It has mostly been raining, not heavily but consistently. The ground is soft, and driving along the cow tracks on the bikes means you end up with a face splattered with mud looking like a Dalmatian. You know the tracks are muddy when there is so much muck on the underside of the quad that the exhaust smokes every time you stop.
Some of the cows have been dried off or culled now, leaving a milking herd of 426, although this puts less pressure on the grazing, the weather really isn't helping.
This picture shows where the cows walked alongside a reel to reach the fresh grass.
I can see this paddock across the creek from where I am sitting now in the kitchen. It still doesn't look very green, even after another few days of continuous washing from above.
The gateways to the paddocks take a beating too, the soil here is at times pretty clayey, which when wet gets very slippy. I have planted myself on my arse more than a few times in the last couple of days. The cows when going down these skiddy exits from the paddocks tend to plant there front feet and try and walk with their back legs. It is a bit like an bovine snowmobile with the skis at the front and the drive at the back.
I took a picture of this gateway before and after the cows came through, obviously I didn't want the cows to mess it up, but the 'after' picture is not as severe as some of the others which was a little disappointing
BEFORE
AFTER
In other news, we will be drying all the cows in the next three or four days. They will each receive intra-mammary antibiotic treatment to reduce the risk of mastitis, and then a nice winter holiday away from milking while the calves inside them grow. We will dry them off in two blocks of late and early calvers over two days. They will then be walked down the road to the run-off block. The return journey to the original 'Big Muster' (see blog post 5). You can probably expect a blog post about all that excitement!
In food news, I liberated Daniel's slow-cooker from his kitchen whilst I was visiting. At the moment, it is cooking some beef stew, it has been on for about four hours, and will probably keep going for another four or five more. I am very excited to eat it tonight, and tomorrow and probably the next day too if there are still leftovers.
In it is a combination of stewing stake and some topside, as well as spuds, carrot, onion and mushrooms and some stock. I am going for the simple but hearty method. Although the weather is fine now, if it turns out to be miserable again, then this is the perfect food.
That'll be it for today. I will leave you with a picture of 1444, one of the personalities I will miss when I go home in just over three weeks.
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