Catching up with the lambs

We are getting ready for our first draft of lambs which go the week of 18th November.  This will also correspond with weaning and shearing.

So Monday/Tuesday were late days doing the terminals ... not so good for the school girl.

Monday we mustered into the holding paddock in the morning one mob.  They had plenty of feed to occupy themselves whilst we shot off to the Nikau Coopworth (http://www.nikaucoopworth.co.nz/index.html) ram sale at Tuakau.  We had a shopping list for 5 rams, but only came away with 2.  We had short listed our rams down to about 8 that we were interested in, 2 weren't presented on sale day and one more not confident on their feet.  We tried to mix and mingle the sires up a bit, but the majority of our selected rams all came from the one sire.  We have a few other options up our sleeve, so hopefully we can get the other 3 on board without too much trouble.

Having got back on Monday, we waited for the school bus and then headed for the yards.  We drenched all the lambs with a pre-wean drench, and marked all the 'old ewes'.  These are the originals that came with the farm.  Our goal is to cull as many of them out this year, depending on replacement numbers.  I then drafted out any untagged lambs and any lamb close to works weight.

We ended up tagging 74 lambs, which was about 32 more than I had already estimated.  This has lifted our overall lambing percentage up about another 1%.  There are still a handful yet to do, either I missed them in the drafting race or they were missed in the muster.

Tuesday we walked the hills twice to muster two different mobs and do the same things again, in what was 2 hot days. 

We were interupted Tuesday afternoon with the vet visit to give the dogs their annual vaccination and to meet the school bus.

The end result we are pretty much on target for our first draft of 200 lambs to go, which equates to 26% of total terminal lambs off mum.  For us this is good.

Terminal and those without tags waiting to be weighed and tagged

Waiting to go up the race

 
On Wednesday we managed to dock our hogget lambs.  We docked 111% in the paddock and 51% to hoggets scanned.  Our scanning % was 66%, therefore our losses are 24%.  The hoggets themselves are looking in good condition and the lambs, whilst a month behind the maternals, docked probably slightly behind the weight of the maternal lambs.  The goal now is to keep the hoggets well feed up to weaning, which will be around 8th December, as ewes are a third more efficient in converting energy whilst lactating.   This gives us close to 2600 lambs which is above our target.


Hoggets and their lambs after docking

This coming week we plan to do the same to the Maternal lambs, so some long days ahead and in a busy week with lots of things on.



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.



Dairy heifers arrive

On Monday we had our first truck load of dairy heifers arrive.  Just a shortish trip from the outskirts of Hamilton to our place in a Te Akau Transport truck. 

Te Akau Transport truck dropping off weaners

The first 90 arrived at 1.30 pm and were put straight out into their paddock to settle.  We left them there for 2 days and Wednesday afternoon we weighed them all.  They averaged 123 kg, with the range being 97.5 - 152.5 kg.  There will be another 15 - 17 arriving in 10-14 days time once they are fully weaned off meal. 

All the weaners are tagged with EID (electronic identification) tags as per the requirement under NAIT (http://www.nait.co.nz/).  To read these tags either a hand held wand or a reader is required that is linked back to the Weigh Indicator.  We have a Gallagher wand (http://www.gallagher.co.nz/) and a TruTest ID3000 (http://www.tru-test.com/).  The first time through the yards is a bit slower as we type in the visual tag to correspond with the EID number.  In the future it will be simply to record the EID as they come through the race. 

The weaners will be weighed 8 weekly.  Once all the data is recorded, it is downloaded onto excel, where we can monitor the liveweight gain (LWG) of each animal.  This information is then sent to the owners of the weaners so they too can monitor progress.

These dairy weaners are on a weekly retainer, with a growth rate premium on top, so there is a win:win arrangement.

The Kiwi Cross Dairy Heifers straight off the truck, with Alice counting them off!

New Season Lambs

With a week to go now till the start of weaning, all the lambs on the property have been given their pre-weaning drench.  That means approximately 2100 lambs have been through the yards for the week starting 6th November. 

The terminals, which are primarily Romney/Suffolk crosses appeared to be doing well, with our first contracted load to be trucked out identified.  We did these in 3 separate mobs, just to make the days smaller.  Also, on the first day, the weather turned for the worst, making everything and everyone a bit wet.

Fridolin had his first go at drenching.  A little harder to do than it looks like.  As seen below, Fridolin's technique needs a bit of fine turning.  Two things wrong is the pulling of the head back and the closing of the mouth with fingers.  Later on he got to do some more and we have worked on the technique to make it comfortable for both the drencher and the lamb.  The aim is to get the nozzle on top of the tongue so that the dose of drench goes down the throat and is not wasted by either getting squirted out or spat out. 

Fridolin's first attempt at drenching.

Alice keeping an eye on Fridolin

This year we have used Startech on our Terminal lambs.  We also weighed and marked a sample mob of lambs under 30kg that were given Startech and the other mob First, to see what weight gains have been achieved in 15 days time when the animals are weaned.

Lamb in the weigh crate - this one is 36 kg

All lambs that look to be over 30 kg were weighed.  This is done by self as we drafted off the ewes and the two lines of lambs (above 30 kg and below 30 kg).  This means that drench can be applied at a more relevant dose rate to their weight and also saves time in putting lambs over scales.

Coming up in the next couple of weeks we have weaning, lamb picking and shearing on the horizon.

Meanwhile Fridolin will take his first extended break by heading off on his bike around the Waikato from Tuesday - Sunday.

Busy Week - bulls, fertiliser

Lots of different things happened this week.  First priority was all the lease bulls were going home.  We started on Monday, bringing them home and weighing them in mobs, and then trucking them out on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The first up the road were a mob of Angus, and into the yard for weighing.  Probably not the best mob to have in the yards for Fridolin to gain experience on as they were a bit toey.

Angus bulls coming up the road

Knowing where to stand with cattle is important and acting calm.  Loading the race with 3-4 bulls at a time, reading their tag, weighing and recording weights, then letting them out.  The Jersey mob we did in the afternoon were a lot quieter and by the time mobs 3 and 4 came in, there was an established routine.

All these bulls trucked home and will be leased out to dairy farmers.

We also started work on a paddock that had a 'pan' caused by pugging over the years.  In order to improve the soil structure we have applied 2 tonnes lime/ha and have aerated the soil.

First the lime went on

Then the tractor aeratorated the paddock using...

aerator, leaving the paddock like ...

this.

On Wednesday we also managed to get the rest of our spring planned fertiliser.  Earlier we had taken soil test (see earlier blog), and as a result of those tests we have worked out what fertiliser we will apply based on need and financial constraints.  The fertiliser included lime at 1.2 t/ha on our other block.  This was flown on by plane.

And Maxi Super at 250 kg/ha on our home finishing country via tractor.

The rest of the spare time in the week was spent attacking some of the thistles in our finishing paddocks and doing some repairs and maintenance on the fencelines.

Fridolin's first week

We started the week with mustering the dry hoggets.  This task wasn't as easy as first expected due to the number of lambs in the mob.  Luckily though things went our way and we managed to get them all on the road for the trip home.  We had the trailer with us, so for any lamb that was struggling, they were able to get a ride on the trailer.

Dry hoggets on their way home

Some of the stragglers getting captured for a ride the rest of the way

Fidolin has been having a bit of driving practice on the ATV.  At this stage only on flat terrain, going slow and well supervised.  An example was driving the bike home behind the hoggets, towing the trailer of lambs.

Fridolin with the trailer of lambs

Once we had the hoggets home, we took a Faecal sample and did a Faecal Egg Count (FEC), to see if there was a worm burden.  These hoggets were given a LA Cydectin injection on 3rd July.  After 100 days, by giving them an oral drench it cuts of the tail, which is when worms can become resistant.  Our FEC showed 0 epg (eggs per gram) indicating that the drench has worked to date.  We also weighed a sample of the hoggets before we drenched them, so we knew the amount of drench required to cover the heaviest animals.  The average was 45kg, which was a little disappointing, with the range 35 - 58.5 kg.

We then drafted off any hoggets with a lamb and any with dirty bottoms.

Calling for wet and dirty hoggets for drafting

We then docked the lambs.  A full detail of what is done at docking is found under 1st day of docking blog.

Fridolin getting first hand experience at docking

The wet hoggets and lambs were then reunited.  The dry hoggets were taken back to their paddock.  Finally the dirty hoggets were crutched.  We pulled out 7% of our hoggets - which equates to 22.  Of these approximately 16 were classed as daggy.  All 22, rather than be culled, have been transferred to our terminal mob so that we do not keep any of their progeny in the future.

Mal giving the 20 hoggets a bit of a touch up

Other tasks for the week have been shifting all the bull mobs on their rotation.  The spring grass is certainly beginning to kick away now.  We have on and off rain since the 10th - totalling 117.5 mls to date.  Have started on some fence repairs and maintenance (R&M) jobs.