Well AI will be finished in the next few days, which means bring on the bulls! I havn't got round to chancing my arm (literally) as much as I would have liked, mainly because my cow maneuvering skills are too good not to be utilised.
The weather has been unable to make up its mind, in the last week we have had days with non-stop rain and days where suncream and shorts were the order of the day. But it has been warm constantly. Myself and Daniel were sent out to see how much the grass was growing. The tool to do this is the plate meter, here is Dan holding one.
The plate meter measures the density of the grass and gives a reading in kg of dry matter per hectare. Immediately after grazing, it should be at about 1500 kgDM/ha and it should be at 2800 - 3000 kgDM/ha when the cows are put onto the paddock.
And here is me showing good plate-metering technique. It involves a lot of walking and on a hot day is bloody knackering, especially when there is 150-odd hectares to measure. I have a feeling it is called a plate meter because it is a job farmers do when they have not got much on their plate. It took us a good few hours.
Potential pasture critics please ignore the amount of docks in the above photo!
We have stopped feeding out silage over the last week or two, although this is probably mainly due to the tractor being broken down. We do have tons of grass though. David is pretty keen on feeding a bit of supplementary silage, his view is very much that you get out what you put in.
In other news I have bought my first real cowboy hat, as an actual practical tool rather than a fancy dress accessory! Now you may not know but I am a bit of a fan of a good old western movie, and farming cows somewhere with a hot climate provides a perfect vehicle for me to get away with wearing one. I can't wait to be riding around on my quad-horse chewing tobacco (I won't really be chewing tobacco).
Here is me with the new hat and the obligatory thousand-yard-stare.
Dan, James and myself went to see the new Bond film last night (it has only just arrived in Oamaru). It was pretty amazing, I loved the nods to the early Bond films e.g. the Aston and M's studded leather office door! I wouldn't go as far as to say it made me home-sick, but it definitely increased my patriotism (if that was possible). I will be referring to myself now as a British ex-pat currently residing in a former colony, who is infiltrating the fastest growing industry in NZ to discover its secrets and bring them back to good old Blighty.
I'll have a beer, warm, not cold.
The other day David asked me if I wanted to book any holiday off this summer, so I am busy planning a trip (in my head at the moment). I'm thinking a week or 10 days long roadtrip up the west coast and onto the North Island. I will endeavour to get as much of the country in as possible in my year here. There will be some serious blogging action after that I can warn you now!
Righto, I am off fishing now. Back soon.
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