Having been overworked at Woolies last night, I called in sick as my back and shoulder were going out on strike. I got alot done slowly today, nursing my body along. Three loads of washing and all but the orchard and cider apples done with the watering. There is rumoured to be a temp of 28 degrees coming on Tuesday followed by 10mm of rain. We'll see. Today was hot when the sun was out and cool when it was cloudy. I think I got a bit sunburned.
I put out the mineral blocks for the cows and sheep. These are green feed blocks because apparently there have been issues in the district of grass tetany, or hypomagnesia. I will now get two dry feed blocks to put beside them so that the animals can choose which they need to lick on, as the grass is drying off very fast.
I did some small chores in the dairy, then collected eggs. It seems I might have three broody hens now, so another job to schedule for the vets. Who arrived back tonight after what seems to have been a week of interesting but very hard work.
The big news for the day was that Beanie calved last night. She has a bright and active heifer at foot who is drinking and curious and able to run. Beanie is an attentive and caring mother who seems to have had no issues with the calving, despite being overweight. The calf is quite small, which will have helped. Excuse the thumb.
Beanie is half jersey, half angus (which makes the calf 3/4 angus 1/4 jersey) so she should have a decent udder coming. At the moment she has a nice small heifer udder, which should increase production as the calf takes more. She is Belle's daughter, but will hopefully produce less than a full dairy cow while still raising a fat calf. I might even try milking her one day when she has settled into motherhood as she is quite people oriented.
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