Isn’t it ironic that one of my previous blog’s headlines says, “There’s more to life than the back end of a cow”. Then here’s me milking 900 cows TAD for my milking job right now. Funny how sometimes things work out. But I feel ten years younger with less stress, more sleep ins and more […]
Woow what a start to the season this has been. The heifers returned home at an average liveweight of 484 kg and condition scored at a 5.5 and going into calving our cows were at a 5 average. This season’s start has really tested our management skills as farmers, not only financially, with a drop […]
I feel like a lot has changed since my last blog back in November. Not so much on farm related but off farm in the dairy industry. The milk payout setting new records, but at the same time costs have reached new highs too (fuel, grain, PKE and fertiliser). Also, the supply chain of farming […]
The 21/22 season has been the perfect storm from our farm’s perspective. We were firing on all cylinders until mid-November then the humidity hit, our grass went into a reproductive state and production crashed. All while we were making grass silage, had hay locked up, and were topping. But more to come in our ‘storm’ […]
Nothing beats writing a blog while it is raining, especially at this time of the year. It’s money falling out of the sky and from what I see on the Rain Radar everyone is getting a good drop. I hope many of you had an excellent Christmas and New Year, with hopefully some time off, […]
The shortest day is almost here, yip yip yip, we all know what joys are ahead of us after that date!! Summer’s on its way, Christmas is coming, although these are a bit further away compared to some closer joys to embrace such as the countdown to Rio and of course the all-important event in […]
As I headed off on my early morning walk around the block this morning I was struck by two things….firstly the chill in the air as we hit single figures on the thermometer for the first time in a long time, and secondly, a scattering of leaves lying on the drive. The weather to date […]
It’s been a long time between blogs for a number of reasons – the beginning of the year is a marvellous time of getting back into routines and starting up all the clubs and meetings again, which can be hard after all those lazy days at the beach – always lots of fun! To add […]
Well, with the end of calving in sight, and the days starting to get longer, we are looking forward to mating and making sure things are on track for it. For us this year things are going to be a little different. We have decided that we are going to milk all our 2 and […]
Well the grass is not growing as much as Frostie would like and the payout is adding stress to everything. Some things we can control, and others we can’t, so we are trying to manage as best we can and tweak what we can in the system to make the impact of the low payout […]