Life got hectic for a while there.
We worked every day on the farm with no days off, for six weeks.
Sparkie was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which is being controlled with a strict diet. She’s back to normal, now completely recovered from the surgery, and has even gone back at work as an assistance dog.
We brought four little calves from local dairy farms, to raise as pets. Three of them thrived, but the little grey bull struggled, and after a few weeks he passed away. We rescued another calf to replace him, a big patchy boy. He was strong and energetic. But then he got scours, and then he got bloat, and when he was just three weeks old we lost him to pneumonia.
On the same day the second calf passed away, our boss told us he could not afford to pay us anymore. It's because the companies that buy the milk are barely paying farmers anything anymore. For some farms it's not even enough to keep the dairy going.
We can stay here for now, doing weekend work on the farm to pay for rent. The boss sounds keen to keep us here at the house and said that when the milk price goes back up we’ll be able to have our job back. But there are some big issues with this whole thing so I’m not sure what will happen next.
Dairy Farm Life || “If It’s Not Too Late” (click for video)
