We are happy to annouce that Small Time Eveready, a hetrozygous polled red female, and her calf at foot Heavenly Treasure have finally arrived from WA.  ST Eveready has been purchased jointly by the Kirup Park & Rawlings Studs, and we saw her on a visit to Albany while I was in WA in February.  She was in calf to Small Time Captain's Treasure, a short legged bull with the best feet I have seen on a shortie.  The deal was done and then we just had to wait for her calf to be born before she could make the trip to Tasmania. On the 18 April she presented us with a beautiful polled, potentially homozygous polled, black heifer calf who has great width, muscling and thickness throughout.  I feel really privledged to have such an outstanding calf join our herd.  We had hoped for a long legged bull but are more than happy with the outcome.

These new polled genetics will boost our bloodlines and I am sure add some excellent animals to our herds.

Thanks to Cameron and Fenella Sept who allowed us to add Eveready to our herds, Doug Giles for transporting her across the Nullabor and Pages Transport for getting her safely across the ditch before the latest rough weather hit.

Eveready is enjoying the comfort of the barn tonight while it is pouring with rain, she had had two buckets of hard feed, two armfuls of silage and half a bale of hay.  She has also drunk well and seems to be glad to be on solid ground once more.  Poor cow and calf, it must be quite a shock to get off a truck, get wet with rain something they haven't seen for quite some time and wonder what is all this green stuff called grass. 

I will post some pictures once they are happily out in the paddock.

Our litter of pups are six and a half weeks old, and I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. We are off to the vet today for vaccinations and microchipping.

They are all gorgeous and much darker in colour than the last litter.  Each has their own personality.  Their new owners will be coming to collect them soon. That will be both sad and happy moments, I think I will certainly miss their little characters.  Jaxx is the brightest, he has learnt how to open the cat flap from the inside of the door and get in and out to the laundry.  Fenton is a big sook, just like Elvis, he loves to lie on his back and have his tummy tickled.  Honey is just as the name suggests a Honey, she will be the darkest of the litter and is always the first one to come and greet you in the mornings.  Rosie is gorgeous, and will end up looking very much like her Mum, she has a quiet nature and loved playing in the garden when I took these pictures.

I will be glad to get the house back though, the kitchen is trashed at the moment as we are trying to train them to toilet on newspaper.  They are all coming to their names and are sitting while waiting for their food. Wonder if I can teach them to drop before they go??

It is with great saddness that this morning KP Ulinzi passed away.  She died while I was with her at Ron & Julie Hunt's property where she had been sick for several days.  The vet visited on a couple of different occasions but there was nothing we could do to save her despite our best efforts.

Good bye Big U, we will look at your daughters in our paddocks and always think of you.  At least you are now resting in the big paddock in the sky.

Our thoughts are with Ron & Julie who had only had Ulinzi for a bit over a month and she was to be the foundation for their new Tazhunt Dexter Stud. Sorry it was not meant to be.

As I sit and shed a tear I will always remember Ulinz, we will miss you!!

I cannot believe we are so busy at the moment.  Agfest is a huge commitment in time and effort to get cattle to this amazing event.  This year it was our turn as part of the Dexter Promotion Group of Tasmania.  We had decided on KP Angelica and her calf Georgia, KP Grace Kelly, KP Glory Days to represent the Kirup Park stud and Rawlings Granita, Lagy Gaga and Fergies Folly to represent our stud.  It is always great to notice how much calmer the cattle get after each day goes by.  They even move to the rails when they are loose to get patted.  They were well and truly ready to come home on Saturday afternoon, and bucked and kicked as they ran around the paddock when let loose.  Our sincere thanks to the many helpers who came along to the field days to talk to those genuinely interested in Dexters.  But the biggest thanks to the crew that stayed for the clean up, we were mucked out, cattle loaded and out of there in 30 minutes flat. Well Done!!  It is a great feeling to belong to a group that shares the same passion for their cows as we do and work towards common goals of promoting Dexters.  Mark was seen on ABC news and heard on the ABC radio talking about Dexters, and Andrea O'Grady featured in the Advocate, all wonderful publicity for the breed.

At Agfest we also caught up with Jim & Olga Stack who were pleased to annouce that they have just moved to Tasmania.  Moving from Mudgee to Scottsdale only a week before Agfest, they have brought nine animals with them.  Welcome to our Group and we look forward to catching up over our coming events.

Sue Hannaford joined us for a couple of weeks before Agfest to help with halter training the calves, unfortunately we had quite a bit of rain, so did not get to do as much as we planned.  Sue also came along to Agfest and enjoyed the time with her cows and just chatting to those wanting information.  She has returned home to WA but is planning to return for Launceston Royal.

Boy the puppies have grown, they are now five and a half weeks old and terrorising my kitchen.  They all come to their names and are chowing down on solids.  We will only have them for just over two weeks, and look forward to spending time with them before they go to new homes.

We have had the last three of the KP girls calve, all three polled red bulls. Diamond Cut, Esprit and Classic Crystal are all doing well, and are being rejoined to Gold Rush.  I so love to see the calves running around.  August and September will see 28 calves being born, can't wait.

It is always interesting when you AI cows to see what you get and which ones take.  It soon became apparent that of the three girls AI'd last year only one has taken.  Bugger!!  KP Broadway Babe was inseminated with Maclee Tabasco semen and gave birth to a large bull calf which both Mark & I had to assist her with.  I did not think she would struggle as it was her fourth calf, but we monitored her closely anyway.  Sadly he has white on his scrotum and also a dot on his chest, plus is horned,so will not be registerable, a real shame as he is structurally very nice at this early stage.

KP Diamond Cut, Classic Crystal and Esprit were run with Rawlings Blueprint as a back-up and two of the three have calved in the last few days, two polled red bulls.  A decision will be made on their future as they grow.

We have just completed the fourth tie up of our heifers which were weaned a couple of weeks ago.  They are all progressing really well as you can see from the picture below.  Some still need more practice walking, but overall we are very happy with their progress.

I have just included the first pictures of our progress on the Dexter Barnstay page.  Check it out!!