Cattle housing / Conference / Ace of Spades home
Posted: Monday 12 December, 2016
Monday 5th December
Cold here today – frosty in the morning but eased as the day went on.
Bug is sound, which is great.
Bit worried about whether the cows have enough room. Rosie gets bullied and there was a bit of a rammy tonight. I don’t know whether to take out the bull’s pen and reconstruct it elsewhere in the barn; problem with that is that there’s no buffer – if he gets out, he’s loose. With the pen where it is, if he gets out, he’s only in a bigger pen.
Arranged for the vet to come on Wednesday to PD Rosie. Hope she’s in calf. The cows are still bawling; checked their udders and they’re pretty full, Annie worse than Rosie, but no heat.
Asked the vet to dispense a dose of Zolvix wormer for the new tup, who seems to have settled in fine.
Tuesday 6th December
Had a terrible night’s sleep than woke to grey, dull, mild day. Meg pee’d her bed at 2.30am; sorted that then couldn’t get back to sleep, running the cow accommodation issue round in my head. Ate toast, drank tea and finally fell asleep at 5am, on the couch with Bryn.
Decided to build a sheep hurdle pen next to the cattle pen and put Rosie in it. She won’t get bullied, she’ll be able to commune with the others and the bullpen will still be contained. After breakfast, heard Rosie bawling – and not from the barn. She’d managed to get out and was standing at the picket fence between the yard and the garden. Built the pen as planned, put her in and left her with some hay and water.
Came back in this afternoon and she was out – she’d hurdled the hurdles. But there’s nowhere for her to go in the yard and she can’t easily hurt herself, so she’s back in her pen and hopefully she’ll stay there. Our neighbours have christened her “Moodini”.
It started to drizzle this evening; it’s forecast to be light rain most of the night than overcast and 13ºC tomorrow.
Wednesday 7th December
So we have the spectre of Avian Influenza upon us again. Social media is full of experts and hysteria.
We’re doing our best here to keep the wild birds away from our chooks but it’s a challenge.
On the positive side, the vet confirmed today that Rosie is carrying a live calf. Just have to try and work out when she’s due.
Thursday 8th December
Well, that’s the programme for the Smallholding Scotland conference completed; just waiting for Dan to finish the website, then we’re good to go.
I started on some Festival stuff today – mainly routine stuff like first aid cover and insurance; also invited a few judges. I’m hoping to get ahead this year.
Attended a meeting organized by SAC Consulting tonight on accounts analysis. It was interesting and I got the chance to speak to one of the conference presenters.
I came back ready to purchase the SAC Farm Management Handbook (I have a 1980/81 copy) and to revamp my finance spreadsheet to make is generate more management information.
Friday 9th December
Still mild and gloomy.
Winnie's halter training is going really well, she's an absolute joy to work with.
Winnie on her halter.
Sorted out stuff for the Farmers’ Market tomorrow.
Saturday 10th December
Dan and I were at Forfar Farmers’ Market this morning. Went well – we sold two sheepskins and a good pile of yarn, and met some nice folk.
When we got back, we loaded up the flat trailer for our weekly trip to the skip – mainly garden waste and three rubble bags of hay and straw. After that, it was off to pick up a couple of bales of hay.
Sunday 11th December
Well, our new bull is home. We drove down to Dunbar this morning to pick up Stackyard Ace of Spades; he loaded beautifully and unloaded quietly into his pen. I think he was in shock; but that passed and he’s now bawling his head off.
New bull home - Ace of Spades.
The cows are pretty much ignoring him but Winnie has been seen licking his face, bless ‘em. He likes carrots and knows what a bucket is, which is good.
We’ll let him settle for a few days, then start halter training him.
