Good morning everyone,
We hope everyone survived the terrible weekend weather. It certainly could have been a lot worse, but there were still people badly affected. We were OK here, at Lake Farm.
Our Kitties:
Our neighbour is going to take the last feral kitty off our hands. We will get her spayed before we pass her over. She is a sweet girl. who loves being patted, but is still very insecure. In fact, if they hadn’t wanted her, we would have kept her. We do hope she is well looked after.
As you can see – she is much smaller and more undernourished that the other two. So much for living in the wild!
The other two are just a delight, and are so loving. It is so interesting, though – as soon as we have visitors, they are off – not to be seen again for a few hours. They are much more “aware” than a domestic cat.
On the farm
Well – it is definitely all go on the farm. The fencers are going great guns and have almost completed the rail and batten fencing. We think it looks great!
We still have some barberry fences left, which we planned to remove over the next few years. They are very messy to clean up properly. Our neighbour spent the money to get some special contractors who dug a HUGE hole, dug out all their barberry fences and had a huge fire in the hole. Once completed the hole was filled back in, What was left was just some topsoil to spread around.
This contractor said he was too busy to do our farm as well as the neighbour, but out of the blue he called in and advised us he would be able to remove them all at the end of this week. Whilst I am happy, it’s going to be a logistical nightmare ensuring our stock can be rotated OK. We also have to be careful of our money situation!
Non traditional cattle weighing is in sight: Many years ago, our lady vet (Ursula) invented a special dairy calf feeding device, and made a lot of money off the royalties. She retired. We actually got on really well, though, and we even called one of cows after her.
Out of the blue I noticed she was the COO for a new startup cattle weighing business, which works by getting an image of animal (not a simple photo) and their software analyses the image and determines the weight of the animal. Their goal is to get to 98% accuracy. This means, potentially, no stressful yarding etc.
I don’t weigh our animals anywhere near as much I should (because of the stress on both the animals and me). This software would be revolutionary, not only for the world market, but, specifically me, I am really excited to see how it develops.
I contacted her again, and they are desperate for “guinea pigs” to help them test their software. They want farmers who can weight the cattle on traditional scales and immediately after they are weighed have them scan each animal to compare the weight differences. This enables them to continuously improve their accuracy.
Ursula came to our farm on Friday, and we weighed and scanned 80 odd animals from our herd. In fact the accuracy is not there yet. It was a tad disappointing, and they still have a lot of work to do. But I am still their biggest fan. If they can get it right, and ensure their software is protected, it could be a goldmine company. I love seeing smart New Zealand businesses! I am happy to continue on as a guinea pig.
Our herding system: As you probably know, we don’t wean calves from mothers if we can avoid it. We love seeing “families” still together, over time. This morning, when coming to photograph our spotlight animal, I came across BIDDY and BETTY together. They are two twins and they are almost glued to each other. They are such a happy pair. It is so delightful to see!
Spotlight on:
Today I would like to spotlight one of our young heifers.
This girl is Winnie – and is just 7 months old, but is growing like a champion. Winnie is the daughter of one of our most special cows – Jana. Jana, just like her mother, Jenna, is a champ, with the most beautiful temperament. Both Jenna and Jana have really solid carcasses.
Winnie’s dad is the USA champion HART NETWORK – and Winnie looks to have all his special attributes, as well as her mother’s. At just 7 months old she is already over 350kgs.
Winnie is definitely a “keeper” and we are excited to see how she develops.
I have lots of other news, but I guess that can wait until next week!
As always – we love feedback – please send us a note, if you can!
Colin and Keryn