Pink Eye and the River Beat

Queen is 5 years old, but still can't resist a play with Don before we set out to muster the 2 tooth ewes off the Spur



This morning I have the river beat to do, just hope I keep dry feet, but it is a very pleasant walk up the river bed then I come back along a stock track pushing the ewes in front of me

                                                                  



And I know where I would rather be on such a beautiful day (and we haven't had many this summer), and it certainly is not heading to Auckland on a morning flight!!




The river narrows down and you cannot avoid having to cross - many times



And cross again on this corner



Then it will be up the hill to get to sheep and track



Not at the top yet, but such a beautiful view



The white dot in the middle of the picture is a ewe, and even with me whistling and Maid barking she is not shifting.  Think she probably is suffering from Pink Eye (conjunctivitis), which is going through the ewes at the moment.  Usually you get it more in a dry dusty year, and especially when they have been through the yards when it spreads from sheep to sheep, but they must be picking up the bug as they graze in the long seedy grass.  We used to put a powder in their eyes to try to cure it, but the advice now is that you leave them and the eyes will come right over about a fortnight.  But in the meantime, this ewe will be left behind as there is no way I can get her out of this spot with a dog, and I don't want her going over a bluff.  Hopefully she will climb out slowly herself, and at present she has plenty to eat.




On the stock track.  You can see the woolshed in the distance, which is where the ewes are going.




The Boss has a mob up on the front face (usually my beat)

We had to leave about 6 ewes behind as they were too blind to move safely, and the others are still down on a paddock after there vaccinations waiting for their eyes to clear up.

And I came home with dry feet, but very wet jeans - if the Boss had told me I would not have been doing my usual beat I would have worn shorts and puttees (canvas covering that attaches to you boots and goes up your leg a little way) then I wouldn't have had wet legs!!

Mmmm Mmmm - Delicious Chocolate Icecream

Chocolate Mocha Icecream

2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
200ml hot milk (not boiling)
1/2 cup (50gm) cocoa, sifted
400gm can condensed milk
200 gm dark chocolate, chopped finely
500 ml cream

Dissolve the coffee and cocoa in hot milk
Combine with condensed milk in a heavy-based saucepan.  Bring to boil, then simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes (stirring constantly)  until the mixture thickens, then remove pan from heat.
Add the chocolate, stir until melted. 
Cool the mixture to room temperature.
Whip cream, then fold into the cooled mixture and pour mixture into a baking paper-lined loaf pan (or into plastic container)
Freeze till firm.
Before serving remove from freezer for a few minutes to allow icecream to soften.

Very rich, but extremely yummy (has gone done very well with the Boss and visitors)

Perendale Ewe Sale

Young Don in action gathering up the ewes

 The lambs have been weaned and now the ewes are coming back in to be dipped (everything, except the culls) so they don't get flies laying eggs on them, or get lice.  And culled - meaning the Boss sorts through them and takes out the old ewes who won't survive another winter here very well, but most of them will do several more years on a warmer flatter farm.  And a few are only fit to go to the meat works, usually because they have something wrong with their udders so that means they can't feed any more lambs.

Cruise has taken over



Queen and Don - their job is done and the ewes are in the yards



Don - your job is over for now!!

This year our old ewes have gone to a special sale for Perendale ewes only which is being held for the first time, this pen are not ours, but from a premium farm, so they fetched a good price.  But our's did very well too, so we will sell at this sale again next year.

                      Buyers looking over the ewes, and a good chance for a gossip with people you don't see very often!

                  Some stud 2 tooth ewes (2 tooth means they are  into their second year and have 2 permanent teeth)
 

 Our ewes being sold.  Three of the agents are holding the ewes and showing that they still have lots of good teeth with which to eat grass, so they get in lamb (hopefully twins and triplets) and then can eat enough to milk well to feed the lambs.  These ewes are 5 years old so they should last 2 or hopefully 3 more years if the next farmer looks after them.

                                                                           Pens of ewes waiting to be bid on.

Weaning

Look at the size of the lambs this year, almost as big as their mums.  What rain and grass can do!   Now we just need all you good people out there to buy lamb to eat.  The prices are dropping for us because of the high US$ and Euro, so just hoping our little boom time isn't over.  But I will just about guarantee they won't drop in the domestic market one little bit as it always seems to be the producers taking the price drops, and the consumers paying through the nose.

"Murphy's Law" in action -

"Murphy's Law - if anything can go wrong it will."

It's just about weaning time again, but it's also time to do some aerial topdressing (flying on fertiliser - superphosphate mixed with lime in this case) on the country we want to muster ewes and lambs off.  HHmmmmm see where this may be going!  Anyway it is too cloudy to muster first thing in the morning before the plane comes back from a job in Nelson, so we have to wait to get out on the hill.

Plane arrives and the cloud has risen high enough for the pilot to do the Spur (no mustering to be done up there), so the Boss announces we'll muster the Middle Stumps as the weather forecast is for low cloud and drizzle the next day and we should be able to get it done before the plane starts to spread fertiliser on the block - good in theory!!



Obliging pair setting off up the hill - note the height of the cloud



These two don't think they want to go up (this is the same day although the colour in the photos varies for some reason)



But now there are four they will move for me




The Boss is doing the other "beat" and you can see his mob stringing around the side of the hill - all going smoothly at this stage.



Then Murphy has a say!!  Pilot has finished the Spur (the hill in the background of this photo) and starts flying over our block.  Needless to say things ceased going quite so smoothly.  The planes are very noisy and fly quite low, so the sheep were not quite so co-operative about going through gates after this point.  However we did get them all down even though all the cattle decided they would come off their hill block down to the same gates as well.  With plane and dogs and people they were well and truly rattled, and hopefully nothing gate wise was damaged before the afternoon finished.





You can see the clouds of fert dropping and settling below the plane

 



Carting up the fertiliser the day before




Plane just landing and loader ready to fill it



The fert sits in the bin between the loader and plane

Plane almost in position for the hopper to be filled

Loader moving across to the plane



and filling through the top of the hopper.  This plane carries about 1 tonne per load




and the plane is off again

Fertiliser is essential on NZ soils as we are such a young country that we lack many minerals in our soil.  In our area Sulphur is very low, and to get optimum grass growth this has to be added to the phosphate.  Soil ph is also crucial, as if it gets too acidic it inhibits growth of certain plants.  Most of the desirable plants like a more alkaline soil, and although in the past we have flown straight lime onto our hill blocks it is very expensive, so this time have added lime to the super phosphate mix. 
We don't put high levels of fertiliser on as A) we want to minimise leaching of nutrients, and B)  you don't want to unbalance the soil elements  C)  it is too expensive to waste.

You have to be very careful what additives go into the Super as some tie up other soil elements.  For instance Molybdenum ties up the copper (which we are short of anyway) so we don't add that, although it is a cheaper way of boosting the plants that release nitrogen, thus giving you the same effect as lime, but for a fraction of the price.  Lime however is safer, although if you had high levels it can also tie up the copper too.  And lime is better for the soil structure and promotes earthworm activity which is highly desirable.  We get soil tests done every 3 years to check what is happening in the soil and adjust what goes on Fert wise accordingly.  Forage testing is also done as sometimes the soil has certain nutrient levels which are not taken up into the plants - complicated YES!  But we try our best to do no damage to the environment.

You can tell if animals have come off blocks that haven't had fert applied, they just do not do as well.  Unfortunately fert does promote weeds, so although there were very few thistles on this farm when we first came here 18 years ago, they are now an ongoing problem.  And the native matagouri just thrives on it., which can cause mustering problems as it becomes impassable, although sheep and dogs can make tracks underneath it, and it has long prickly spikes that fester badly in the skin.

AND MURPHY AGAIN - IT WAS  BEAUTIFUL  WITH PERFECT VISIBILITY THE NEXT DAY.