Well we have had to wean two of our heifer calves from their dams as the dams have been sold.  They have bellowed all night, along with their dams who have very full udders.  Hopefully they will be quieter tonight.

We have also drafted off our maiden heifers in preparation for the Field Day next weekend.

The Kirup Park cows due to calve are all looking fantastic!!  Hebe let me give her a bottom scratch and I could feel her calf kicking in her belly.

We have also been cleaning up out in our House Pines paddock where several large branches were blown down in September last year.  It looks so much better out there now and we have a wall of wood for our efforts!!

The Field Day being held in two weekends time has prompted us to consider how we were going to wash the cattle, a dilemma, bugger have to build a wash bay.  I have always wanted a proper wash bay with tie off points and an area for the cattle to stand and dry once they are washed, and now I have one.  For years we have managed washing cattle tied to the side of the ute, with calves ducking underneath the ute, it was not the most ideal setup but one that just had to do.  But now we have our official wash bay and it will get its first use for the Field Day.

Yeah!!!  Mark has done a wonderful job, see the picture below.

Just to let you know the date has been set for our Show Preparation Field Day and will be held on 5th & 6th February.  We have limited places, so if this interests you contact us early to reserve a spot.

Topics be covered include stock selection, halter training, what gear do you need, showmanship, feeding, safe transportation.  It will be a very full weekend but very enjoyable.

Look forward to catching up with our Tassie members.

Well I cannot believe it is the middle of January and we have had so much rain, 285mm has fallen in since Wednesday and there is water running everywhere.  Many roads have been closed with water crossing over them, trees down or huge landslides, we were cut off from town for a short while yesterday, but roads were back open in the late afternoon.

Gunns Plains was quite amazing with the road awash from the first bridge crossing right through to the South Riana Road as the Leven River broke it's banks.

Luckily for us we have lots of high ground to move the cattle onto, so they are all safe.  The sheep were a bit water logged, but they are the cleanest I have ever seen them.  Fortunately they are Wiltihorn sheep a breed that shed their wool so they did not stay wet for too long, choosing to shake like dogs to get dry when the rain finally stopped.

We did have some minor flooding to our sheds, but they will soon dry out.  The gardens became lakes but that too quickly drained away. Luckily none of our dams looked like breaking their banks, though they were overflowing.

We are so lucky compared to Queensland!!

I am very excited at having our first Blueprint daughter classified, Rawlings Delta Blue has classified VG86 on her first lactation, with great improvement in legs and feet scores, an area we identified as needing to improve from our previous classifications.  She is clearly the best cow we have ever bred and we are thrilled with her score.

Also Rawlings Chariot of Fire has been reclassified at VG85 an improvement of two points on her first classification of GP83, along with Rawlings Bohemian Rhapsody who reclassified at VG87 up two points on her previous classification.  These two females are the dams of the two bull calves we kept entire Rawlings Fires of Finaly (who is sold) and Rawlings Freddie Mercury who is still available, so we did our visual assessments  of our bull mothers in line with their improved classification scores which confirmed the breeding directions we want to take!!

And just for a change it is raining, not as much as in Queensland and our thoughts go out to the many Dexter breeders who live up there and hope they are all safe and well, our thoughts are with you all.

Marg

Well we have finished carting the hay, all of the 16 round rolls are all safely in the shed, lucky as we had a shower of rain last night!!  There is just enough room left to fit the tractor in after a bit of creative stacking.

So on to the next task, sorting out the cows.  We have four April born calves which have to be weaned, three 4 month old bull calves that are already acting as if they want a piece of the action and cows due to calve that can come down closer to the house so I can keep an eye on them.  We are also planning an AI program with several of the Kirup Park cows and utilising Bircham Ballantyne semen, which will bring another new genetic line to Tasmania, so I have got to start monitoring those for when they are cycling.

Then we better slash some of our paddocks to get the feed under control, I did three yesterday, but we need to do our back paddock ready for subdividing into three smaller paddocks.  We might be better able to utilise the pasture then, rather than the cows picking only the bits they like out. We have found that by slashing and leaving the cut grasses to mulch down we get much finer stemmed feed on the regrowth.

So it looks like I have a busy day ahead of me, I better get out there.