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Blogs by Linda Watson
Low Arvie winter work 11/21/2010 1:18:02 AM
Hi
Once again I am enjoying my week down here in Warwick, spending time with Catherine and Morgan and the dogs.
At last I have some time to myself. Life at the farm is quite hectic at the moment as we have 65 animals of various sizes and the early winter brings with it long working hours of never ending jobs. The cattle all have to be rehoused in their winter quarters and given various treatments to ensure they stay healthy. These all have to be meticulously recorded. It is also our year for TB testing which means two extra vet visits. This comes round every four years and involves the vet taking blood samples and then returning three days later to check for reactions. I can't believe how quickly the years pass and that it is four years since the last test, although so much has happened in the meantime. It's more of a worry this time because reactor cows have to be destroyed immediately. Although TB has never been found in our herd, the fact that we have had to buy some animals from other farms in these last years because of the calamity of Richard's broken leg in 2008 when we had to sell almost all our stock (Life with the Ladies of Low Arvie), there is a small chance that we have imported the disease along with these 'alien' animals.
There are now five different groups of animals at the farm, all on different feeding regimes and all with their own shed facilities which they are using more now the weather has become rainy and colder. The sheds become very messy with poo and the floors have to be cleaned regularly and fresh bedding laid down. Twenty-three cows, fourteen small calves and the bull are all in Eastside and the big cattle court, five 'finishers' and twelve yearlings are living in different parts of the old cattle shed, seven 'aliens' are in the big end of the new shed and Zinnia with Zola and Bella are happily living together in the small end of the new shed. All except the finishers have access to the remaining outside grass. The cows and bull are fed once a day on cattle cake and have new straw to much on in the shed and fresh silage in the field each day. The yearlings, aliens and Zinnia are fed twice a day and get fresh straw and silage as necessary and the 'finishers' get cake three times a day and their straw and silage replenished when needed. Along with this, their water tubs have to be refilled each day. Busy, busy, busy, cold, cold, cold and wet, wet, wet.
The yearlings have been vaccinated twice against Blackleg, and every now and again, Richard puts all the animals through the crush to cut the hair around their ear tags, so that we can read their numbers more easily, and keep tails and udders clean.
So I am pleased that at last I can have this 'island' of time to myself and do some much needed blogging and attend to my books. I am in the process of publishing them on the Author's Den website and sat here until 2 a.m. this morning uploading 'Life with' onto their listing to go with 'The Ladies' which I managed to do last week. There are just the covers to complete now and the books will be available to a larger market.
