Howdy all,
This is my first attempt to produce a blog on schedule. So, what’s been happening? Well, it seems to be the same old. The routine continues. I have managed to sneak out for one fishing trip, having decided one evening that the weather the next day was just too good to pass up and that there was nothing that I couldn’t put off (I seem to have that move pretty down pat). I have also managed to get out for a few bike rides, but not regularly.
I see I had a senior moment and said that I would do a whole herd preg test in mid-July when I meant March. I had the vets come in and preg test last week. The results were pleasing, 13 empties including the cows I sent earlier. This works out to be around 8%. Still shy of my target which is to have the number of cows in single figures.
The recent wet weather, although much needed, has brought a few problems.
Firstly, we have had a run of mastitis cows. I think it may be due to the mud in the fodder beet paddock. I had cultures done on their milk to find they were all environmental bugs. Funny how all the infections seem to be in the same quarter; this year it’s the left back.
For the first time in a couple of years I emptied the effluent pond and had the stirrer in to mix up all the solids. Of course the rain came and filled it up again.
And I’m trying to get the first fodder beet paddock planted so I sprayed the paddock with glyphosate. The rain came and now I need to spray it again. I’m now waiting for the correct seed to arrive – hopefully early next week.
Since the start of the new year I have decided that I have four seasons of milking left in me. So now we are going through the options we have for when the time comes. Not sure whether I will make it that far but it’s a line in the sand. I think that we may have compliance issues that will force us out before then.
Our cows have done really well on the fodder beet so now we have nearly caught up with last year’s production to date. We lost about 2000 solids over the peak. We are now, like most farms, starting to cut down on supplements to keep up with the grass that’s growing.
We weighed our young stock in early February when we put zinc bullets in. We found that the bullets I bought were too small because most of the heifers were over 400 kg. Pleasing to have them in such good shape but meant that we had to put in the bigger bullets this month.
Looking forward to getting away for a couple of weeks soon as feel I’m overdue for a mental health break. Hope you are all going well.