Life on a dairy farm on Christmas Day still means that the cows must be milked and young stock cared for. That has to be a priority regardless of the day or time.

Yet on Christmas Eve and Day there are usually some changes made to spend more time with family and for gift exchanges.

Brenda Hastings and husband Lad on Hastings Dairy Farm near Burton milk about 550 Holstein cows and have an equal number of young animals. Brenda says that regardless of Christmas or the weather, they must feed, milk, treat sick cows and provide special care to newborn calves and fresh cows. They do the minimum on Christmas Day, which is still about 85 percent of the work they do on a regular day.

On Christmas Day, Lad goes over to the dairy at 4:45 AM as he does every day. Then he comes home around 8:00 AM so their family can open presents. Mid-morning he will head back to the dairy and work till noon, then come home for lunch with the family. He then goes back to work in the afternoon.

That is their life. Both Lad and Brenda grew up on dairy farms and know that the cows depend on them for consistent daily care regardless of the day.

Some adjustments are made on the David and Janice Holden Farm in Pierpont. In partnership with their son Glen, they milk about 50 cows along with caring for at least that many young stock they have on the farm. On Christmas Day they do the milking, feeding, barn cleaning and other necessary chores. Any other work is either done ahead of time or put off until another day.

After the milking and other chores are done, they gather to open Christmas presents. Some of their family lives a distance away and often don't get home for Christmas so their dinner that day can be a quiet one.

On Christmas Eve they plan to go to church. Then they invite in what Janice called their extended family for snacks and hot cocoa or coffee. They do have their traditions and make some changes to enjoy the spirit of Christmas.

Loren and Nancy Ring at Ringbye Jersey Farm in Monroe also plan to do things a bit different over the holidays. Since they milk about 300 cows, they hire help to do the milking. Nancy says they rotate this help over the holiday so some of them have time off to be with family. But milking and caring for the cows and young animals is still a priority regardless of the day.

They do everything they can ahead of time to be able to be with the family as much as possible on Christmas Day. They usually have their family for a big dinner at noon and then what Nancy called a "toned down" gift exchange and "yankee swap". Before they eat their big meal, one of their traditions is to read the Christmas Story from their family bible

Nancy says she still finds time to feed the calves, regardless of the day or weather.

On each one of these dairy farms it is obvious the families know what is essential to provide good care and cow comfort. This is true across the country on livestock farms large and small.

So give a big thanks to dairy farmers who have to milk and care for their animals regardless of the day!