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.