Autumn Miscellaneous

There has been other things going on during March/April.  One of them was our regrassing programme.  We had sown a summer crop spring 2010.  One paddock was a plantain, chicory and clover mix, whilst the other was the same but included rape.  The paddocks proved an asset when they were in their peak, but this last summer 2011/12 they became overrun with thistles, and have largely been treated as fallow paddocks.  In February, both paddocks were sprayed out and left for a month for any regermination, of which there was plenty due to the moist, warm conditions.  They were then sprayed out the last week of March, and were resown 4th April with a diploid AR37 Alto, Tahora and Tribute white clover and plantain mix (all Super Strike coating) and DAP.  The reason that we chose this mix is that we wanted something that had a heading date between existing pastures and our new AR37 Halo paddocks, that would withstand grazing with both cattle and sheep.  AR37 was non-negotiable due to the pasture pests we have here and maximise animal health.  The crop was direct drilled and had slug bait added to the mix.

New grass 9 days after being sown ... can just see the new grass, after 29 mls of rain in preceeding 5 days.

New grass 24 days after being sown ... after 21 mls of rain.  Sorry Flo for not giving you privacy!

New edition to the team:
Early April (7th), Jen joined our team.  Jen is a 3 month old heading pup.  At the moment just lots of TLC and bonding going on.

The dog kennels - Jen is third from left

Upgrading the woolshed:

As well as building covered yards, an additional project has been to put grating in the leanto and make it waterproof. So, now our leanto is nearly finished and a good job to finish off when the rain comes. 

Still work in progress

Alice thinks it is quite a good dance floor!

Nearly there!

Section Fence:

The section fence is now complete, including gates!  Comments from the neighbours is that our section now looks big ... the fence is in exactly the same place as the old one!   Now have to work on a garden of some sort.

Possum:
Out doing pasture covers at the end of March, and taking the dogs for a walk, they discovered a possum.  Unfortunately it was too high in the tree for us to get it out so the dogs went home empty handed.

The possum

Lucy waiting patiently

Alice attempting to do the pasture cover reading with the pasture probe.  She probably just needs to be 20 cm taller!

Sheep Work

Between doing R&M work around the section and other farm work, there has been a reasonable amount of sheep work still to be done. 

Ewes:
As part of that is the regular shifting of the 3 ewe mobs around their rotation.  The rams were taken out of the ewe mobs in mid-April.  Everything appears to be in good condition.  There is a small re-investation of fly occuring and these were treated on a case-by-case basis.

Terminal Ewes (B Flock) after tupping (14/04/12)

2 of the Suffolk Rams taken out after tupping (14/04/12)

2-tooth ewes following tupping (15/04/12)

Our head shepherd moving the 2-tooths back to paddock (15/04/12)

Terminal Rams

Lambs:
The last of the lambs have finally gone, with our target of all season lambs gone by end of April.  Next year we will endeavour to bring that forward a month.

• 27th March - 176 works lambs to Te Kuiti Meats @ 16.1 kg CW
• 17th April - 68 store lambs to Frankton sale. These were our tailenders and averaged $77/head
• 25th April - 66 works lambs to SFF @ 16.3 kg CW

Last 66 lambs left on 25th April

Hoggets:
In March we picked up EID tags to put into our hoggets and 7 lease rams to go to our hoggets.  On 1st April the ewe hoggets got tagged, drenched, second dose of Campy and put the rams out.  A sample of hoggets were weighed, with all visually smalls drafted off.  In the end 477 hoggets went to the ram, minimum weight 35 kg, with average approximately 40 kg, 42 ewe hoggets bought home to be sold.  We were pleased with the condition and size of hoggets.  The ram is due to be removed 4th May.

Alice helping dad by putting the tags in the tagger

Tagging the hoggets with EID tags

The rams for the hoggets will come out end of next week. 

With only breeding sheep left on the property, they will all be on their winter rotations.

Off-farm Activities

The last month has been busy and as a result I have not spent much time on farm. 

In late March we had our AgFirst Pastoral Conference in Rotorua (http://www.agfirst.co.nz/) followed by Farmax (http://www.farmax.co.nz/).  Great opportunities to get with other consultants to talk about what is happening out there and to sharpen up on our skills. 

The following week was spent in Auckland on a training course.  Early April, our discussion group met at a farm in Ngaroma, with the focus of seeing the Pastoral 21 trial.  This has been funded by Beef+Lamb with our levies, but has been kept fairly hidden at this stage, so was a priveledge for our group to go and see it. The site we visited is 1 of 4 around the country.  Many thanks to the guys at AgResearch and the farmer for allowing this to happen. Back ground to the project can be viewed at the following link:  http://www.agresearch.co.nz/publications/annualreport/highlights-2010-2011/Pages/pastoral-21.aspx



Tom Fraser (AgResearch) talking to the group whilst standing in trial plot of alternative species



Grant Rennie (AgResearch) talking to the group whilst standing in trial plot of different spring management and impact on summer quality

It was great to have Tom Fraser, Grant Rennie and Warren King at our disposal to talk about the work they were doing and to finally see some on-farm trial work.  The group also provided some additional suggestions ... the overall focus is growing grass and profitability on hill country, especially in critical periods, with a focus:

• on summer/autumn quality with varying management in the spring period.  This was mowing plots at different heights to see the impact. It is also about understanding the reasons for the changes (if any).
• Establishing new plant genetics into non-cultivatable land.  There were 16 different treatments, looking at spring sowing and autumn sowing. 
• We also talked about several issues to do with clover fixation, rhizobia, thistle control, impact on farm systems, pasture composition and resilience, root development etc.

The feedback from the group was positive.

On Easter Monday, the local Waimai Bush Sports was held.  This was the first year we have made it to the sports.  We took the family down, picnic lunch and was entertained by the antics in the arena.  It caters for all ages and level of horse riding, and also kids events such as the sack race.

Our neighbour going over one of the jumps

Apple race - get thrown an apple and have to drop it in a bucket at other end

Kids doing thread the needle - Part 1

 

Kids doing thread the needle - Part 2

 

Mal also had some time off farm, with a visit to ITM400 - Hamilton (http://hamilton.v8supercars.com.au/).  Unfortunately it was the last year in Hamilton.  With the excellent weather, the watching was great apparently.

Our building project

We've embarked on a building project ... covered yards.  A big question for us to invest in fixed capital or capital stock or pay back debt.  We opted for the fixed capital.

What are we doing?
We are building a shed over our main set of sheep yards.  We tossed up whether to do work on the woolshed but decided it was a better investment to have covered yards.  The benefits were:

• it would give us adequate night pen to have a full days shearing of sheep dry.  Based on a 3 stand shed with the average shearer doing 67/run (2 hour period), that means to have 800 dry sheep would give a full days shearing.
• we scan mid-winter inconjunction with shearing.  It seems every time our scanner comes we are unindated with rain and end up in about 4 inches of mud.  Not a very pleasant time for us or the sheep.
• gives us a lighted facility to work at odd times of day to sort sheep for trucking and/or shearing if need be.
• hopefully cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter to work in.
• will add value to the property.
• am sure there will be other benefits along the way also.

What are we building?
We are building a 6 bay Goldpine (http://www.goldpine.co.nz/products/sheds/) which is 12 mtrs by 30 mtrs.  Finally the consent came through and it is full steam ahead. 

The corner braces, lines and post marks were laid out Monday/Tuesday, all ready for the holes, which were drilled on Wednesday/Thursday and Friday the consent inspector from the Waikato District Council checked the holes off.  Friday/Saturday the posts were braced into position, ready for the concrete truck on Monday.

The timber for the shed arrived



The corners and lines, post holes marked out - westerly wall shown



String indicates centre of shed, so some posts will have to be moved!

First hole is dug!



The hole depth is 1300 mm

Getting old hand at the hole digging by now!

Putting the unwanted dirt straight on trailer to be put in holes about the place



Trying to remove a stubbon post!



Alice down a smaller hole





Poles braced down the easterly side of shed



Bracing a pole on the westerly side








Pole in the hole

Bracing the pole on south/westerly corner

The yards

The yards ... a few more posts than planned had to come out ... opportunity to redesign yards!

View looking down towards the yards

Last night, Dash went out of the house about 5.30 pm and wasn't seen again which is highly unusual.  Last night it rained and normally Dash doesn't like the rain, so for her to be missing was strange.  We checked the sheds but no sign.  It wasn't until morning when the guys arrived at the yards, that they heard the barking, and down the bottom of a 1300 mm hole was Dash.  We can only assume that she chased a mouse (as several of the other holes had mice this morning) and there she stayed.  She was pretty dirty and muddy when she came back to the house this morning, and was banished until she cleaned herself up ... the photo was taken a wee while later and doesn't show up the dirt that was still on her. Dash turns 14 this year in November!


Dash after her nights ordeal ... some of the mud has come off but she was a rich clay colour this morning



Alice down the hole that Dash spent the night!

 So, this outlines our progress to date and will aim to keep snapping to make sure we have a record of the progress.

Cruisin' the Pacific

In March we managed a long awaited holiday - a total of 11 days.  The longest we had been on holiday, and for me since my trip to Peru in 2003.  The longest my parents had had to baby-sit, the longest we had been away from Alice and the longest we had been away from the farm. 

We were lucky finding a farm-sitter that enabled us to make the break and can be a hard thing to overcome without family and friends.  Knowing the farm was in good hands, we headed to Sydney for a night.  My last visit was approximately 22 years ago and Mal's was about 10 years ago.  The first day was spent unwinding before we boarded the Pacific Pearl (http://www.pocruises.co.nz/OurShips/Pages/PacificPearl.aspx) and headed out to New Calendonia.  This was the first time either of us had been cruising.  To see what P&O have to offer visit their website http://www.pocruises.co.nz/Pages/default.aspx

Pacific Pearl off Lifou with the tender boats in the water

We left Sydney on a sunny, warm afternoon, cruisin' the pacific for the first 2 days.  Luckily neither of us suffered from seasickness and were able to spend time finding our way around the boat.

Going under the Sydney Harbour Bridge as passengers enjoy the departure party.

Every one dancing at the 'Departure Party'

 First port of call was Lifou.  Every shore day there were options of doing P&O Shore Tours, doing your own tour with a local or doing your own thing.

Beach where we docked at Lifou - beautiful and clear and blue.

Natural aquarium at Lifou - excellent snorkelling with great coral (colour and different ones), plus a huge array of fish.

We were on Deck 5, with an outside room and a descent size porthole, able to have good views.  With Mal's interest in engineering he was able to watch the tender boats go up and down on shore days as they did so outside our room. 

Our room with the yellow circle around it!

During the night the boat cruised to our next destination ... Noumea.  New Calendonia is high in minerals and one of those is nickle.  Below is the refinery at Noumea.  We didn't hit great weather there and did the Noumea Explorer where there were 7 stops around the city in the morning. 

Nickle refinery at Noumea

After we returned to the boat for lunch we headed out on a tour into the mountains.  Because of the high mineral content the bush was fairly small except for in locations with lower minerals.  The soil was very red and sticky and you could see the yellow nickle stripes and deposits in the soil.  The guide said we were the 4th group to go on this tour and he was a little rustic in his delivery and information but was jovial and entertaining, with jokes all the way back to town and got us back to the ship on time!

Yellow circle top left is a wind farm (there was also another off to the right not in photo).  The yellow circle middle was a low nickle area of bush.

The boat cruised overnight to just off Mystery Island.  This place is sort of where you would expect Robinson Crusoe to be.  It takes you 30 mins to walk round and is surrounded by a coral reef.  Whilst no one lives on the islands, the locals from Vanawatu come across to sell their wares.

This blog is a work in progress so will add the rest soon ...

March in a Nutshell

For us March has been a quiet time and I apologise for the lack of blogs but we managed to squeeze in a holiday.

First a glance at what has happened on the farm.

1st March, or thereabouts, the rest of the rams were introduced to the ewes.  This was touched on in the last blog.

We weighed up the last of our lambs, gave them a drench and parked them to go to the works in March.  They were suppose to have gone, but have been delayed a week due to a mishap at the works.  They have done well in the meantime, so fingers crossed for a good carcass weight.

End of February, saw us doing the whole farm covers.  Despite the growthy season we were sitting at 2100 kgDM/ha cover over the whole farm, with the finishing country at 2350 kg DM/ha average.  There is some rough feed on the hills, but this will slowly be consumed through the rest of autumn.  The finishing country is looking in good health.

The dairy heifers received their second zinc bolus treatment against Facial Eczema.  Spore counts have maintained slight to high (http://www.rd1.com/dairy/facial-eczema/waikato-spore-counts) but are below last years peaks.  The weaners were all weighed at this time and have averaged 0.67 kg/hd/day over 100 days (for kiwi cross).  Making them 169.4 kg average.  This puts in line with industry of between 165 - 177 kg at 200 days approximately from birth.  If we can maintain 0.65 kg/hd/day over next 60 days or better, will but them at 210 kg 1st May.

We then sneaked away for holiday, and were lucky enough to find Craig who moved in and looked after the place.  He did an absolutely wonderful job doing all the stock movement, a bit of fencing, looking after the dogs, chooks and cat, and when we came back we just had to carry on.  Great peace of mind while we were away and often as farmers we can't get long breaks due to the requirements on farm.

On our return, we had also had the digger in.  Main role was to metal the high use areas of the yards, remove dirt/mud from truck access area, metal it, put in a culvert and recontour our lawn.  So things a looking a litte different. 


Trees gone and dirt added!  Might get to have a flat front lawn!

With Alice camping at Ma and Pa's house for 13 days, she was pleased to get home and has been helping dad out on the farm this week.  Today though we decided to take her training wheels off and after the usual moral support and help, she was off without her wheels.  We have little suitable area for her to bike on about from up and down the drive which is good getting down, not easy to get back, and lots of bumps.  So today we suggested she tries the sheep yards.

Alice trainer wheel free in the sheep yards

And then we persuaded her to cycle back from the yards to the house and hoped that she could remember to use her breaks before she crashed into the gate.  The sheep were a bit sceptical of her and made a b-line to get out of her way.