows fed the straw diet. They were fed to meet, but not greatly exceed their energy requirement before they had their calf. After calving all cows were fed the same diet. Notice the green line again, the straw fed cows returned to positive energy balance quicker than the other cows did, and because they were not overfed during the dry period (60 days when cows are not milked before they have a calf), they did not use body fat to do it, thus preventing accumulation of fat in the liver as shown in one of my other graphs. Fat accumulation can lead to ketosis, metritis, retained placentas, displaced abomasums, not fun stuff.
By the way, the red line represents cows fed a diet higher in energy with more corn and corn silage. It is difficult to control how much energy a cow consumes during the dry period, because if you just feed less, one "Boss" cow will eat as much as she wants, and the more timid cows will go hungry. That is why we fed straw, they can eat all they want, and still not get too much energy. The blue line are cows fed the straw diet for 40 days, then the higher energy diet for 20 days. This represents the typical feeding strategy of many dairy farmers, backed up by little research. Our conclusion was that this 2-stage system provided little advantage over feeding the straw diet through the entire dry period.
This is a picture of me in front of Palais de Congres where I presented my research. Dr. Drackley, my major adviser was pleased with the presentation. Dr. Grant from Miner Dairy Research Institute where I did my internship six years ago made it a point to tell me I did a good job. Dr. Grummer, department head at Wisconsin listened to my presentation and walked out talking to Dr. Drackley when it was over. Last month in Dubuque he called for more research like what I presented this month in Montreal. Most importantly, Brittney said I did a good job too.

50 Cents

Is all it costs to cross the border from Canada to the United States.

No wonder we have an illegal alien problem! :)

Perhaps this is where the money is coming from for all the government rebates!

10 Years Ago Today - The MTC

July 14, 1999 my family dropped me off at the missionary training center (MTC) in Provo. It was a day I had dreamed about all my life. It seemed like it took forever for the day to arrive, and now that it has come and gone, the same amount of time has flown by.
Saying 'good-bye' to my family at the MTC wasn't as big a deal for me as it is now days because your family could still come see you off at the airport when you actually left on your mission. Since 9-11-2001, airport regulations have made it such that when you say 'good-bye' at the MTC, it is good-bye for 2 years.Pictured is my MTC district with whom I attended all my classes, ate lunch, played volleyball...
Missionaries are assigned to companionships; they must be with their companion at all times. My companion at the MTC was Elder Eric Swensen from Paul, ID. He just finished medical school and currently is doing his residency and is the father of 3 children. We got along great. He grew up working in his dad's grocery store; I grew up milking cows for my dad, so we both knew how to work.Pictured are friends from Utah State: Jesse served in the Phillipines, Chris Larsen served in Argentina, Albert Hummel served in Brazil, I served in Spain, and Danny Waite served in Germany. One of the things I loved about the MTC was being there at the same time as friends I had from all stages of my life and to realize that we were preparing to take the gospel to all different parts of the world. There were friends from junior high in Farmington, friends from high school in Tooele, and friends from Utah State in Logan. One day at lunch I sat down to eat, then realized I was sitting across the table from one of my friends from Tooele High, then I looked a little futher and realized that his companion was my second cousin.My MTC district consisted of Elders Rowley, Thomas, Ipson, Crowshaw, Beaty, Bedingfield, Richards, Bloquiere, Kjerengtroen, Swensen, Aldama, and Hand.
One class stands out the most to me from the MTC, and that is because is was so bad. Our teacher began speculating on what percentage of the population of the earth would actually make it to the Celestial Kingdom (the highest heaven), and speculated that the number was low. What an awful thing to tell missionaries. If that were true, then why in the world would we leave our families for two years and work our tails off trying to find people to help them on their journey to the Celestial Kingdom? That kind of speculation builds neither faith, nor hope, nor charity. The truth is the Celestial Kingdom is open to all of God's children who are willing to enter through excercising faith, repenting, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. That is the message that missionaries proclaim.
The MTC was a great start to the two years of my life devoted to proclaiming the gospel.

The new Buzz....to infinity and beyond!

Ode to Frank:
For 8 years, you have been our dear friend
Taking us to places that we've never been.
From arches national park to Chazy New York
Across the midwest to the Effingham fork
You've gave us good service and a comfortable ride
From the taste of freedom to the tape deck inside
At times for Bruce you were a comfortable bed.
You were there when we dated and remained when we wed
At times we relied so heavily on you
With your seats oh so plush and your color light blue
You were so reliable when in your prime
But we've worn you down with the passing of time
You did your best to keep us from harm
Though the tickets and deer gave us alarm
We've had many adventures and frusterating times too
Now the time has come to say too-da-lou!
Until recently, for us a trip you never denied
Until in the parking lot, you just up and died!
May you rest in peace (or pieces)!
P.S. (We will miss you, but only for a day!)

BUZZ! Welcome to the family!



I love what you do for me! :)T-O-Y-O-T-A!!!

If you couldn't tell from the Epitaph, Frank finally died on us, forcing us to get a new car. After Frank cut out completely 3 times in one day from our house to the insitute building (among many other problems), we decided enough is enough. So what is the new buzz? He is a 2010 Toyota Corolla with only 30 miles on him when we left the car lot! We didn't orginally expect to come home with Bodacious Buzz, but we are glad we did! It's amazing to have a car that not only rides smooth, but is also quiet and still running! The most embarrasing part of it all is when the dealer took Frank for a drive, to determine his value, he didn't make it out of the parking lot before it died. To make matters worse, he couldn't get it started again. We had to ride in the golf cart to rescue him. Needless to say, we were begging them to take Frank off our hands, and were okay with the $200 we were offered.

It's amazing how many important things happen on account of a vehicle. For example, we rode in Frank the night we were engaged, when I went through the temple, on our wedding night (with chocolate syrup and toilet paper smeared all over him), on multiple temple trips, and on vacations to Kentucky, New York, Indiana, Arches national park (spring break before we were married), and across the country to our home in Illinois. Most of our memories (some good, some bad) come from driving Frank - he has been so much a part of our lives. In general, we will miss him, but he also caused us many moments of grief and frustration, and it got to the point where we couldn't rely on him anymore. As we reflect on all the events in our life that Frank was there for, it's exciting to imagine what will happen with Buzz - including our trip this weekend to Montreal. (And which of our future kids will be driving him one day).

Happy (Rainy) 4th of July!

Our 4th started out with a game of soccer in Mahommet. The group I play with occasionally at 6 in the morning, played at 6:45am for the 4th of July. Brittney decided to come with me and our friend just down the street, Ryan Ritter. It started out with a light sprinkling of rain, then moved to a steady drizzle. By the time we were done, we were soaked. It was a lot of fun! Afterwards we had breakfast at the Tonkinson's house, Rob Tonkinson organizes the soccer games.
We came home and showered quickly, then I ran in the Champaign County Freedom Festival 5K run with my running buddy, Jason, that just got back from France this week. It had stopped raining briefly when we started, it was steady rain by the time we were done. Soccer wasn't conducive to my running my fastest race, but it was fun anyway. Here is Jason and I after the race/shower.

It became apparent that we were not going to be able to have an outdoor barbeque. With 59 people having RSVPed for our 3rd annual 4th of July Bash, there was no way we were all going to fit into our townhouse. Gratefully, we were able to relocate to our church. Instead of grilling our hamburgers outside, we used griddles inside.
It was a blessing that we did not have to cancel our party. As one of our friends, Julieann Krogel noted, after having the parade and the fireworks cancelled, we needed something to make it seem like the 4th of July.

Alma 44:5 speaks of the sacred support we owe to our wives and children and the liberty which binds us to our lands and our country. I am grateful we are not required to take the sword in defence of our homes and liberty at this time. However there are other ways we do need to defend our homes and liberty. D&C 98:10 says honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently. I am grateful to have many honest and wise men for friends. We need to seek honest and wise men to govern our land, and we need to share our wisdom by writing our leaders and being involved in the community. Many are concerned about the choices our government is making right now. The honest and wise men I know make me optimistic for the future and I hope they will do their part to preserve our homes and liberty.

Cakes

Brittney has been trying her creative hand at cake decorating recently. This first one she made for book club. The book was, "The True Meaning of Smeckday." In the book there is an alien with very odd tastes, he especially likes the "cakes" found in the toilets in public restrooms, so Brittney made a toilet cake.

She also made slushious and served in in a garbage can. It was very tastey!

For my birthday, Brittney secretly made arrangements for one of her friends (Tiffany Peterson) to help her make a cake. When I came downstairs and saw the final product on the table, I was amazed. I couldn't quit looking at it. Brittney came up with the idea to make me a milk can. The before product is pictured below.

With the Petersons help, they figured a way to cook four small round cakes inside of cannery cans, just filling the bottom so they would cook all the way through, and then used a cone shaped pan for the top. It seemed like a shame to cut it, but even more of a shame not to share it, so we had several friends come over to eat it, as one of them, Denny Andersen noted, "You either need more chairs or fewer friends." So, for the 4th of July we went to the church where there were more chairs and invited more friends...


We also went and saw a musical production of "Les Miserables" for my birthday. I read the unabridged version right before Brittney and I got married. She has been reading it for the last year, and actually finished on my birthday. It is a beautiful portrayal of the conflict between justice and mercy, and the power of love and forgiveness. It is in my top 5 favorite books.

June Update - Just say 'no'

Brittney has been very busy this month. She is doing summer school every day from 8am to 12pm for two students who failed math and reading. Then she hurries home for lunch before racing off to her U of I class she is taking from 1pm to 4pm. It is good for me that she is busy, because it encourages me to be anxiously engaged in preparing for my presentation at the American Dairy Science Association meetings next month and for my preliminary examination this fall. I've also been to a dairy nutrition conference in Dubuque, Iowa. One of the topics discussed was related to my research (feeding straw to cows during the dry period) and one of the presenters stated that more research was needed and I just thought to myself, "wait until next month and I'll present more research on it." Dubuque is right on the Mississippi river. Here is a picture of me there:Last Saturday we drove down to St. Louis to hear the Mormon Tabernacle choir sing with our friends Robert and Victoria Bales. Robert said it was one of his life dreams to hear the choir in person. It was neat to accompany him in pursuit of his dream. The choir is so amazing to watch and listen to. The evening passed too quickly (though the 3 hour drive home at 10:30pm did not). Our friends from Champaign (the Kitchens) sat two seats away from us without us even planning it. Her dad is in the choir and we got to meet him afterwards. He said they had a photo shoot earlier in the day under the arch. A helicopter flew around the arch taking their pictures while they melted in the sweltering heat wearing their tuxedos.

Brittney has felt very busy this summer, not really enjoying her break. I decided that she needs to start saying 'no'. So I have been practicing with her with such questions as:

Brittney, would you like a piece of chocolate cake?

Then can I have chocolate cake for breakfast?

Can I have your piece of bacon?

Do you want to do the polar plunge with me next year?

Is there any boy cuter than me?

If any of you readers have questions that you know Brittney will say 'no' to, please add them to my list.