I had a chance today to get some pictures of the cattle as they came through the yards when we pulled the bulls out. Two of these calves are by Heir Apparent who is up for sale.

I have added pictures of Heir Apparent who is being offered for sale. He is a homozygous polled bull and has given us some outstanding calves who are being retained.

Finally I have found five minutes to get pictures of our gorgeous calves, The oldest calf Marshmallow was born on 3 December and the youngest Madonna was born on Boxing Day.

Breeding details are as follows:-
Marshmallow Surprise MH9 DOB 3/12/16 out of Kinder Surprise by Kustom Mac
Mr T MB8 DOB 3/12/16 out of Heavenly Treasure by Jamieson's Run
Misty MH10 DOB 5/12/16 out of Killara Mist by Kustom Mac
Matilda MH11 DOB 9/12/16 out of Fleur de Lis and by Jamieson's Run
Merlot MB10 DOB10/12/16 out of Hidden Gem by Jamieson's Run
Miss Muffet MH5 DOB10/12/16 out of Jemima by Jamieson's Run
My Fair Lady MH13 DOB 11/12/16 out of Kiss Me Kate by Legend of Anzac
Moonshine MB13 DOB 12/12/16 out of Junie Moon by Jamieson's Run
Miracle MH6 DOB13/12/16 out of Kay Sera by Kustom Mac
Melody MH15 DOB18/12/16 out of Jazz Pizzazz by Heir Apparent
Michelle Ma Belle MH12 DOB18/12/16 out of Hey Jude by Jag by Design
Midas Touch MB11 DOB 18/12/16 out of Henny Penny by Jag by Design
Marmalade MH14 DOB 20/12/16 out of Jorja Brown by Legend of Anzac
Magic of Christmas MH7 DOB 24/12/16 out of Jamaican Gold by Jamieson's Run
Madonna MH8 DOB 26/12/16 out of Delta Blue by Heir Apparent
 

 Monday was Junie Moon's turn to calve producing a red bull sired by Jamiesons Run, to be called Moonshine.

Tuesday saw Kay Sera calve down with a black heifer calf sired by Kustom Mac, she will be named Miracle.

We then had a lull in proceedings, I think the bulls must have been worn out. But on Sunday we had another three in one day kind of day.  Firstly Jazz PIzzazz produced a black polled heifer by Heir Apparent and she has been named Melody, then just after lunch we had two girls in labour. Late afternoon saw Hey Jude and Henny Penny both give birth. Hey Jude has a gorgeous little red heifer by Jag by Design we have called her Michelle Ma Belle. Henny Penny then had a polled black bull calf also by Jag, Midas Touch will be his name and he is a little stunner.

Then today Jorja Brown has just delivered what looks like a polled dun heifer by Legend of Anzac. Yeah!! If she is dun this means that Legend of Anzac carries both red and dun. We will confirm this in the morning once she is dry. Her name is still to be decided.

I cannot believe that in just 10 days we have had 18 calves born, with just 4 more to arrive before Christmas. Then we get a short break with 6 more being due in late January.

In between we have our hay to get baled and in the shed, Christmas lunch to enjoy and maybe  couple of days away.

I promise to get some pictures tomorrow, weather permitting. I do love calving!!

Saturday started with Jemima producing a beautiful polled red heifer by Jamiesons Run.  She will be named Mary Poppins.  We went back a couple of hours later to check she had fed and found not one but two girls who had calved within minutes of each other. KP Classic Crystal had a red bull sired by Heir Apparent and Hidden Gem has a stunning red bull by Jamiesons Run, he has a flat round head and I would hope he is homozygous polled.  All were up and feeding within minutes and enjoying the sea views from our top paddock.

This morning we found Kiss Me Kate, who is the only daughter of Fair Lady who we lost earlier this year, in labour.  She was not making much progress and would not let us help, but after a few hours she finally had a red heifer calf with a little help from Mark. She was totally confused and went off chasing one of the other red calves and didn't want a bar of her own calf.  After a few anxious minutes we finally herded her back to the calf and finally she started cleaning it.  We decided to make ourselves scarce and when we checked three hours later she was happily fedding the baby, yay!!  This little poppet will be named My Fair Lady in honour of her grand dam, hope she turns out to be as good, I think so.  This is our first calf by Legend of Anzac and his first red calf born with Ian Clayton having three black calves.

As promised here are the pictures of the calves to date. All three heifer calves are sired by Kustom Mac who is a son of Belle Fourche Macintosh and the bulls are all sired by Jamiesons Run.

Angelica birthed a stunning bull calf at lunchtime today. He is black caarrying red and homozygous polled by inheritance. He will be named Masterpiece and is gorgeous.

The twins are doing well with us tying Fable up and allowing the one to feed while she has a bucket of feed. She is getting more accepting of him and hopefully in a few days they can go back to the paddock. I am still struggling to find suitable names for the twins.

Late this afternoon we went out to check the cows, and Fable, one of our best cows was missing. On investigation we found her up in the corner with not one but two red calves.

Although she carries red she has never given us a red calf or a bull, well she doesn't do things by halves giving birth to two red bulls.

Now to think of two boy names beginning with M suitable for  set of twins, stay tuned for the names to be announced soon.

We have decided to call Kinder Surprise's calf born yesterday Marshmallow Surprise.

And just on dark we have checked the cows again to find Killara Mist with a black polled heifer by Kustom Mac, she will be named Misty.

 Today has been a busy day

We are finally calving down for 2016, unfortunately due to me being sick and not knowing which calves belonged to which cows, mating was delayed until they could be sorted out.

So far we have four calves, Kokoda sadly lost a black heifer calf by Kustom Mac a few weeks ago, the first calf from crossover US genetics, but we will have to wait until next year to see the results of this mating.  Karamelle had a red heifer calf sired by Kustom Mac about a week ago who has been named Maple Syrup. Yesterday Heavenly Treasure calved down with a red bull calf by Jamieson's Run who will be called Mr T, and today Kinder Surprise presented us with a red polled heifer by Kustom Mac, name to be decided.

Three red calves, all healthy and doing well. Photos to follow.

Heir Apparent has produced some lovely calves for us, particularly his son Legend of Anzac.  I was right in my initial reaction that Heir was better than his sire Rawlings Blueprint and his calves prove me right.

 His son Legend of Anzac below who is only 10 months old and received very positive comments at the Wynyard Show recently.

Heir's daughters born in Autumn 2015

Then the spring 2015 born calves

It is interesting to note that all of the red calves are half brother over half sister matings with the common denominator being Rawlings Blueprint, and are not to shabby at all.

Overall we are very happy with his progeny and have decided to retain his son Legend of Anzac so he will be offered for sale for $2500 +GST for someone who wants to add beef, structural correctness and polling to their herd.

In the last few days we have had another three calves born, and they have not all been bulls for a change.  Firstly Hey Jude delivered a red polled bull calf by Jamieson's Run.  A day later Groovy Blues Beat presented us with a black heifer calf by Jag by Design who we have called Latin Beat.  Then we were waiting and watching Fable, who was a couple of days overdue, and this morning she has produced her fourth heifer in a row, a polled black heifer by Jamieson's Run.  She will be named Ladybird and is quite stunning being very thick and deep.

Only one more to go as we wait for Jasmine to calve down, she only has until the 27th of this month, but she did test PTIC and is springing up nicely.

Photos to follow soon