15. Spring Has Sprung

Winter is definitely over now, it is a lot warmer and it's short sleeves weather during the day. Although it is raining at least once a week at the moment, just enough to delay starting the irrigation.

The grass is growing, although currently a little bit too slowly. We are still having to put out a bit of silage to supplement the cows diet and keep them level with the grazing plan.

A very efficient piece of kit.

500 cows have now calved leaving just 25 yet to do so. The majority of the calves have been weaned and are growing quickly, those that are still getting milk will catch up and in the next few months all the calves will be gone from the farm. The dairy heifers will be reared externally as replacements, the dairy bulls go for veal early on, and the beef calves will eventually end up in someones chili con carne. 

(Photo by Dana Holzmüller)

Future milkers

The later calvers were mostly served with beef animals, and the multi-coloured groups of calves in the calf shed show that. They are mostly part Hereford, the variation in the milking herd causes many different shades of brown, grey and ginger calves. Either way, they are all pretty stocky and have plenty of vigour.

 This chap is no more than 48 hours old.

There are a huge amount of ducks on the farm and they seem to have had a recent population boom. There are ducklings everywhere. I think the creek that runs through the middle of the block and the many pools and ponds make the perfect habitat for them.

I managed to catch one of the ducklings. I was going to keep it as a pet but its shrill squawking got incredibly annoying very quickly so I put it back with its family.

I also came across a mother duck sitting on her nest of eggs, she flew off before I could grab my camera. I considered for a second, grabbing a few for my breakfast, literally poached eggs, but I thought they probably had ducklings inside them all and also I'm not too sure how edible mallard eggs are.

Speaking of nests there is one being constructed in our car-port right now, by an All Black-bird. She has put safety first and built it right next to fire extinguisher, just in case. To be fair, the nest is made of dry grass and sticks.

Right that is all for today, I will leave you with a picture of the sun setting last night. The views continue to amaze and cause me to reach for the camera regularly.