No Progress on the Tomato Bed

Just never got back to the Tomato Bed. The mulch hay is all stacked by the bed ready to lay out but it didn't happen.

First job of the day was to go to Woodville and pick up two large square bales of Ryegrass silage for the cows and calves across the river who have finished all the good green feed. Wanted to make sure they got the very best quality feed until the irrigated paddocks are ready to be fed off. The boss was happy to fork out the $66/bale to tide them over. The most advanced paddocks will be ready in a week or two. Arrangements have been made to collect more high quality silage from an ex dairy farmer at Alison.

We also contacted a Singleton farmer who has some small Lucerne bales which we will pick up next week for our own three cattle. There is a suspicion that this Spring and Summer will be a bit lean and a small stockpile of emergency feed won't hurt. Although our three are only there for grass control we have an obligation to maintain their healthy condition and happiness. Locally hay is $15+ per bale while at Singleton it is $11.

While we were both there we finished off a few jobs like harrowing the weaner paddock which had been sown to oats and setting up the irrigator. There is hope that it will come back again and provide either another feed or be slashed and disc harrowed into the soil. The weaners will have to be content with silage and a little less lush green feed. There was a bit more fireweed to clean up and silage feeders to move around. The ryegrass silage is really soft and lush and the cows are enjoying it much more than the Kikuyu silage.

The repaired whipper snipper performed well. A little vibration from the straightened shaft but otherwise all OK. That's $200-$300 back in the bank account.

Eight girls have still not calved and at least one of those doesn't look in calf. Just so it looked like we were making forward progress and not just marking time we finished dismantling a long run of fencing that is being replaced. Only the ends of this run will have a permanent fence. The central 150 metres will be plastic pigtails and polywire which can be rolled up to enable a different configuration when feeding off and when used to grow silage it can be taken out of the way of the machinery.

Didn't get home until after 3pm and needed to go to Dungog to fuel up the work vehicle and drop off some due library books. One last swing past the farm to check on the irrigator and it was 5 pm and time to complete the evening chores. Two things that fell by the wayside were the morning coffee and lunch. Some days are like that.