I am delighting in the cool fresh mornings of Autumn, a breath of fresh air before the energy sapping heat of the day creeps in.
After drenching the sheep this past weekend we moved them back into the home paddock which had been spelled for a good eight weeks. It wasn’t long before the problematic issue of sheep hanging around the house reared its smelly head again. It was the same old ones, English Leicesters mainly, with a sprinkling of poddy reared Baby Dolls, Chickie Wether and Mrs Dorset Horn all hoping for a handout, or to find their way into the “grass is greener on the other side” house yard with a smorgasbord of vegetables awaiting their dining pleasure.
I heard a child yelling, “Sheep, sheep, sheep. Get out sheep!” It was enough to awaken me from my pre-breakfast slumber and rocket out the door with remarkable agility for a person of my age and weight. Those naughty sheep had found their way into the house yard and made a beeline for the vegetable garden. As I stepped outside in my dressing gown I was just in time to see a galloping English Leicester ewe pursued by a galloping twelve year old boy shooting out the gate. Crisis averted, I went back inside and put on the jug for a coffee.
I am super-excited to be receiving a new Southdown ram from the Three Oaks Stud in Victoria next week. Described by a fellow sheep breeder as having the best topline she has seen on a sheep, he will be put straight out to work after doing a quarantine stint in the yards for a few days. You may recall that I brought a few ewes from this stud a couple of years ago – I call them “The wild bunch.”
They are also a very good type of ewe and have, what old dairy breeders would say, put themselves in profit, rearing some handy sets of twins in the time they have been here. The first of April is usually my date for putting the rams in with the ewes but it will most likely be a week or two earlier this year. Brucellosis testing of the rams, a mandatory requirement now for sheep studs everywhere in Australia, is happening next week as well.
Also, this month I need to purchase semen for the cows. Their calves are around three months old now, so it is time to organise the AI programme to get the cows back in calf. I need to shake a leg and organise this asap as I was hoping to get the job done in March. You may also recall that Varina did not take to the AI and was put with a bull. She will be pregnancy tested but I don’t think the odds are in her favour. It looks to me as though she is barren. Marnie and Monica Herefords, I have decided, are a bit small to put in calf yet so I will wait another six months at least.
Speaking of calves, I have noticed that the three calves plus Jerry the Brahman are sucking from all of the cows. It seems to be a commune type arrangement where they share the responsibilities of calf rearing, although I suspect Delilah is doing the lion’s share of the work as the Shorthorns are a bit precious.
Catie, Anne and I had a phone hook up with Heritage Livestock Canada last Sunday, which was great. We seem to have a lot in common as issues in Canada are often the same as the Trust faces here in Australia, although they do have many more members than us. I believe they have over 1500 members, whereas we only have 108. One topic that was discussed is that membership is not a thing that interests or appeals to the younger generations, ie people under 40. As our main income comes from membership (in Australia we receive no government funding) this is a bit of a problem. We need to find new ways of fund raising if we can’t attract new members.
I wanted to tell you about the World Wide Virtual Show organised by Canada that attracted entries from all over the world and raised funds to support breeders that had been effected by Hurricane Fiona and flood events in Canada but I will have to leave it until next week as I have run out of time and the cottage guests are waiting for me to go out and feed the chickens with them!
Next week I will tell you more of our discussion with Canada and what I will be doing at the Allora Heavy Horse Festival on March 18-19. I also have a couple of Woofers arriving to help me on the farm for a few weeks.
Bye for now.
Judy
