20 February 2017

Preparation

Hard to believe it’s nearly the end of February already. The last three days haven’t even reached 20*C, and yesterday we had hail. And yet one night a few weeks ago didn’t even drop under 30*C, and on Wednesday we’ll have a day of 34. It’s been an odd summer. We haven’t even been able to collect any firewood yet because all our weekends off have been either 30+ or raining.

 

Over the next few weeks, the milking herd will get their pregnancy test done and then we start sending them on their pre-calving holiday, where they get roughly two months break from producing milk to rest before the new season starts. And branding the young heifers, some of which are starting to grow tiny udders already. It will be interesting milking them though, because they haven’t had much people contact in the last nine months since we’ve been living here and are quite flighty.

 

Our pet calves are growing so fast. From the tiny, fragile babies we brought home in the back of the car to these shiny fatties, eating so much hay at the moment because the grass stopped growing this month. By the end of the month the girls and Logan will be nine months old, and the big boy Spartan is ten months.

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