At the moment I’m sitting in a motel in Queenstown on holiday. We have been to the Catlins for a memorial dedication to my sister and then visited friends who farm in Southland. The days were hot and sunny, although their grass doesn’t seem to have gone as stalky as ours. Everybody was saying how unusual it was much the same as at home. They seem to have had a dream spring down here with a lot of dry weather.
So, what’s been happening at home? The wet weather finally went away, but not before having an impact on production. The cows, like last season, didn’t peak very well. But overall production is up a little. We have just finished AB, and the bulls are out, so now we are able to return to smooth milkings and get into routines. AB has gone not too badly, but the submission rate is down on normal. It looks like our conception rates are ok, with normal numbers returning and cows still coming on heat. Once again the cost of putting on the heat patches was well worth it.
All the fodder beet has been planted and is up and growing well. The later plantings seem to have got away really well this year. The first cut of silage has been made from the runoff and fert put on, ready for a second cut hopefully. We only managed to get ten bales from the home farm as there has been very little surplus. The ground has dried out and now we are looking for rain. Typical – farmers are never happy. Now the grass has gone all stalky and the quality is not too good. I have been putting extra nitrogen on as I think the wet weather has taken most of what was in the soil away. The lack of nitrogen is also making the grass go stalky.
I got the digger in to do some drainage work on a fodder beet paddock, then a digger to play in myself for a couple of days. I cleaned out drains that have been put off for the last few years. I also had them in to repair the track up the back of the runoff, which was getting to the stage where the tractor could hardly get up it. I feel sorry for the contractor, trying to please everybody doing deferred maintenance.
It seems to have been a really busy time, rushing to get everything done. I don’t know if it’s me slowing down, or just lots to do. I only manage to get the basics done, if that, most of the time. Meaning that any other jobs needing doing get missed out, which is a bit disappointing and frustrating.
One of those jobs is renovating the bathroom. We decided to start during the winter to get it done before calving. As normally happens we only got part way through before calving started so now need to get back into it. May even have it done before the New Year. Not holding my breath.
I went to Clevedon to fly the flag for SMASH at their A&P show. Interesting that a lot of people thought we milked small cows.
We managed to get a break away before mating, which was nice, and now this one, so hopefully we will survive the summer. We have quite a few trips away planned for later in the season so need to be on top of essential jobs before we go.
Hope all is well with everybody…