Archive for the Category »Farm animals «

Feb

Our cows are pretty clued in and knows what happens on our farm, almost before we do!

They are an indication of what’s happening with the weather. If they are camped up, sitting as far away from the south as they can with their backs in that direction, you can guess there is going to be a change from the south. If they’re out eating before dawn, it’s an indication that the day might be hot. There’s lots of little things that you learn to notice.

If we start the tractor up, the girls know it’s feed time. They’ll wait at the gate until it’s their turn. I open the gates and drive in and they follow – never trying to go out of the paddock – just following the hay.

Before I’m out of the tractor, they’re trying to eat it! They completely ignore me while I’m cutting the net-wrap off and putting in the pins so I can roll it out! That’s something I love – them not taking any notice of me!

There are times I can reach out and pat these huge, ‘wild’ animals, in the paddock and she just usually regards me quietly, while chewing on a mouthful of hay.

Love my girls!

Category: Country Life, Farm animals Leave a Comment

Feb

Shifting a mob

Fleur

Today there is a catastrophic fire danger for the South coast of WA. It’s gonna be a stinker of a day and we’re just about to have another meeting to see if the Bushfire Brigade are going to issue a Movement of Vehicles in paddocks ban.

There’s a smoke haze from a fire to the north of us and the wind is a strong northerly that’s sending shivers up my spine. Today is not a day for a fire.

But first up, we had a mob of 1,700 sheep that we had to shift. We had bought them from our neighbours and it was time for them to see their new home!

We started at about 5am with two dogs, Anthony, the two kids, a mate and his daughter and me.

We had to push them across a main road and then down a side road to where we had laid down a fence to let them into our paddock.

The kids did an amazing job of being sheep shepard’s and we brought the sheep down the road without any problems! They’re now in their new home, awaiting some animal husbandry work that we’ll be doing on Monday.

On a Red Dust note, I found out yesterday from my publisher that it was the highest selling novel, across all of the Australian publishers, for 2009, from a debut author. I’d just really like to thank all of you who bought copies. You’re the only reason this happened.

Also, the winner of Sharyn Munro’s book, Woman on the Mountain, was Alison, who has been notified, although I’m just waiting for her to get back to me with an address so we can send it off.

Our guest blog next month is Helene Young, who will be giving away a copy of her new book, Border Watch.

**PS! It’s now nearly the end of the day and I think we had about seven fires across the Esperance shire. Some close to home. Right now I’m listening to the wonderful sound of rain on a tin roof, knowing that all the fires should be under control. Some spots have had terrential down pours and other areas have had a steady rain, that is just enough to dampen the fires and our worry. We are so thankful for rain on days like today.

Category: Country Life, Farm animals, Photos, Red Dust, The Farmer's Life, The Writer's Life 2 Comments

Jan

Oh, how dusty!

Fleur

As part of our farming operation we run a prime lamb feedlot. It’s a management tool that gets the lambs off the paddocks during summer, which in turn helps keeps our soil structure strong and (hopefully) stops paddocks from blowing, when the strong sea breezes come in every afternoon.

We become quite friendly with the lambs over the time they’re ‘locked up’! Every day we go and clean out their troughs, check their feeders and generally make sure no one has an upset tummy from the rich tucker or is unwell.

And about every two weeks we get them into the yards and weigh the, – when we send lambs to market, they need to be a certain weight.

Trouble is with using the yards a lot in summer is the dust. When we push the lambs into the yards, the dust is a thick, choking plume that is hard to see through and every time we open our mouths (accidentally, I can tell you!) you can feel the crunch on dirt on your teeth!

But there are times that the dust, lambs and sun make a magic picture. Anthony took this photo on his mobile phone, just as the sun was setting on another day of sheep work!

Category: Country Life, Farm animals, The Farmer's Life 6 Comments

Dec

Water anyone?

Fleur

Yesterday was probably the worst day we’ve had this summer. We hit 44 degrees – the same as Marble Bar. Now there is something strange about that! Marble Bar is renown for being the hottest place in WA and it’s in the far north. Esperance is on the south coast and right near the sea!

We had a total fire and harvest ban, and as the strong northerly wind whipped through the trees, I couldn’t help but feel very apprehensive. That feeling stayed with me throughout the whole day – especially since thunderstorms were forecast for the evening. (Thankfully the bushfire radio stayed satisfyingly quiet.)

I had the sprinklers going most of the day (we’re lucky to have a dam, just for the garden), so our dogs and chooks would be okay, but numerous natives birds, including a couple of baby butcher birds, came to enjoy of the water and have a drink. As I cleaned the troughs out in the feedlot, the birds came swooping from everywhere to enjoy the water.

But it was this sight that made me smile: on the way to the school bus, there were about eight magpies in around the cows feet cooling their heels in the only puddle on the farm! The cows took no notice of them, as the maggies ignored these huge beasts! You can see how hot the maggies were – their beaks are open and they’ve got their wings out from their body.

To walk around, unintimidated, by the cows who could squash them with a single hoof, shows that water was a necessity on a day like yesterday!

Category: Farm animals, Weather Leave a Comment

Dec

Full moon, an end to harvest and a finished edit!

Fleur

I must say, after a fairly intense three weeks, harvest has finally finished and I, for one, am glad! I love seeing the grain come in and finding out what we’ve produced! But three weeks of 4am starts and after dark finishes, as well as trying to edit Blue Skies, has taken its toll!

I was feeling pretty pleased when I went to sit outside in the peace and quiet to watch the moon rise, complete with a glass of wine! We had finished harvest, I had just hit the ’send’ button on an email to my editor containing all the changes for Blue Skies, so that had been put to rest and how could anyone not enjoy watching this moon rise? It was massive and the light it cast across the country side, was magical.

So now I’ve enjoyed my feeling of freedom, I’m back to waiting! Waiting for my editor to get back to me and for the unedited proof book form to arrive, waiting for the last silo of grain to be cleaned and delivered and waiting for the next pile of jobs to build up! We start today weaning our calves and preg-testing the cows, so the waiting for Blue Skies won’t seem so bad.

But at the moment, I’m just as happy to raise a glass of wine to the moon and enjoy the feeling of not being busy- for a short time!

Category: Blue Skies, Farm animals, Harvest, The Farmer's Life, The Writer's Life 4 Comments

Oct

Golden Hay

Fleur

Look at all our beautiful hay! The cows will be happy with us this year!

I love it when it looks as golden as this (always reminds me of the fairy tale, Rumplestiltskin), but I love it even better when it’s all been carted and stacked in rows, away from the weather.

Holly, the pregnant Kelpie, has taken to sitting on top of the new bales, watching as the hay is carted into the stack – she looks rather relaxed… I wonder if she’s had a visit from old Rumplestiltskin! Maybe not, I haven’t seen any extra gold lying around anywhere, unfortunately!

Category: Country Life, Farm animals, The Farmer's Life, Working dogs 4 Comments

Oct

Modern Technology!

Fleur

It used to be that if you wanted to buy stock, you jumped in the ute and drove to the sale yards. Not any more!

A couple of weeks ago, I sat in front of my computer and kept hitting the enter button. Why? I was bidding on a stud ram auction that was being held in Victoria!

It’s amazing to think that there was an auctioneer running a sale so many thousands of kilometres away and I was sitting in my office, bidding. I must say, although the adrenalin was running through my body, the atmosphere wasn’t the same in front of the computer as it would have been if I was at the auction itself. I think I would have preferred to be there!

Category: Farm animals, Internet Leave a Comment

Oct

What’s a boy to do?

Fleur

What’s a boy to do when the sheep won’t run? Have a rest of course! These full-wool girls were not at all interested in running into the sheep crate today! We were loading them up into the truck so we could cart them back to the other farm for shearing, but they were being a bit stubborn and sulky!

Refusing to run on, we had to use all of our stock knowledge and ability to get them to run well into the crate, which after a while, they finally did. Hayden was helping us, along with our two work dogs, Law and Digit. As you can see, there was time to have kick back and check out the quality of wool before we pushed them into the crate!

Category: Country Life, Farm animals 2 Comments

Sep

Sale-o Sale-o!

Fleur

The build up to any sale is huge, especially big if you’re putting your efforts before your peers and they are judging your work. Our ram sale was a great day! After an early start, the rams were settled in their pens and Rochelle and I headed off to the supermarket to grab all the sausages, onions, bread and beer for the sale. Rochelle and Hayden were great little helpers, buttering all the bread and handing around the sausages around. helpers

Neil Brindley from Landmark was our auctioneer and once he called the shed to order, there wasn’t a sound – everyone was listening to him and prices. The two other blokes on the rails with him, are Greg Prosser, Landmark Manager and Simon Norsworthy, stock agent. They were spotting for bids, as was Peter Gale, stock agent, who was on the floor with a buyer. Neil at his best!

The bids flew thick and fast, which was fantastic and at the end of the day, we had sold all the rams! That was a fantastic result! The ram that Anthony is holding, was our highest priced ram and is pictured with Peter Gale, Simon Norsworthy, Anthony and me!

Highest priced ram

Category: Farm animals, Stud stuff Leave a Comment

Sep

Ram Sale

Fleur

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Our annual sale – Tomorrow!

For many years now, we’ve held an annual ram sale in Esperance.

We gather up the best of our rams, truck them to town, wrestle them into pens and let farmers pass judgement on them! Tomorrow is the big day (18th Sept 09).

At the moment, I’m snatching five minutes away from washing cars, gathering up the BBQ and eskies and packing the ute in preparation for an early start.

The truck arrives at about 6:30am and they’re in town by 9am. That gives us heaps of time to get them penned the way the need to be and for them to settle down. It can be quite upsetting and tiring for a ram to be taken out of his usual paddock setting and tossed into a noisy shed, with people feeling his rump, looking at his structure and testicles! We try to be as kind as possible to the animals, so giving them time to adjust to their new environment is important.

The kids love ram sale day, as they get out of school and have a great time mingling amongst the crowd and feeling the atmosphere of the day. It’s a great learning experience for them as well.

So, if you’re in need of a good ram, tomorrow, our White Suffolks will be penned from 12pm, sale starting at 2pm, with a BBQ and refreshments provided. We’d love to see you there (with a crate on behind your ute, to take a couple home!)

Category: Farm animals, Stud stuff Leave a Comment

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