Diary

The byreRSS feed

Posted: Sunday 17 October, 2010

by Rosemary at 7:59pm in Cattle Comments closed

Dan and I spent today (Sunday) preparing the byre for the arrival of the calves - hopefully this week. It has space for six tethered cows!

We've taken down the old hay rack as it was rotten, and Dan boarded up the roof space into the feed store - mainly to make the feed store bird proof. I swept down the rafters and walls - you soon learn to work with your mouth closed - then swept and vacuumed (truly) the floor. Ideally, we'd have repaired all the plaster and painted it, but we didn't have time and we have other plans for the area in the longer term anyway. I did try to remove any loose plaster and paint, though.

Our main aim was to make the byre safe, so Dan removed the old neck chains and one of the metal tie bars that could have caught up little hooves. We've found some weldmesh to go on the window and a slip rail for the door, to make it easier for us to get in and out and harder for the calves!! John's fixing these this week along with the two corner hay racks that we brought from Longcarse. There are feed troughs in place and we'll take in a large water bucket until we get the new water supply in.

Dan's bringing stable matting up from Longcarse on Wednesday, along with straw for their bed. I still need to get some food for them, so that they learn to love me (!) and to make halter training easier. I've ordered tie rings and a halter, ready for training to start. The plan is to keep them in for a couple of weeks until they are hand / bucket / halter trained. Thereafter, I intend to bring them in every day to be fed, so that it becomes their routine, as it will be when they come into milk.

I'll put in fresh flowers, champagne and chocolates just before they arrive...

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