Good morning everyone,
Well, we hope everyone is safe after a pretty tumultuous weather week! It has been pretty scary, and “events” like we are having, are going to be pretty regular, it seems! Wellington looks terrible this morning!
We have had an incredibly rainy summer, and I did an AI search to see if warmer sea temperatures would bring more summer rain permanently. I wondered if we could, or should carry more animals on the farm. The answer was mixed. There will be a lot more weather “events”, unfortunately. More rain doesn’t mean more often! There will also be super dry periods.
When I was doing AI searches, I asked about the history of Lake Karapiro. What I found interesting was the history of the word KARAPIRO. In Māori, Kara means balsamic stone, and Piro means putrid smell. In the early 1800s two Māori tribes had a significant battle by the Waikato river. There were many deaths. The winning tribe did not want their dead to later on have their bodies desecrated, so the chief decided to lay the bodies out on the large boulders near the lake. Lol – the name actually translates to “smelly rocks”. I am sure most Cambridge people do not know that!
ON THE FARM
Well most of the last cows who were scanned as not in calf, have still not cycled. My gut feeling is that these cows are actually pregnant, but when they were scanned the calves were less than 28 days old, and could not be picked up in the scan. I have asked for another scan on these girls, but have not yet had confirmation of when. Fingers crossed! The farming “rule” is to cull cows who don’t get in calf easily, as thus is potentially breeding low fertility into the herd. Some of these girls are precious to me.
Because, previously, most of our progeny went into our beef and pie program, we tried to calve at different times through the year, so that animals would also finish at different times through the year, rather than just once a year. Now we want to bring this back so that they all calve over a 2-3 month period. It will take time for such a change. In March we have three cows still to calve. Once they have calved, we will give them a break, and not put them back into calf until October – December period.
Our farm borders the lake, with some higher areas on “cliffs”. Between the fence and the edge there are significant areas, which the cattle are not allowed into. This area is now very overgrown (mostly with terrible barberry) and there are no views of the lake from this part of the farm. I have spent many days clearing this area, and we will create small sidling paddocks that we can put the cattle into for short periods to keep the weeds under control. Wow, clearing this area is VERY hard work! It has to be done by hand. So much for retirement!
SPOTLIGHT ON
Today we would like to spotlight a beautiful young heifer, CHRISSIE. Chrissie is the daughter of one of our very special girls – CHRISTIE (lol – actually “Christie Brinkley”).
Christie is a commercial cow (not registered), and is outstanding. She is really big, and solid, carcass wise, with the most beautiful temperament. Chrissie is growing at an outstanding rate – and looks like she is going to develop into a super girl also. We are going to keep a close eye on her, to see how she develops. She might end up staying here, and not be sold in-calf, at 15 months of age, with the other heifers.
That’s all for this week. Please – have a safe week at your place.