Our tank overflowith ... finally!

It was with pleasure that we finally watched out house tank overflow during heavy rain.  For April we received 145.5 mls, enough to kick the grass off.  It's turned the grass green and visually things don't look bad. 

The consequence is that the grass is not high in DM and although it might look good, there is no guts in the grass and they munch through quickly what is given to them.  So whilst we had good animal weights at the begining of April, we have struggled to maintain them through to the end of April, after the rain.  Our farm pasture cover as at 30th April was fairly tight at 1450 kgDM/ha, but reassuringly we have had less before.  To get through though we have used more silage, been fed out to all the dairy stock.  Updating Farmax, things will be tight and it will be a case of selling off stock and prioritising mobs around blocks as pasture allows.

The rain is currently continuing, with 16 mls yesterday, mainly arriving after 5pm.  More rain today from lunchtime onwards.  After having all this dry weather, you suddenly have all these tasks which would be so much better to do in the dry rather than the wet. 

Last week was focused on weighing and transferring dairy weaners and R2s.  All mobs weighed, R2s trucked home and a new mob of R1s arrived.  Our weights are back about 10 - 15 kgs on our targets, depending on mobs.  All the mobs are now settling down into their winter rotations to allow some pasture growth to create a feed wedge whilst the soil temps still remain warm.

Facial Ezcema still being high at 50,000 on home block and 30,000 on other block.  All R1 heifers are still protected by a Time Capsule through to 20th May.  We seem to be higher than other blocks sampled through our vets in the Northern Waikato area.

Our focus has been a little on repairs and maintenance - repairing some of our fences in our back sheep country, blocking goat holes, replacing flood gates, replacing staples and any broken wires.  On our other block, focus has been on tracks and crossings, making sure that we can access main parts of the farm safely and filling up gateways. 

At the end of the month we look forward to shearing and scanning.  When taking the rams out of the ewes, the ewe condition seems to have been maintained through tupping, so fingers crossed that scanning results will be positive.

Rain Rain Rain

Am sitting in the office catching up on the weeks activities, as outside it is raining yet again.  Between the 29th Dec - 4th Jan, we had 100mls.  The 5th - 6th Jan we had nice weather again, but the rain has set in again for the weekend.

With the last of the shearing out of the way, Fridolin headed to the local cafe, and we took the girls to town for the day on 31st December.  Alice saw her second ever movie ... The Muppets.  Whilst fairly active during the movie she enjoyed her popcorn and said Kermit and Miss Piggy were her favourite.

Fridolin then took off up north till Tuesday night with some others.  We had a quiet New Years day and back into work on the 2nd.  The dairy weaners were drenched and weighed and separated out into two mobs.  The top 50 in weight (approx 135 kg +) were taken down the road to another rotation.

Top 50 Dairy weaners about to go down the road

The overall growth rate was a little disappointing, so hopefully smaller mobs will help over the next month or so.  Also weighing took place on a coldish days and the weaners weren't doing a lot of eating.  We are still on target though to reach the 200kg+ on 1st May.

In the afternoon, 600 Mixed Age (MA) Ewes were Androvax (http://www.msd-animal-health.co.nz/products/androvax-plus/020_product-overview.aspx).  We have chosen just the 4-tooth and 4 year old ewes in the Maternal Flock to be vaccinated.  The aim is that the product can give up to 20% increased scanning and is an additional tool which can be used in conjunction with genetics and feeding to maximise sheep production on farm.  We are weary not to vaccinate the smaller or younger sheep and we also need to be in a position to feed the additional lambs and the ewes increased feed demand at lambing time.

Tuesday was a bit of an odd job day as we had quite a bit of rain.

Wednesday all the lambs were mustered.  Lambs separated into 30 kg + line and 30kg below, and drenched accordingly.  The larger mob was put over the scales to see if any ready for the works.  Only a portion were ready.  The lambs were returned to the hills, and the lambs to be drafted will be taken out on Tuesday and kept on the finishing country until ready for the works.

Thursday was quite a bit of stock work, shifting sheep mobs around on their rotations.  Wool buyer (http://www.woolfirst.co.nz/buyer/manukau/index.shtml) came to collect the wool.  We have limited wool room in our woolshed so wool gets trucked away regularly during shearing.

Inside the woolshed awaiting removal

Loading the truck

Tying down, ready for the trip

Our indicator for weighing died the day before, so we borrowed one of the neighbours and weighed our two lots of  bulls.  The big bulls 585 kg and the smaller mob 535 kg.  Growth rates were back this month in part the pasture quality (not quantity) and amount of wet days!


Big Bulls 580 kg+

Big bulls meeting the smaller bulls!

Smaller big bulls going in to get weighed



Bulls being weighed, Fridolin watching, Sal on the scales and Alice supervising!

Friday we left Fridolin home alone with a list of jobs such as stripping a fence, spraying drains, mowing lawns, managing the shearers when they arrive to finish off our 92 remaining woollies and lay the dags out in the woolshed for drying once the shearers had left.

That's the end of our week as it settles into rain for the weekend.