Posts Tagged ‘shearing’
Off the Farm!
September 11, 2009
A little while ago, Anthony and I made a journey across the Nullarbor to Adelaide. We were going to look for good stud rams, to help advance our White Suffolk Stud.
After a day in the airports we went straight from there to the show! It was wonderful to walk in and be greeted by old friends. We had been feeling tired, after a four thirty start in the morning, but the energy that ran around the ram shed, soon got us pumped again!
The quality of the rams were amazing and we did find a couple of fella’s that we think are good enough for our ewes! They’ll make the trip across the two states, by truck and after being checked over for all the stringent quarantine conditions, we’ll drive the five hours to Kalgoorlie and pick them up.
Both Anthony and I find the city really noisy, after the farm – it doesn’t take long to adjust though, but I loved to be able to look out my hotel window and see space.
We only had forty eight hours in Adelaide, but it was wonderful. We had our little piece of farming and then the family time. That was all there time for, before we legged it back across the bite, to start some more shearing on Tuesday.
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A golden start to shearing
September 3, 2009
This is what our first day of shearing looked like at 6:00am!
Sheep all ready and waiting in the yards, clear skies and a wonderful sunrise, sending a message that it was going to be a special day!
We tested our new shearing shed well and truly, with 450 ewes being shorn.
It worked really well, although the shed doesn’t have a lot of storage for keeping sheep dry, so when an unexpected rain shower came through in the afternoon, we got wet sheep and had to stop!
So, only one day of shearing down, with another two and a half to go … but only when the sheep are dry, who knows when that will be!
It’s finished
July 17, 2009
Well the shearing shed that we’ve had put into our machinery shed is now finished! Doesn’t it look great? We can’t wait to use it, so the next photo might be of some crutching here. But we’ve got a bit of work to do before that can happen.
All the gravel area will have to be cemented and we need the electricians to come out, wire the shed and hook the power up. We’ve just bought ourselves a cement mixer, so after shovelling oodles of premix and cement into it, Anthony, Jayden (the guy who gives us a hand) and I will have huge muscles!
These little achievements give Anthony and I huge amount of pleasure. We’re improving our farm for our own use, but one day, it’ll be for our children or, for someone else who is as passionate about farming as we are.
Building for shearing
July 7, 2009
We were lucky enough to be able to buy the inside of a shearing shed, complete with catching pens, grating, gates… the works.
Having two farms 18 kilometres apart and only a shearing shed on one of them, makes life quite difficult at times and involves stock trucks carting sheep backwards and forwards at shearing and crutching time. Time consuming, not to mention expensive!
We’re really pleased to be having this four-stand board put up on the inside of our machinery shed… so we’ll have a shearing shed on both places soon.
It’s a raised board shed so where Hayden and Rocket are standing, will be cemented and used as the floor where the rousies, classer work and the press stands.
It won’t be long before it’s put to use, with ewes needing crutching as soon as it’s finished.
Sheared Out!
March 6, 2009
Dogs work really hard at shearing time. They make the job much easier by packing sheep into races, getting them into the shed, penning up and of course helping muster the paddocks to bring the sheep into the yards.
That’s of course if you’re a work dog. Rocket’s not. But because his legs are so little he gets tired just watching the working dogs do their job! As you can see. He also gets very sad that he’s not allowed to help.
Well I’ve been working in the shed, while these dogs of ours have been working hard.
I can tell you, it’s been a while since I’ve done a full day of shed hand work, but a mate of ours needed a hand so I volunteered.
Tonight, I’m aching in spots I had forgotten I had, so I think a glass of wine and a quiet night is in order!
But it’s this guy (the shearer) that does the really hard yards.
