Just another week

Just been mustering sheep down, to sort through them before the rams go out.  A bit like the cattle any ewes that don't quite come up to scratch get put to a terminal sire -a ram bred for meat.  In our case we use a Southdown as we can tell the difference in the lambs at tailing and weaning.  The crossbred lambs have faces that look a bit like teddy bears, with brown shadings on legs and around the nose, and little round ears.  They are quite cute at that stage.
After he's sorted the ewes up "the Boss" then gets the lovely job of dagging the dirty ones.  Dagging is chopping the faeces off around the tails and down the legs - a lovely job as you can imagine.  The worst ones to do are the 2ths as they leap around.

A bit about the Perendale sheep breed.

The Perendale was developed by Professor Peren at Massey university in 1956 as an "Easy Care" dual purpose Sheep, by crossing the Romney and Cheviot.  (Romney ewes to Cheviot rams) 

They have proved to be ideal for steep hill country, hardy - suiting colder, high rainfall areas, with a lean (low fat) heavyweight carcass, growing coarse wool (carpet) at 28-37 microns.  The Perendale is alert, active and quick moving, intelligent and must be handled quietly.  They score as the easiest sheep to deal with, except for handling in yards.  so it's not just us that have them jumping out.

Autumn Harvest

Fly Agaric ( The Fairytale Mushroom)



Not sure what this type is, but looks even more lethal.

Just as well no one here is into experimentation, as we have quite a crop of these little treasures growing alongside the pine shelterbelts this year.  Fortunately the stock don't worry them, unlike our native Tutu (Coriaria).



Tutu

 Tutu is the most notorious native poisonous plant in New Zealand as it causes livestock losses.  They eat it in any quantity - they die!  It comes in this scrub form, or as a tree.  And it mainly causes cattle losses.  Why am I telling you this?
Well, we always lose 1-2 cattle beasts a year through Tutu poisoning, and usually when the cows have just been weaned and they go back out to our Spur, which has a significant amount of Tutu on it. 

Precautions we take are too always make sure the cows are full when they go out, so they will be more choosy about what they taste, and you don't put outside, unexposed livestock onto blocks that contain this plant.  However, one silly tart just had to eat too much, and is now no more.  They seem to be able to eat a little, and that is why humans don't seem to be fatally poisoned these days.  Some tourists can't resist the little tiny berries, and have a sublethal dose, and sometimes there are cases of humans being affected through honey (1974 and 2008 so not common).  The flesh of the berries is not poisonous, but the seed is.  Dogs seem to be able to suck up the berries (usually greedy labradors)  without chewing the seed, and then pass the seeds out with no problems. 

Most year's we will lose 2-3 sheep with this poisoning too,  usually hoggets, again mainly when they are on this same block, even though there are pockets over the whole farm.  And if calves ingest a sublethal dose it seems to have a long term effect on their brain, so every so often we just get a crazy young cattle beast that it is difficult to do anything with. 



Better day

The cows walking up the flat, not quite all the herd as I was on the job and couldn't let any beat me to the track I had to block, so no time to stop for a more perfect piccy.



Obligingly filing into the yards, amazing how easy they are with no calves.  You'll probably have to look quite hard to see them against the background.




The same view as the day before, much nicer today

 Other than the mud today was very pleasant in the yards.  Just felt a bit like we'd walked a half marathon by the time we'd finished the day.  "The Boss" also decided it would be quite easy to draft the heifers to go this morning in the dark too.  It wasn't!  We finished that job this morning.

Summer's over.

Why the beautiful weather had to finish the day before we were Pregnancy testing the cows I don't know.  Heavy rain overnight, then snow in the early hours  of the morning did not make for an enthusiastic CC&B turning out the door this morning.  Think I'd rather have spent the day in the kitchen, even maybe doing other housework - but not to be. 

We get a Vet in to do this testing, and so we can cull any cows that are not carrying a calf.  As a calf is the only income you get from a cow so she has to earn her keep.  So through the yards they went today.  Thankfully the snow stopped just as we got them to the yards, so all we had to contend with was a biting cold wind and mud, mud and more mud.  I was a bit lucky as I was up on the catwalk with the Vet, so not in the mud much, and we have a very handy lad staying at the moment who helped "the Boss".

Then the horses had a worm, dogs vaccinations, and the Rams had their balls  palpated to make sure all was healthy.  We hopefully only have the Vet on the place once a year, so make the most of it.  And they're all A-okay so that's good.  They should be rearing to go when they get put out with the Ewes in Mid May.

Brrr, not looking forward to a day out in this



Better, the sun is starting to shine.  It didn't last, but neither did it snow again




The modern way - A probe inserted up the anus (carefully!) and the image of the calf shows on the eyepiece




The old way (imagine doing hundreds of cows like this), but now the Vets always check any drys from the scanner just to make sure they're correct.  There were 3 in calf that had looked empty (no calf inside), so worth doing.  But as the Vet said did warm the hand up nicely!




Just a little bit of mud!!!!



Poor Christchurch

Another 5.3 last night, really rattled some places in the Eastern suburbs again.  Those poor people facing Winter coming on with electricity, water and sewerage problems.  And we can't forget the poor Japanese people whose plight is even worse.

My best GF Breadmaker bread recipe

White Bread

Into the breadmaker pan place

3 teaspoon dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 egg
150 ml lukewarm milk

Add

250 gm white breadmix (I use Healtheries Simple Breadmix)
4 tablespoons fine cornmeal
100gm potato flour
make up to 450 gm with with white rice flour
3 Tablespoons dried whole milk powder
3/4 tsp salt

Then add

40 gm butter
200ml lukewarm water

Bake on 3 hr setting.

My Breadmaker is an original Panasonic.  So I have to set it on the rapid bake to get the 3 hours.
You may have to play around with quantities to make the loaf work properly.  And I find even though I always buy the same flours there is a variation in some of the loaves, related to the changing of a packet.  If you are in a different country it could make quite a difference.  But if you persist it is well worth it.  If you eat a loaf too soon out of the baker it is crumbly, but very tasty toast.  Even "The Boss" eats it without too much grumbling.




This is what it should look like



Calves Turn now

April is the time we wean our calves, and after this the cows are a real pleasure to handle.  Apart from Blue tag 5, she is on a one way trip to the freezing works.  She is truly nasty, as she is not after the dogs, but us!  When they are like that they stir up the other normally placid cows too.  I managed to identify her yesterday as she was facing off at me (and being whacked on the nose with my polythene pipe), it was that or have me flattened, not something I would enjoy at all. 

Anyway we got the cows and calves off the hill the other day,  one of those out of the box Autumn days.  Not a breath of wind, and in the mid 20's (degC).  All went well, and we were finished by late morning.

Then yesterday was spent in the yards separating the cows and calves, and tagging the calves that are in the calf sale today.  The rest we vaccinated (for those nasty cloistridial diseases), drenched (against the worms)  and dipped (to prevent the lice).  The cows were let out beside the calves, makes for much easier weaning if Mum is right beside them, and the calves were kept in the yard overnight, just so they weren't silly and raced through any wire fences.  They were let out this morning, and are very happy on their grass, and wallowing in the dam.

They will spend the next 4 days beside each other, and then Monday the vet comes and we Pregnancy test the cows.



Cows and calves in the yard.  Haven't the calves grown since marking time!




Autumn colours




Cows and calves coming off the hill



Heifers

We run Angus cattle here, they are a good hardy breed, not too large for our climate, and reasonably quiet to handle (unless of course protecting those calves from evil dogs).
Yesterday we culled (sorted) the 18 month heifers out that we want to keep for breeding.  They have to have good conformation - nice bodies, good legs and feet.  And those that will be sold had to then be tagged, so they can be traced as they move through the chain - from us, to another farmer, to the meat works, to the supermarket.  Then if anything turned up in the meat, the Ministry of Agriculture could trace them all the way back to us if they thought the fault originated on our farm.   Keeps all those consumers safe around our country and the world.

Anyway, enough of the ramble!  The heifers also received an injection of selenium and copper, which are very important trace elements to enable them to grow properly.  In fact if they are severly deficient they will die in extreme cases.  NZ is low on Selenium throughout the country, but just some places have copper deficiency. 

Then out they all went back onto the good, green autumn grass.

And I am back in the kitchen processing sauce tomatoes, apples, and blackberries.  Just think of the smell of a jar of blackberries being opened in the middle of winter - a little slice of heaven and reminder of warmer times.  Snow on the mountain this morning!

Our "Central" holiday

St. Bathans - an old gold mining town, looking down towards the old Vulcan Hotel (last building on left), Old Post Office is the 2 storied one in foreground.  You can still get a drink in the Hotel, and the day we were there a wedding was being prepared in the old Town Hall



An old metaled bit of water race, built by the gold miners to take water from a dam many miles from where they were mining.  The people who supplied the water made the money.  Amazing, this race, most of it just dug out of the side of the hill, sometimes fortified with stone or tin, snakes for absolutely miles, with just enough fall to keep the water flowing.  They took it to shallow dams, then used it for sluicing.




CCB in foreground, what an idyllic day, having a picnic on the side of the river, and deciding the road was really not bad at all, despite the AA road map saying "difficult road 27 fords"  (how wrong were we, this was the good bit).




Next day we returned to our spot to carry on through the whole way to come out just North of Garston, at the end of Lake Wakatipu.  Amazed to see these fabulous vintage cars all the way out here, as it was quite a climb out to Cromwell.  They had just come in from Cromwell and returned the same way.  Sensible people!




As you can see Central Otage landscape is well worth a visit.

Unfortunately I missed the two photos I took of us fording rather large puddles,  fingers must've been a bit cold as I had waded through to check the depth before "the Boss" drove through.  Was just over the knees in that one if you took the right track.  The previous puddle we'd had the water coming over the bonnet of the 4WD Isuzu, "not a happy camper" at the thought of water getting into the air intake - apparently diesel engines don't like that one bit.  Anyway as I said the road did deteriorate somewhat, and not very many people on it, so if we'd had a break down may have had a few problems.  It was through the Nevis Valley, an absolutely fascinating place where they'd taken gold dredges, but was frozen so hard in winter they couldn't work the dredges (that means frickin freezing).  There was a school in the valley, but would've have been an absolutely desolate place way back in the late 1800's/early 1900's.  Not idyllic as it was for us on a perfect late summer day.

Anyway our short cut to visit our Nephew at Fairlight, took rather longer than going round via the main highway, but was a lot more fun, and water is preferrable to battling traffic anyday.  We found another road that looked alright too, despite what the old map said, but if we take that one on I think we'll take company!

Central Otago in South Island, NZ, is just the most amazing place to visit, so many things to see.  It is also home to the Central Otago Rail Trail - where you can bike quite a few kilometres on good tracks left by the old railway lines.  Last year 10,000 people did this, and they are predicting close to 15,000 this year.  It has saved many communities down there.  You can do the whole thing,  or just section.  Cyclists are collected and taken back to great accommodation, where you can have all the comforts of home, including wine and wonderful food.  However,  I just love the old mining sites, where you can really fossic.