We’ve heard of the mud and dreary conditions that many of you have endured.
We had a wet autumn and June but the tap suddenly turned off at the beginning of July and we recorded just 28mm for the month. It was one of the driest Julys I’ve recorded. It’s usually our wettest month.
There is rain forecast this coming weekend and it will surely rain at some stage through lambing so I’m not yet concerned about the prospects for the spring ahead.
However, the dry July has made farming conditions very pleasant.
I’ve been able to choose when to vaccinate ewes rather than waiting for weather windows, as is often the case.
Speaking of vaccinating, last night’s Vet Services newsletter resulted in an exchange of emails between my mate the author, Richard Hilson, and myself.
He advocates vaccinating at four to five weeks and I was schooled decades ago that though the vaccine boxes say two to four weeks it’s better to be nearer the two weeks, a practice I’ve religiously followed.
He accused me of not reading his past preaching on the matter and was adamant he was right but wouldn’t supply me with any sort of peer-reviewed paper as proof.
But he was convincing enough that I’ll move this policy out to a month before the start of lambing in future.
The ewes tupped well with a good scanning and I was able to work them hard enough in the first trimester that I got some weight off and to date have had only four bearings. Hopefully, I’m not tempting fate, as with most things its dicing with danger to make these sorts of statements.
Because they’ve been fed well over the last five weeks there have been no cases of metabolic issues and the girls have just started lambing with good birth-weight lambs and full udders.
I’ll be catching and tagging stud lambs when they start hitting the ground in 10 to 12 days.
I’ve bought several mobs of yearling bulls in recent weeks. We’ve asked as many questions as possible about their provenance and the agents have been good at chasing information to ensure we do all we can not to import Mycoplasma bovis.
I wouldn’t have been surprised to have had a call from the Primary Industries Ministry because of purchases from past years but to date haven’t. I’ve got a few mates who are bull finishers and they have and are now going through the process of testing to see what might be lurking. They report the time waiting for results is unnecessarily long and causes further disruption and stress.
The arriving yearlings get a quarantine drench and a six-in-one and because it has been dry underfoot have been able to stay on pasture, mopping up the last of the rough feed.
I’m just starting now to get wires up on crops and beginning to breakfeed so that has been a bonus couple of weeks of not having to do that daily chore with several mobs.
However, all good things come to an end and I’ll be shifting several mobs sometime next week as I tour around the farm checking lambing ewes.
The other benefit of the dry month was that the fencer came and had good conditions to replace the fences that I’d pulled out and were destroyed by the forestry harvest.
It’s great what a couple of young fellows with a flash ramming machine can achieve in a few weeks.
I haven’t been able to graze most of my hills properly or at all since February so it is good to have brand-new, stockproof fences up there.
So, a busy physical five to six weeks ahead but I reckon I’m up for the challenge for yet another season.
