Tailing time

After lambing always comes tailing(docking) - not that pleasant a job, but a very necessary one.  Lambs tails are shortened and the ram lambs (little boys) have to be castrated (wethered), and everything has the farm's earmark.  We also treat each lamb with chemical to prevent fly strike.  This job does cause some pain to the lambs, but it doesn't last long, and about 20 minutes after the procedures most are quite happy again, especially if they find their Mum quickly and can get a drink. 

We have to take off most of the lambs tail for animal health reasons.  If it is left on there is a far greater chance that a lot of dags (poos) will accumulate, and that attracts flies.  The flies just love laying eggs around the tail area in damp faeces and urine soaked wool.  Some types of fly will even lay little live maggots, missing out the egg stage.  And it is a very horrible death for anything that is flystruck and not found in time to be treated.  You get hundreds of maggots feeding on the live animal, and the smell of course attracts other flies who lay more eggs.  There is no doubt for anyone who has seen this that it is far preferable for the stock to be tailed than have flystrike.  It also means less chemicals are used on the animals through the rest of their lives, and the chemical we use to inhibit the fly larval development stages is a very safe one, not like the ones you have to use if  lambs have maggots on them.

The earmark has to be done so neighbours with the same breeds can differentiate between the flocks if there are any mix ups.  And the ram lambs have to be castrated to prevent unwanted breeding (especially with half sisters).  We use a rubber ring system, which constricts the blood supply and the tails and purses just dry up and eventually fall off  (yummy tucker for the dogs over the summer as they are out and about supposedly concentrating on working). 

Some people use a hot iron to take off the tails, which cauterizes  the open wound as the tail comes off, but when we used to have a tailing iron we found it caused trouble in the wind, or if it became too hot, so went back to the rings. 

                                                                                          Waiting their turn

                          "Ooooh Mum where are you, don't think I like the look of this!!"  - the lambs in the little tailing pen

                                                                                           After being tailed

                                            Left alone for about an hour and they quite happily move back to the paddock

                                                    Lambs lined up in the tailing chute with all the right bits exposed!

                                                             The ring being put on the tail, then this area is sprayed.

Back to farm work for me -

Now No 1's wedding is all done and dusted, and everyone has dispersed themselves to their various homes once again, it is time for me to get back on the bike for the cast ewe runs.  The wedding was a very happy occasion, but a very busy one, but we had so many fantastic friends and family helping it was great.

                                                                                   1st Calvers with young babies

                                                          "I want my Mum, there's someone strange looking at me"

                                                                        "You can look at me, aren't I cute!"

 Calf Nursery - cows often leave their calves like this as they go off to graze.  There are 2 or 3 cows quite close acting as Aunties, and keeping an eye on things.

                                                                                                    Snack time.

                                                                                Twins snoozing in the sun.

                                                                                          Triplet lambs

                                                                              This lamb is only a few hours old

                                                        " When you get a bit panicked best thing is to have a feed"

A Dismal Job

The Boss has the dismal job of picking up the dead this morning.  Did not matter where the ewes lambed yesterday, anything born in the storm died, even tucked well under good shelter belts.  Even some of the lambs born the day before have died too.  Hate to think what happened to the calves, some will just have been washed away as the creeks came up so much, and the cows will have tucked them into shelter in the little creeks out of the wind. 

We go to so much effort all year for this time of year, and try to time lambing/calving for the warm weather, but this was one of the worst storms we've had.

Enjoying the sunshine last week

Except the sun hasn't lasted and now it is snowing again!!

The Babies need Sunshine

Twins are starting to arrive thick and fast, but all need some sun desperately, although at least it has not really rained since Thursday.  The Boss is picking up 5-10 cast ewes daily, so should mean we get a good cut of wool off them come December.
It is at this time of year I rather wish we had everything warm and dry in a big shed, but with our all grass system of farming in NZ that does not happen.  All grass means outside all year, and they only get fed cut pasture (hay, baleage or silage) in the winter or during droughts (very dry weather when the grass doesn't grow).  Some farmers do buy/grow grain - barley mainly, in as stock feed too.  Really is the healthiest way to farm, no need for antibiotics or hormones to get them growing - so when you buy NZ Lamb and Beef  remember how pure it is!!
Just starting to rain again out there so I'd better do my outside chores, I know I'm obsessed with the weather, but we are so weather dependent it rules out lives.

42mm rain and the start of calving

                                                      The Oystercatchers pairing up  -  last week when it was sunny
Lambing is due to start on Thursday, so there are very few to be affected by the weather as yet, but the cows have well and truly started.  Six new ones overnight yesterday morning, so hopefully they are all surviving.  Calves do not cope with the wet and cold as well as lambs, so even though there is shelter for them all (providing Mum decides she will give birth in it) their larger body mass means they get hypothermia faster.  Fingers crossed for sunshine as predicted for tomorrow, and that the "Boss" is not too grumpy when he comes in from his daily check today.  He is picking up 2 or 3 cast ewes daily at the moment.

The "Boss" is also wondering why we have quite a few white faced calves in the Spur mob.  We put orange dot tags into the ears of the cows that we put to the Hereford bull ( and these are not on the  Spur), which are put into separate mobs for calving and mating, and we know the 2 Hereford bulls we put out did not go a wandering at the beginning of mating (they were quite happy with their own 35 cows each thank you).  Soooo it must have been the neighbour's Hereford jumping the fence for a little extra sport just before we mustered the cows and calves off the Spur prior to calf marking and we hadn't realised he had been in - sneaky!

Poor wee Kingfisher

Last seen alive being chased by blackbirds, probably as the Kingfisher may have been eyeing up eggs, or chicks I guess.  Anyway he/she dashed itself against the windows, so is now destined to become feather art.  They are such gorgeous birds it is such a shame to pick them up dead.  2 years ago I found 2 during the summer that had done the same thing.

A month off now ...

for the dogs that is.  Although the heading dogs will get to go around the ewes on the daily cast ewe run, riding on the back of the bike so they don't disturb the lambing.  The Boss is picking up 2 or 3 ewes a day at the moment, mainly due to slightly damp wool, but it is surprising how they suddenly reach a stage where they get cast.

                                    Curious 1st Calvers as we were waiting for the Boss to bring his mob down the hill. 

We calve our cows as 3 year olds, which is different to a lot of farmers.  We just feel that with our climate they need to grow out properly first before rearing a calf.  The majority of farmers calve heifers at 2, so that means they are put in calf as yearlings, which I feel is too soon for most really, as they seem to have a lot of problems calving them unless they have managed to grow the heifer out really well.  It is many years since we have had to help a cow calve, although it is the time of year we will lose 2 or 3 out on the hill if they have difficulties often due to the spot they have chosen to calve in, or the calf has pinched a nerve in the cow as it is being born, and the cow can't get up properly.  And the last few weeks leading up to calving is when the cows will slip somewhere and injure themselves badly.  But in saying that it is not many out of about 185 calving.

                                          "Don't you worry Mum, I'm keeping an eye on them"  (heifers in previous photo)

               Cruise keeping out of trouble by getting into the Argo - then he's not tempted to do the wrong thing (mostly)!

                                                                 1st Calvers heading out to their calving block

                                                                                  That's it Cruise time off now

                       A mixed mob being fed the last of the hay, before they get split.  These are 2 year heifers and yearlings.

                                                            Yesterday morning's view - getting a little sick of this!!

Cows In - Cows Out

Yahooo!  Everything is split up for lambing and calving, no more feeding out (except the horses) or break fences.

The Conveyor's been and gone

Setting up, this time to give all the ewes a drench (usually only the twinners and skinnys get one now) as after the hard winter think everything needs as much help as possible to get through lambing.  Often the worms really escalate once the ewe has lambed and the grass starts to grow,  so this should help.  Also added to the worm drench has been some multi mineral mix to help ewe and lambs.  They also have a vaccination against clostridial diseases (eg - tetanus, blood poisoning).  

                  Conveyor is leaving 2 1/2 hours later - great job done.  This used to take the Boss about 3 days by himself.

"We've got sick of waiting, time to help ourselves to breakfast! "  The fact it was on the trailer and for the horses didn't much matter - the girls were hungry!!

More birds arriving

I think they've got it wrong though - definitely not Spring, snowing around the house again now.  But this morning when it was still fine there were 2 Kingfishers calling.  I don't know if they were challenging to establish territory or trying to pair up.  It's great to see them sitting on the power wires.  The other birds (that really don't belong here in the high country) that come every year to breed are the Oystercatchers.  Several pairs about already and looking to nest soon I think.  They are quite successful with their breeding, especially the ones that end up on the lawn.  They just wake us up at the crack of dawn trying to fight off their reflections in our bedooms doors!

I should know better!

"Just take me to the top of the hill"  - okay that means I don't have to have an early lunch with the Boss, I'll have it about 1pm when I get back - NO!

"Just see if you can pick up those 2 cows, they should move across the gully easily" - NO!

Did I have my proper hill boots on, and my hill stick (a length of manuka stick to help balance on the side of a hill) - NO!

Did I take Cruise as well as  Maid - NO!

Did I have to walk all the way to the bottom of the hill to push the cows around, then climb back up to the bike - YES!

Did I get back to the house for lunch at 2.30pm - YES!

But on the positive side - I collected not 2 but 4 cows, and got them all the way back to the bottom paddock, they obligingly presented only their tails to Maid (she is not good on cattle when they turn and face her - she thinks that's a little scary, which is why I need Cruise).

And the Kowhai trees are flowering up the river, bright bundles of yellow flowers, full of trilling Bellbirds, which made everything well worth it.

Now just to see if the Boss got the 4 cows he set out for.

Famous Last Words!

                                                                                          I believe they were ...

                                                                               "at least we'll be able to see today"

Got that a little wrong didn't I.  When I left the house half an hour before this photo was taken it was clear blue sky, although there were some clouds building to the South.  Then the day got even worse.

Visibility improved, but with in came sleety snow!  You can see the "Bosses" cows coming down on the bottom left of the photo, very slowly as they didn't like coming into the snow showers.

                                     Maid is the littlest black shape behind the 5 cows, who weren't keen on moving either

 It is very  hard to see, but my cows are just above the creek in the middle of the photo, and the Bosses mob is above the head of the creek and slightly to the left.  Will mine kindly walk up to meet his?  Maid is still behind pushing them, doing a great job as I am quite high up on the hill.

 No they didn't!  The 5 stopped just around the corner where I couldn't see them and wouldn't move, so I had to go down and help Maid, then I had this hill to climb up to get out.  First hill of several for the day - it's still snow showers at this stage.

    Up at the top, and guess what??  It's Murphy's Law in action again, now the job is almost finished it's clearing up.

We got another 58 cows.  But know there are still 5 even further out, and one that beat me further down, and by then light was starting to fade, so I had to leave it and collect the bulk of them.  It certainly paid off getting what we did of the mob  off the hill before the big snow, as these last ones are much lighter in condition.  They have also pushed into places looking for feed where they've not been before too.
The Boss said I would be home about 4.30pm, well I walked back into the kitchen at 7pm, and I was frozen as I'd taken sheep off their breaks on the way back. 
So counting down the days until feeding out and break feeding finished - thankfully will be about the middle of next week.  We just need the grass to grow now.

What's on today -

                                                                                    Trundling up the lane

                                                                 Unfortunately the med square bale isn't feeding out

                                                                                        Come on we're hungry

                                                                                     Oh that's good - about time

The square bales don't feed out very well on our bale feeder as it is made for round bales only really.  So after 15 years it is back to togetherness feeding out every day, thankfully it won't be for long.  Makes both of us sneeze (the hay dust that is), and the Boss snore loud and long at night!! 
Then it was back home for the Boss to have an early lunch, and he's disappeared up the river to find some cows and I leave in 5 minutes to meet him on top of the Spur - and we'll hopefully bring down the last of them if we can find them all.  At least we can see today.

Did I say ...

                                                                                                 SPRING?

We were going to muster the last of the cows off the Spur today, but it will be too dangerous as there was quite a bit of hail before the snow, so will be very slippery and the Boss thinks I'm "a bit valuable to go over the edge"!!  Hopefully it'll be done tomorrow, but rain due again then and Friday - one day we'll get them.  Even if they go back out the next day having been through the yards for their jabs.

Birds and blossoms

                                                                               Kereru - Native Wood Pigeon

Spring must have arrived, we will just forget about the forecast for Snow Monday night!   But the wood pigeons are back in numbers.  They love all the new buds on the elm trees at this time of the year, and at times I'll get 6-8 eating the buds off the weeping elm right outside the office window.  Apparently they are delicous to eat, especially when they've been gorging on fruit all summer, but that is now illegal thankfully.  Dumb birds, but beautiful.
There are also 2 pairs of Blue Herons nesting.  We have had some in the trees behind the house for many years, but now there is another pair in a pine tree across the river - they are so good to see poking around, except that they make a noise a little like a crow (which we don't have).
The blossom is coming out too, and won't be long before the willows are greening up so warm weather on the way.  Except we have had to buy a truckload of hay just to get the cows through until they go out onto the hill in the middle of September.  Insurance in case it really snows again.

OOooops First Lamb already

                                                                   Arrived September 1 (1st day of Spring)

but we're not supposed to start lambing until the end of the first week of October.  We lamb then because that is when the grass has started really growing (hopefully) and the weather is more settled (not always), but seriously it is the best time for here.  Any later and things can start to dry out and the lambs don't get the good start they should, and we do get storms at all times of the year here.  I remember one December having 10cm of snow fall.

This ewe (note she is uncrutched) was supposed to be "dog tucker", meaning the Boss was going to kill her to feed to the dogs as she didn't look like she'd survive the Autumn, let alone the Winter!  So where did he put her, but with the dog tucker Rams - and obviously they were not on their last legs at all were they!!

Crutching time

Actually should've been done about 10 days ago, but we had to let the ewes pick up after standing in snow for so long.  They are looking good really, and everything has been through the shed with no problems - well none for the ewes anyway, just quite stroppy and full of themselves according to the shearers.  They reckon we should've shorn them just after it snowed when they were still civilised!  And they have yet to do the hoggets - so that is a real treat, will feed them well (shearers that is).

                                                                                       The Belly wool coming off

                                                                                                   All finished

We belly crutch to keep the ewe clean of dags (poo stuck to wool)  over lambing and up to shearing, although some often need a dag (just chopping off the woolly poo) in the yards before shearing; to expose the udder properly so the lamb has no problem finding the teat and milk supply; with no warm belly wool hopefully the ewe will go to a drier spot to lamb (dreams are free!); and to speed up shearing.  We want to speed up the shearing as the ewes have their lambs on them at that stage, and the faster they are through the shed and back with the lambs the better. 

The hoggets just get what we call a "buttonhole", that is just around the anal area and down the legs a little, but not around the udder area.  With breeds of sheep that have a woolly head the shearers will do an "eyewig", around the eyes and up the forehead to stop the sheep becoming woolblind (not being able to see due to wool covering the eyes), there are fewer breeds these days requiring this as people try to breed woolly heads out.

The last decade crutching has really only been for animal health reasons, as the price we have obtained for the wool has only covered 1/3 of the shearing costs, hopefully this year with a lift in the wool prices this will change.

Rory - You Pillock!

                                                                              Note the 2 wires between Rory and I
How did he get in here?  A little area fenced off so horses will not chew the trees (which he has proceeded to do), with no gate.  Somehow Talisman Farm RoryO'Moore  managed to get himself in, but at least he didn't cut himself, or get caught up in the wires.  I fed him while I opened it up with fencing gear.  And it is now left open, as otherwise he'd do it again, and we probably wouldn't be so lucky in the injury stakes.

The next day Rory was up the top of the terrace, and there was a rock sitting there, and of course what else is a young horse supposed to do with a rock??  Well you give it a shove with your foot of course, and as it moves you do it again, then lo and behold it rolls over the edge and down to the bottom with suitable noise.  That was very satisfactory, so you shake your head and go looking for another one, but unfortunately there wasn't one that would move.  So nothing left to do but go back to grazing.

I am enjoying having Rory here (belongs to no. 2), but hopefully he does leave in one piece.  He has learnt a lot of valuable lessons whilst he's been here - how to ford flooded streams safely, how to dig through snow to pasture, how it's not really that wise an idea to go too far into a muddy dam (you almost get stuck and it's very cold afterwards), how to ignore larikin dogs screaming past on their initial run of the day, and best of all how to come straight off a very steep 50m terrace at speed and clatter through the stones at the bottom without breaking your leg (although he has given himself a splint doing that)!  So although it is going to be a sad day when he leaves to be broken in, there will also be a BIG sigh of relief!!

A little Whoopsie!!

                                                                        Tractor versus Gate - Tractor wins!

The Boss had a little whoopsie the other day and you can see the result.  No. 1 daughter will be pleased though as she and I bought a gate to replace this hard to open one about 6 years ago.  The new gate somehow never went up - IT WILL HAVE TO NOW - as is VERY hard to open properly now.

Flattened Garden ...

... and a Wedding here at the end of October "sigh" Murphy's Law in action again.

Don is looking for trouble.

                                                                                                        DON

Don, "the Bosses" very cocky 18 month heading dog is just looking for trouble at the moment.  When you run a team of dogs they have to establish a pecking order - and cheeky Don is ready to  challenge it.  He seems to think he should be higher up than my dog Cruise, who doesn't go looking for a fight, but won't back down if one comes to him.  Cruise and Jake (the big Huntaway dog) have a very uneasy truce,  Jake has had a few goes at Cruise and probably in an all out fight would win, but severe injuries would occur.  Jake has put Don in his place months ago when to put it mildly Don was just being a teenage "pain in the arse".  However the showdown with Cruise hasn't happened yet.
I have stopped a few situations as it has been at times when Jake has been present (he would love to get in there too and probably hates Cruise more than Don), or it is afterhours for the vets, and you can never discount the fact that one dog may end up there for stitches.  However, I think Cruise being the heavier, more mature dog will win, so will just have to leave Jake behind so they can have it out and we have peace in the camp.
Dogs aren't as vicious with each other as Bitches when they start to fight which is good.  The bitches do it very rarely as body language seems to work very effectively, but they really get into it once they start.  The worst we had for fighting was the Jack Russell "Patch" in her younger days, thankfully she is far too old and toothless to be any trouble these days.  As one Vet put it on yet another visit for her  - "the heart is bigger than the brain!!".

And it is a beautiful sunshiny day here today - yay!!