Patiently Waiting.

It's been raining, not pouring but it has rained.

The smell of rain is very welcome, and the sound of water running down the pipes into our water tanks is like music to the ears. 

Pitter Patter rain drops, ever so gentle. Slowly soaking into the dry, dry earth.

This morning it was lovely and cool after the showers overnight. 

Mum and I went walking and discovered just how dry and thirsty the ground really is.

Enormous cracks in the ground. Waiting for lots of rain.

We have to be very patient farmers. We rely very much on mother nature.
The rain will come when it is ready.

Back to some stock work, the weather has cooled down.
The bulls left the cows six weeks ago so now it is time to take a sneak peek inside the cows......to see if they are having babies.

We have been busy mustering up cows, the man is coming tomorrow to scan them.

All the cows are in the yards waiting.

Not so patiently they are very noisy!

These cows still have big calves drinking milk from them, we have to separate them while the man peeks inside to see the new calf growing. 

They miss their big babies.

It does not take long to look in all the cows, they go through very quickly.

The man has a special screen just in front of his eye, this is where he can see the baby calf.

Do you remember my pet calves? Three of them are girls.

Today they will find out whether they will soon be mums. 

Stella is first to come through.....waiting....

Yes! Stella is pregnant!

Then Queenie.....bad news.... empty. Queenie will be sold.

Last of all Stinky.....waiting.....

Yes! Stinky is pregnant! 

There are nine cows not in calf, they will be sold.

The summer has been so hot and dry with not much rain, we cannot keep stock that are not producing more animals. Sadly they have to go. 

Mootoyoutoo!

Round them up and run them in! 

Calf marking, a week of cattle work. 

Most of the cows have calved now and it is time to start marking the calves before they get TOO big!

The cows and calves are taken to the cattle yards.

This year some cows have had twins, that is not a very common thing in cows.

We have 4 sets of twins!

And for just a very short time they are separated from each other.

Just like all the baby lambs the calves have to have a couple of operations done to them.

First a needle to protect them from disease, an earmark so we know what farm they belong to.

The girl calves are done then,..... BUT the boys have one more operation that makes them very cranky!

It is noisy work every cow is mooing so loud. Calling for their baby.

When the job is finished and they are all back together it is peaceful again. 

Thank goodness...they were giving me a headache!

A busy couple of weeks ahead, it is springtime on the farm and it is action stations!

All the lambs are due to get their second dose of medicine.

And this week we need to prepare the shearing shed because next week shearing starts.

I am really lucky this year because we will be shearing in the school holidays....

that means I get to help!

Birth and Death.

Every morning and every night Dad and PopPop do the rounds, checking the heifers. 

We are having a good run this year, most of them are calving on their own.

We had to help a heifer calve on the weekend, she could not get him out on her own.

 Her calf was TOO BIG! He came out alive.

 BUT the heifer was quite upset....you can tell when a cow is mad,

 she throws her head around and points her ears forward...then you can look out!

She was so upset she jumped out of the yards....

We put the calf in the paddock with her but it seemed she just did not want to be a Mum!

She did not remember to feed him...we bought them both back to the yards the next day, but the calf was very weak and starving hungry.

PopPop milked some magic milk from the cow and we fed the calf from a bottle all day and all night. SADLY though he did not make it, he died.

The heifer will be sold later in the year, she has no calf now and she is too crazy to keep.

The cows in the paddocks are calving really well. Mum checked them on the weekend.

There are calves everywhere, even a set of twins!

This little calf was just born, as Mum checked them. His Mum loves him. 
There is no way she is leaving him.

I hope she did not mind the audience of steer weaners in the next paddock.

I love new calves they are so very cute!

Cow OR Duck?

Not long now...2 weeks to go, and the baby calves will begin to arrive.

All the cows have been to the yards to receive a needle.

It will protect both them and their baby calf from lots of different diseases. 

Pulpy Kidney, tetanus, black leg disease and leptospirosis...

WOW...that is a mouthful of words!

The cows have very big tummies, and they waddle along like ducks.

On the way to their new paddock they walked through a dam....

maybe they think they are DUCKS?

The weatherman says that there is big rain coming this week, 

so time to get busy while the weather is nice.

The weaner cattle are back in the yards to be drafted into boys and girls.

  

My mates are going with them, Clover, Queenie, Stinky, Stella, Freckles and Curly.

I am not sure whether they like their new friends?

See you all later... I will miss you!

Clover and his new friends

They will not be back for sometime now, time for them to grow up bigger.

Farwell, Goodbye!

All our cows are being mustered up, time for them to say so long, farewell, goodbye to their babies.

Their babies are now nine months old and weigh about 300kg.
 So they are big enough to look after themselves. A bit like me really!
 They can eat grass and do not need so much milk anymore. 
And their mothers need to prepare for the arrival of their new babies, in July and August.

We call the babies, "weaner calves".
They need some special attention before they head back to the paddock.

A needle for diseases and a drench for worms.

 A pen full of weaner calves.
They will really miss their mums, BUT there comes a time when everyone must go it alone!
The calves will spend a few days in the yards. We will feed them hay.

The cows also get a little attention to, some of them need a drench.

And the cows that do not have a calf growing inside are drafted off to go to the cattle sale!

Empty or In Calf?

Back to school for me today, my second week of many to come.

BUT

first things first......

A dozen pelicans flew onto the dam behind the house last night, so Mum drove me down to see them gliding on the water and feeding on PopPop's golden perch.

 He won't be HAPPY!

They are beautiful birds!

Off to the cattle yards to check on things, before going to the bus.

A man is coming today to scan the cows to see if they are all going to have calves.

All the cows are put into the crush and held there while he takes a peek inside.

Can you see the eyepiece hanging from his cap?

He sees a picture of what is inside the cow there. Then he lets Dad know if she is empty or in calf. Empty cows have their eartag number recorded and they will be sold once their big calves are weaned from them. They will not make us any money this year so they will leave the farm. The ones with calves are good girls so they get to stay!

A messy job putting your hand up there....lucky he wears long gloves!

"Walk up Cattle"

Grass everywhere.....we need more cows!

This summer it just keeps raining and growing more grass.

Sheep like their grass short and cattle like their grass long. We move the cows and calves to the the long grass paddocks to try and chew it down.

I hope they are hungry, they have alot of grass to eat!

After moving the cows and calves we discover that the merino lambs are starting to get fly blown.

The chemical that protects them from flies is starting to run out.

Time to ring the shearers.

A big storm came through yesterday afternoon......big thunder and lots of lightning.

 It was really noisy and a little bit scary.

Bad fly weather, flies love it wet and warm.

A beautiful rainbow appeared after the storm.....

Some people say there is a pot of gold where the rainbow ends.
Maybe I should get my shovel and go on a treasure hunt?
Or maybe it would be more fun to slide down.....

Who is the BOSS?

The big boys came back home today.....hopefully they have made lots of baby calves with the cows.

They were ready to come home, they ran all the way and made lots of noise!

They were all put into the bull paddock, then guess what happened next!

FIGHTING, FIGHTING, FIGHTING.....

they have been apart for 7 or 8 weeks. Now they have to work out who is the boss again!

They are very strong, I would hate to get in the middle of that fight!!

The bulls have a special fence all around their paddock to make sure they behave, it is electric.

If they touch it, they get a ZAPP, and they know to stay put!

In 6 weeks, a man will come and look inside the cows tummies to see if they are having babies. Then we have to wait until August for the babies to arrive.

YEEE'HAAA!

Calf marking, time to round 'em up!

All the cows and calves are mustered up, bought to the yards and drafted up.

The cows are getting a needle while they are in the yards, to help protect them from some nasty diseases, the vet thinks this will stop them dying.....fingers crossed! They all had a needle about 4 months ago, but they need a booster!

The calves need to have a couple of operations done. They get an earmark just like the baby lambs. All the animals on our farm have the same earmark in their ear. So if they get lost on another farm, the farmer will know where they came from. They also get a needle, to protect them from diseases, they will need another needle when they get a little older. The boy calves have one extra operation to stop them growing into big bulls!

It is a very noisy job, cows are calling for their calves and calves are calling for their mums. When they are all back together it is quiet again, thank goodness.....they were giving me a headache!

There are only a couple of cows left to calve, we will have to do them next time they come to the yards.

OH....and I nearly forgot...there are five more at home we are feeding!