Good morning everyone,
I don’t know how the weather has been at your place, but on the farm it has been quite mixed! Yesterday was shockingly windy for a great part of the day. I do hope it is not a forerunner for the Super El-Nino summer (but it probably is)! At least we continue to get rain regularly, so we do hope that this keeps coming.
As we drive around the district, there are a lot of contractors out cutting silage, which just goes to show how badly we have prepared this year. Its the worst Winter/Spring we have had in our 24 odd years on the farm. If you have read our earlier posts, it was caused by being overstocked, and also not being able to protect a winter bank of grass with lots of the fences down whilst we refenced the farm. The good news (I think) is we have sold 15 head (rising yearling heifers and steers). This should be confirmed in the next 24 hours. The next job after that is to make sure they are shifted off the farm ASAP.
At the same time, we are really happy with the condition of the animals. Whilst some of the “first calvers” are looking a little thin, this happens even with good pasture cover. Their first calve can be quite a drain on their resources, but they are fine with their second and subsequent calves.
An Update on Simeon
He has survived and is now doing OK. He has bonded really well with his mum, Sherry. I have now put them back with the main herd. If you read last week’s blog post I found him trapped in the mud the morning after he was born. We think Sherry must have sat or trodden on him. He could hardly stand or walk on his hind legs. What we did find out later (as we moved them up to the yards to be tagged) is his tail was really damaged. He will lose the bottom part of the tail, which is sad but won’t affect him otherwise – thank goodness).
A vet call out for Tara
We have 4 girls to calve this month, (and one who has now calved is a first calver – Tara). In fact, despite the hard winter, Tara was probably in too good a condition. When she started preparing to calve we noted the time, so we had her starting point, in case she had issues. After an hour, she had still not really progressed. After an hour and a half with no progress, we called the vet. It was early evening. and dark before the vet arrived.
It was a “hard pull” for the vet, but we did get the calf out safely. We are happy – it was the right call to get the vet. He assured me she would not have calved it herself.
What makes me chuckle is that despite all our help to get them both safe, she took an instant dislike to me for putting her through this! She does not like me coming close to either her or her calf. I’m sure she will get over it!
In keeping with our naming tradition, the bull calf needs a T name – so we have called him “Teddy Boy”.
You will also note from the photo, Tara has no tags. Lol we ordered 35 tags (for that year) for 35 calvings but we ended up with an extra set of twins. Poor Tara missed out on a tag. We will get you a set, Tara – promise!
Spotlight on:
Today we would like to spotlight a mum and daughter born a day later than Teddy Boy.
This is Sylvie, and her new heifer calf – Sadie. Our grandson (at school in Wellington) is going out with a girl called Sadie. We messaged him to tell him we had named the calf Sadie. He was genuinely thrilled, which was nice.
What we are in awe over, is just how protective and caring Sylvie is for her calf. As soon as it was born she started whimpering as she was so distressed and insecure with a new calf amongst other cows. She would aggressively chase away any calves or cows who came to check the calf. I have commented before how protective the cows are with their babies. It is very special – but Sylvie is at another level again! Good girl, Sylvie. We are so proud of you!
Our Atto 3 and Solar
We now have our charger installed, and have driven the car a few times, and also charged it up a couple of times. It is quite seamless, and it’s so nice to think that it runs on inwards sunlight from the farm. We don’t have to worry about Mr. Trump and the Straight of Hormuz!
This next year’s breeding program
We will write about this is full next week, but we are now starting to plan our breeding (which cows will be bred to which bulls – and when). Whilst we could just let our buddy, Mt Vernon cover all the ladies, we still have a desire to breed very special animals. The drive to breed and grow special animals is as strong today as it was when we started! Mt Vernon is genuinely right up there, genetically, but we are also looking to breed heavier carcasses and more marbling.
Feedback
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Thanks so much!
Colin and Keryn