Today we had a judge round the herd of cattle , judging for this years Holstien Uk Premier Herds Competition . We found ourselves in this competition this year due to the successes of last years Northumbria Holstein Breeders Club competition.
I am not getting myself overly excited about our chances in this event , as to be honest , the calibre of the other herds in the region will be quite something else . However , in the true spirit of the phrase "It's not the winning but the taking part", I must admit I do like to enter things like this , if only just to meet other people, namely the judges and any stewards that come round with them . It is at things like this that much conversation is had , a bit of banter , a lot of gossip , oh, and if there's any time left , perhaps a look at the cows as well ! ! ! Today was such a day , a great walk round the herd , a look at the dry cows , a brief chat about the breeding etc and that was that ! It's always nice to have other people come and walk through your cows from time to time , a fresh pair of eye's looking at your stock can quite often highlight areas of breeding that you take for granted , rightly or wrongly. So fingers crossed , but I'm not holding my breath .
Today also saw us take delivery of 160 tons of draff , or Malt Distillers Draff , to be precise. This came from The Glenlivet and The Glenfiddich distilleries up in Scotland , and will be a part of our winter ration for the cows. the cows milk very well off this by-product and we have always found it extremely good value for money . This years loads were ordered some months ago , so we have got it all at a very good rate. Hopefully we will soon have ouyr winter rations formulated so that we can start to order in our protien blends for the winter too.
Monday 23 August 2010
Sunday 15 August 2010
Hi's & Lo's of The Last Month
It's been a busy old time here since the last post . I knew it was going to be , what with putting in the new cubicles and cows calving and the start of leading in bales of straw etc .
The new cubicles are taking shape fast and they do look great (even if i do say so myself !). We are now about half way through the project and it's amazing how little all the building work and disruption has affected the cows , they just walk past it , raise an eye brow , flick an ear and start to eat the buffer feed. Hopefully we should be on track to complete the shed by late August .
So the first of this years straw has now been brought in. Just about 250 barley bales . We buy them off our neighbour , who rents the fields from us . We buy the straw by the acre , which i think has been a good idea rather than paying stupid prices , and already , the first field had a hell of an amount of straw on it, so now it's just a case of waiting till the wheat and spring barley is ready .
This blogs "cover girl" , Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious calved early in July , a bull calf , which i have named Chloanne Lowick . As mentioned in the last post , he is sired by Morningview Legend and has been contracted to Cogent Breeding Ltd. He really looks fantastic despite only being a few weeks old .
sadly , the calving , which was stress free and easy , took it's toll on the dam . She went on to take a displaced abomasum. This was operated on and we hoped she would rally round from that . Unfortunately she still seemed "seedy" so after further examinations , we decided to operate again, on the other side , for suspected peritonitis. Sure enough , she was a bit of a mess in side , and after a further 9 days , the decision was made to put her to sleep . this is never an easy choice to make , and , with this cow in particular , probably the hardest decision I've had to make on the farm. A truly great cow , with a great "personality", a great loss to the herd.
However , her first calf that she had , Chloanne Gallagher, now has 42 daughters on the ground in over 21 herds so fingers crossed that her genetics will go on to do as much good on other farms as they did here .
On the staffing front , after all the advertising and "interviewing" , the boss is still not really any further on with finding a suitable candidate for the post of relief milker . This is proving very frustrating for everyone else , as it leaves us short staffed on weekends and just in general during this busy summer . So here's hoping that something/someone turns up soon , and here's hoping for some better luck in the coming weeks and months
The new cubicles are taking shape fast and they do look great (even if i do say so myself !). We are now about half way through the project and it's amazing how little all the building work and disruption has affected the cows , they just walk past it , raise an eye brow , flick an ear and start to eat the buffer feed. Hopefully we should be on track to complete the shed by late August .
So the first of this years straw has now been brought in. Just about 250 barley bales . We buy them off our neighbour , who rents the fields from us . We buy the straw by the acre , which i think has been a good idea rather than paying stupid prices , and already , the first field had a hell of an amount of straw on it, so now it's just a case of waiting till the wheat and spring barley is ready .
This blogs "cover girl" , Chloanne Goldwyn Gracious calved early in July , a bull calf , which i have named Chloanne Lowick . As mentioned in the last post , he is sired by Morningview Legend and has been contracted to Cogent Breeding Ltd. He really looks fantastic despite only being a few weeks old .
sadly , the calving , which was stress free and easy , took it's toll on the dam . She went on to take a displaced abomasum. This was operated on and we hoped she would rally round from that . Unfortunately she still seemed "seedy" so after further examinations , we decided to operate again, on the other side , for suspected peritonitis. Sure enough , she was a bit of a mess in side , and after a further 9 days , the decision was made to put her to sleep . this is never an easy choice to make , and , with this cow in particular , probably the hardest decision I've had to make on the farm. A truly great cow , with a great "personality", a great loss to the herd.
However , her first calf that she had , Chloanne Gallagher, now has 42 daughters on the ground in over 21 herds so fingers crossed that her genetics will go on to do as much good on other farms as they did here .
On the staffing front , after all the advertising and "interviewing" , the boss is still not really any further on with finding a suitable candidate for the post of relief milker . This is proving very frustrating for everyone else , as it leaves us short staffed on weekends and just in general during this busy summer . So here's hoping that something/someone turns up soon , and here's hoping for some better luck in the coming weeks and months
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