Good morning everyone,
I hope everyone has recovered from all the shocking weather we have experienced. We have never experienced a summer like this in the 20+ years at Lake Farm. We do feel very lucky not to have been badly affected.
Our “feral” kittens
From an earlier post, you may be aware that we “befriended” a wild cat, feeding her daily. Not long after she turned up with 4 new kittens!
We managed to “rescue” 3 of the 4 kittens, and have had them speyed. We sent one off to the “cat rescue lady” in Matamata (who will rehome it) and we have ended keeping the other two. They have settled in and have lost a lot of their “feral” attitude, They already have preferred to be “inside cats”. This little girl is “Ditzy” and just loves being cuddled and stroked. Here she is lying with “her mummy”.
On the Farm
We are now into the ” facial eczema” season. Eczema spores appear at this time of year on the grass, and if a cow consumes too many spores, they can develop significant liver damage. The results can be just awful and debilitating for the animal (for both sheep and cattle).
The only “prevention” is to give them zinc. But zinc is toxic too, but OK in moderation. One way is to give each animal a zinc bolus – which releases small amounts zinc into their system continuously. You can’t give young calves a bolus though. We prefer the put zinc into their water troughs daily. Zinc has a bitter taste, so we add lots of molasses with the zinc, to make it palatable. Fingers crossed there are no issues this year! We don’t stop adding zinc until the first frosts appear, which kill off the spores. That seems like a long way away.
Today we are getting our main herd into the yards, and will give all the young ones their second “7-in-1” vaccine. This gives the animals maximum protection from a number of clostridial and other potential infections. The young ones will also be weighed, and fingers crossed that they are growing well. A rule of thumb is that a calf still on its mother should put on at least 1kg of weight per day. I will be interested in the results.
We have not been able to pregnancy test our last few cows, and we have decided to leave it a little while before scanning. Today we are also removing the bulls (Tristan and Mt Vernon). Any cows who are not in calf will either be culled, or wait until 1st week in November, when we want to start our 2026 breeding.
A quick holiday for us
Tomorrow we fly out to Christchurch for a weeks holiday in the South Island. We feel very lucky to be able to be able to do this now (with no pies to pack and ship). We have a neighbour who will shift the herds and put zinc into their water troughs. As we wont be back until Tuesday, our Monday blog post might be a blog about our trip.
Spotlight on
Today we would like to spotlight a special lady. This BIG girl is Sherry, who we might have spotlighted previously. The reason to spotlight here again is because we weighed her yesterday, and (wow) she is big. Se is just 5kgs short of 900kgs! The photo does not do her carcass justice. She is in beautiful condition.
Sherry is one of two Embryo calves born at the same time, with the same parentage. When we had them DNA profiled, her sister, Shania, had all the best attributes (on paper). In fact Shania will be culled this year, and Sherry is most definitely a keeper. Not only has she grown better than Sania, she has the most amazing docility – which is very special.
Sherry will stay at Lake Farm for as long as we are here. You are amazing, Sherry!
That’s all for this week. We will report back on our road trip next Monday!
We welcome any feedback – colinbr@gmail.com