Our gorgeous girl Rawlings Fable has calved about 6 days early, a black heifer.  By far Fable's best effort to date and her third heifer in a row.  Please welcome Rawlings Kinder Surprise, pictured about 18 hours old.

We have finally managed to get pictures of the other two calves by Belle Fourche Macintosh.  The black bull calf is out of Rawlings Groovy Blues Beat and the red heifer is out of Rawlings Gelato

Also pictures of High Hope and Hells Belle's calves both sired by Rawlings Grand Design, Hells Belle's calf will be named Karma and High Hope's calf will be named Kindred Spirit

I love this time of the year, babies everwhere.  Mark has just gone to check on Delloreen who is nine days over from her due date from AI to Belle Fourche Lasair.  She did not come down for silage this afternoon and is up under the trees on her own.  Stay tuned for our next arrival.

Two of our maiden heifers have calved this week giving us calves by Rawlings Grand Design , Rawlings Hells Belle's had a black heifer and Rawlings High Hope also had a black heifer.  Both are potentially homozygous polled, so we will be doing some more tests in the new year.

Here are a few pictures of the girls
Keepsake is out of Hidden Gem by Grand Design
Killara Mist is out of KP Dame Ruby by Wattlebank Torpedo

Here are two of the bull calves that have hit the ground sired by Belle Fourche Macintosh.  I am very impressed with the width, thickness, masculinity of these little boys at just a few days old.

The red calf is out of our beautiful Delta Blue

The black calf is out of Damita and is a couple of days younger

The last few days have been very busy, watching and waiting for several cows that are due to calve.

Rawlings Damita has presented us with a very masculine looking black bull calf by Belle Fourche Macintosh, he is thick, has a very bull like head and a scrotum which had testicles descended when he hit the ground.  He is easily the best calf that Damita has produced, time will tell.

This morning we had a red bull calf from Rawlings Hey Jude by KP Heir Apparent, he was only just born at 7am wet and cold, so I dried him off with a towel and he was up feeding.  Another calf by Belle Fourche Macintosh has arrived overnight with Rawlings Gelato giving us a sweet red heifer, she will be named Kandy.

It is interesting to note that all of the bull calves have been born early and the heifers are late.  Gypsy was 3 days early, Delta's calf was 4 days early, as was Damita's, and Hey Jude's is a week early.  Gelato was 5 days late, Hidden Gem was 4 days late and Dame Ruby was 1 day over.

I have a couple of others due any day, lets see what we get.  Stay tuned.

Delta has calved today, five days early, a lovely polled red bull.  He is the first calf on the ground by Belle Fourche Macintosh in Australia.  Just a few minutes old, and here he is.  A lovely rounded polled head which I will bet is homozygous polled.  Not sure of a name yet but something will come to me I'm sure.

The ewes have all lambed now, one set of triplets which the ewe has mothered all three.  Multiple sets of twins and a couple of singles. 

The first calves have been born -
KP Dame Ruby presented us with a black heifer by Wattlebank Torpedo who will be called Killara Mist
Rawlings Gypsy Queen, who slipped her calf last year has had a little black bull calf by KP Heir Apparent who has been named Kent
Rawlings Belladonna has given us yet another heifer by Rawlings Grand Design who I think I will call Kiyomi Belle, this one is black and polled.
Yesterday Rawlings Hidden Gem produced a polled black heifer by Rawlings Grand Design who will be Keepsake

The first calves by Belle Fourche Macintosh are due this week, so I am eagerly waiting for that.

We have also had very welcome rain with 29.6mm falling on Monday night and a further 5.6mm the next day, perfect timing as we had just sprayed out fertiliser onto the pasture over the weekend.  t the moment you can see the grass growing.

The purchase of a new block has also been finalised this week, to allow us to expand operations and have the cattle on agistment closer to home.  127 Jacks Road is a stunning block with a small house which needs renovating, 11 paddocks, cattle yards and sheds.  We take over in November so lots of planning still to do.

No wonder I feel exhausted, and that is not to mention the exciting news we have  in Preston Gourmet Produce, read all about it on that website.

More calvings to report soon I am sure!!