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
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