I thought our breeding season had gone well, but in the last while, we’ve had three different animals come back in heat again.
It just goes to show you can never be sure a cow is in calf until you see two feet, and even then you can’t be sure of getting it out.
Two of the cows are pedigree Limousins so they have managed to avoid the chop but one cantankerous Salers has not made the grade.
Always awkward to work with, she also required a backing bar in the crush, which was a first for us. I think our AI man despaired a little bit each time he came to visit her.
On the sixth day of September, my cows made me say.... Six effing curse words ??
— Karen McCabe (@LadyHaywire) September 6, 2020
(JD has just shown up in heat after I thought she was incalf) https://t.co/4MswJUSYjj pic.twitter.com/FgcSh7dps6
Speaking of visitors, I became very suspicious one of the days at the start of the month when my father came to see me with a very sheepish look on his face.
He had managed to lock the keys of both our machinery sheds into one of them, leaving his jacket, complete with keys, on top of the quad.
While this wouldn’t normally be a problem if you have access to tools – however, all our tools happened to be locked in as well.
Adventures of Daddy part ? He left his jacket on the quad last night. With the keys of all the sheds in it ???????
— Karen McCabe (@LadyHaywire) September 3, 2020
Even better news is all the tools are in there & byre (also locked) so I'm breaking in with nout but a pliers & trying to drag the quad over with my trusty paint roller. pic.twitter.com/DaQ5z93N1m
Spare keys
A brief examination of the door showed our best way in was to either break the lock or remove the door sheeting.
Scrounging around in the slatted shed I found a couple of items to help take the sheeting off the door, but never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect to find myself breaking into our own machinery shed, pliers and paint roller as my main tools.
I can only imagine what the neighbors were thinking as they drove past while I was trying to fish out the jacket on the quad with the handle of the roller.
It’s our own fault that we don’t have a second set of keys, but the spares were also lost years ago and never replaced. I think it’s high time we rectified that.
Terrible fright
Grass growth has remained high, some fields have actually had better growth in the last month than we had in May though there isn’t much feeding value in it with all the rain we’ve had.
In the local area around here there’s been numerous cases of blackleg and tetany so just something to keep an eye out for.
We’ve never vaccinated here for blackleg as there’s never been a case of it, but it’s always something to be wary of regardless.
One of our cows gave us a terrible fright one morning as she managed to slip into a drain overnight. Only for it’s a shallow drain and she’s a sprightly young cow, it could have been a very different story.
Cows, can't watch them 24/7?? Gave me a fright when I seen Odd-Ear this morning. Thankfully, she's none the worse for it but just shows how easily a cow can get stuck.
— Karen McCabe (@LadyHaywire) August 26, 2020
Sun looks to be trying to break through now, at last!! pic.twitter.com/b5OLSAc9h1
Sigh of relief
On the veterinary note, our annual herd test is scheduled for next week so hopefully all will go well and we will get a clear result. At least then we can breathe a sigh of relief, sell on the excess stock and plan our weanling sales.
Originally I’d planned to bring a calf to Carrick fatstock sales so it was with sadness I heard it was called off. It’s always a great day out for a farmer, one of the more social occasions despite the rugby scrum at the ringside.
Poor ‘Texel’ has managed to escape a day out, so he’ll be for the mart now along with the rest of them. Hopefully we can get back on track next year with showing, though it’s probably typical I won’t have a calf good enough for it.
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