Some of the Team

Have had a busy week, with catching up.  The weather has been kind, although between the 17th - 22nd August we had a frost every morning but the days were beautifully clear.  The lambing seems to be going ok.  We choose not to do a lambing beat as we feel that we cause more damage by entering the paddock.  Every Monday we got to key vantage points and have a look with the binnoculars.  The majority of our main flock are 2-tooths and lambing for the first time, so are a bit wary of the motorbike.

Buttons and Strawberry our pet lambs are doing well, with Buttons having 450 ml meals and Strawberrry 300 ml meals.  We have just dropped the feeds to 3 times a day.  Alice has now put collars on them and training them for the Playgroup Lamb Day.

As part of the team on the property, being hill country we rely on a good team of dogs.  We started with a fresh team 3.5 years ago and there is not many of that original team left.

My husband's dogs are Jess, Frank, Sam, Tip and Pearl (in order sitting on the bike).  The originals are Pearl and Jess.  We inherited the other three at the beginning of the year when friends immigrated to Tasmania and couldn't take their team with them.  Jess and Frank are huntaways (they bark and moving animals away from you), Sam, Tip and Pearl are heading dogs (they don't bark and head the animals, bringing them back to you).  Unfortunately Sam in July was diagnosed with breast cancer and has had an operation to remove this.  She seems to have come through this well to date.

My team of dogs Flo (huntaway), Dash (foxy) and Lucy (heading).  Unfortunately, with me working off farm as well their work load fluctuates a lot and at present they have had minimal working days.  Flo was inherited from the friends that went to Tasmania, and Lucy was inherited from friends of friends that were retiring from dairy farming.  I have had Dash since she was a pup and is now 12 (13 in November).

The other most recent addition is Fleet, a 14.2 h 14 yo Northland bred pony.  We have had him for 2 weeks and still getting to know each other.  I had a fall nearly 2 years ago on another horse of which I was knocked out and broke my leg in exactly the same place I did 17 years early whilst in Switzerland.  So am taking things easy as we both gain confidence.

Rain is expected this week.  We have only had 36 mls for August so far which is low.  Previous 3 year average has been 183 mls.  For the 3 month period Jun - Aug, we have historically averaged (4 year period) 546 mls and this year we are tracking 441 mls, so a little drier than expected for this period, although this year we had the wettest Mar - May period (308 ml average v's 531 ml 2011).

Experience Waikato during Rugby World Cup

The NZ Institute of Agricultural & Horticultural Science Inc has organized a group of tours between the 11th - 13th October for visitors and locals to experience parts of the Waikato during the Rugby World Cup.  There are 4 day-long tours that cover:

• dairy
• sheep and beef
• horticulture
• equine

Each event will be combined with a dinner and entertainment with local kiwi sporting legends and former All Blacks.  To see a full programme visit http://www.experiencewaikato.com/ or book on-line at

http://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/show.aspx?sh=EXPERIEN11

Weighing Bulls

The weather has been brilliant the last few days with largely clear blue skies and warm days, although we have started each day with a frost.  If soil temperatures aren't too low, this should lead into good pasture growth rates.

Yesterday one of our tasks were to weigh a small mob of Friesian Bulls.  They arrived on the property 1st July at 372 kg average and have been on a rotation since then on 2-3 day shifts.  Below are the bulls ... last day in break.  They were shifted this morning.

We had to bring the bulls home via the road.  We have one bike in front (that was me taking the photos) and one behind (my husband), as per the photo below. 

Once at home we run them into the yards, up the race, onto the scales and record their eartag number and weight.  We use Tru-test equipment to do this.  These animals do not have EID (electronic identification) but many of the others we weigh do and in the future it will become compulsory.  We find the EID much easier as we like to weigh individual animals and record their performance as opposed to a mob.  The EID means that with the use of a wand (Gallagher) that we can record numbers without having to read a tag mannually which can often be covered in mud, hidden inside a fluffy ear or just unable to read it.

The end result was that the bulls weighed average of 403.5 kg, which equates to 0.63 kg/hd/day for 50 days.  We had developed a grazing plan (pre and post grazing levels), estimated weight gain and feed demand on a daily basis and the weight predicted and actual was within 1 kg, so this gives us confidence in our planning.

Lamb Update:  both Buttons and Strawberry are doing fine.  Buttons is on her maintenance feeds of 300 mls x 4/day, whilst Strawberry is struggling through 200 mls x 4/day but she is only half the size of Buttons.  They are getting plenty of interactive play time, and spending lots of time sunning themselves in this nice weather.

Discussion Group

Tomorrow we are off to our Sheep and Beef Discussion Group.  Our group consists of 13 farms from Te Kauwhata/Wairamarama in the north to Aria/Mahoenui in the south.  Ideally we would like to take this to 15 farms ... so if you know of someone that might be interested.  We meet 6 times a year on and off-farm, with one annual trip away.  The discussion group is facilitated by myself.

I work for an independent agriculture consulting firm - AgFirst.  More information about us can be found at http://www.agfirst.co.nz/.  The AgFirst Waikato office is based in Hamilton, with 5.5 Dairy Consultants and myself as the Sheep and Beef Consultant.  We do a mixture of 1-to-1 consulting as well as project and group related work.

Tomorrow we are visiting RX Plastics based at Horotiu (see website http://www.rxplastics.co.nz/ ) NZ's leading manufacturer of irrigation products, water storage tanks and effluent disposal systems.  As part of our visits we are interested in what they actually do, but like to get an insight on how the business has grown and also how it meets the needs of its customers.

We will then head to the AgFirst offices to initiate some Business Planning and to review a survey that the members have just completed and the associated Strategy for the Discussion Group.

Following that, we will head to the Speights Ale House to join with some other Agri-business personnel for some socialising and a meal.

Part of the strength of the group is the information, but also important is the 'fellowship' and support that the group offers, especially during tough times.  The discussion group started in February 2006, and Burklee joined the group in February 2008 when we bought this property.  The group has had members come and go since its initiation, with a wide diversity of farmers - young and old, large and small holdings, level of experience, which adds to the debates and support.

My reward from the group is the positive feedback and an enjoyable day.  If each member can take home one new idea/contact, then the day has been more than worthwhile. 

We'll let you know how it went.

 

Cold Snap Coming Thru

Another bitterly cold day today, with hail, sleet and snow.  Pretty unusual for us with last dumping 1930s according to neighbours.  The afternoon turned considerably warmer with sunshine.  The wind-chill has been the worst factor.  We are lucky coming into lambing time that the majority of our lambing paddocks face north and east and all have sheltered aspects in them, which stock can take cover in.

Luckily the lambs have a sheltered hut and each other for warmth.  Above is Alice feeding Buttons and Strawberry with the help of Dash (the foxy).  Unfortunately Strawberry's brother didn't make it (too long without feed or colostrum).  Another lamb was bought home last night and nursed through the night but unfortunately didn't make it.  She was one of a twin, from a mum who had suffered from Facial Eczema.
Buttons is now drinking 4 lots of 250 mls, whilst Strawberry is on 6 lots of 100 mls.

Above are a couple of snaps of the whitefaced steers currently being grazed.  These weigh between 450 - 550 kgs and are run in a mob of 35.  Currently they are on a rotation with 2-3 day shifts and being fed silage  (hence them congregating at the gate when we went past).

Family growing

Well, with lambing in full swing, today our pet lambs grew to three.  We think they are twins (boy + girl) and whilst cleaned up, mum has been nowhere in sight all day, and the poor lambs have been crying.  We left them incase mum came back, but at 5pm today it didn't appear to be happening.  So we have rescued them and are giving them 75 mls, 6 times a day.  Alice has called the girl 'Strawberry' but the boy still undecided.  They now provide some companionship to Buttons (who is now on 5 feeds of 200mls but will drop to 4 feeds of 250mls starting tomorrow).  Photos will come!

Also added to our family is Fleet, a Northland bred pony (14.2 h).  He had a pretty nervous ride back from Pukekohe today, but has settled out in the paddock with some feed.  If the weather holds tomorrow i.e. the predicted cold snap is late arriving, we will get him in.  Again photos will come!

Other jobs for the day were weighing the steers, which we do when they come past the cattle yards on their rotation.  They are getting fed some silage every day, with feed covers in the paddock being a bit restrictive at present.  Today and yesterday were both very warm days, so hopefully some grass growth and the warmth will be reducing their maintenance level.

Buttons joins the family

Yesterday we got a new addition to the family, much to Alice's excitement. 

Button's mum died while trying to have her sister/brother.  Luckily Buttons was clever enough to have a drink from mum and survive.  She is quite big for only a day old.  At the moment buttons is getting 75 mls of milk, 6 times a day.  We will gradually increase the amount for each feed as we decrease the number of feeds per day.  Button's mum was a Romney ewe and her dad a Suffolk ram.
Alice will start to spend lots of time with Buttons and they will become best of mates, with Buttons ready to go to playgroup Lamb Day on 24th September.

Alice's 4th Birthday

We have started lambing!  Hopefully in the coming weeks the weather will stay nice and lambs will have a good start to life.

We have had a birthday in the family, with Alice turning 4.  We belong to a local Mainly Music group which is held at the local church, so Alice was able to celebrate her birthday there with all her friends.  The kids managed to eat half the cake (rocky road) before I was able to take a photo!

Along with yesterdays birthday, we attended the Waikato District Council meeting where bylaws for stock movement on roads within the district was heard.  There was a reasonable level of dissatisfaction from the farmers.  In our situation we have two blocks and rely on taking stock between them. 

Some outcomes, the following changes to the bylaw were agreed in principle:

• The drainage district of Franklin’s Aka Aka to be exempt from the requirement to underpass. (Note: the proposal to exempt no-exit roads from the requirement to underpass was not addressed yesterday.)
• The date for all regular dairy crossings to be replaced by underpasses has been extended by two years to 2018.
• Dairy crossing permits to be valid for five years. (Previously they were valid for two years.)
• Intermittent movements on gravel roads by drystock to take place without the need for a permit.
• An exemption for existing gateways from the requirement to meet the TSG-E3 specifications in the case of intermittent drystock movements.

We live on a metal road and at this stage we are permitted to take stock as long as we adhere to the bylaw i.e. signage and drivers front and behind stock (which is pretty much what we do now).

Welcome

Welcome to our first post on the blog.  The aim of this blog is to let you know what we are doing on a sheep and beef farm in New Zealand and let you gain an insight into what we do and why.

As part of our aim, it is to give greater understanding of what rural farm life in New Zealand is like and share that with urban families both in New Zealand and internationally.

Over the first couple of blogs we hope to tell you a little bit about us and our farming family.