Work

Very little progress at home today. Started up both pumps on the dam and watered most of the garden beds again. Gave the pots a good drink as well. Made up some small trays of seed mix and put in three types of beans - Climbing Rattlesnake, Yellow Bush and an Asian climber which tasted good last year. The Rattlesnake is our favourite. 3-6 plants keep us in abundance for months. Not only does it produce prolifically but the beans can be eaten at all stages of maturity and are still tender. As it gets to the end of life the vine produces poorer quality beans as it runs out of soil nutrition but by then you have had more beans than you want.

Pretty much the entire day was spent over the river hauling silage from another property. This silage is made from Ryegrass and won't be ready for 6 weeks as it was just baled but it is very rich feed quality. It could be fed out now but in 6 weeks after it has fermented it will be even better. The round trip with ute and trailer takes about an hour including unloading for two bales. Originally the plan had been to do one trip each day but we decided to bite the bullet and get it over with. It worked out well for the farmers supplying the silage as they were at home baling another paddock and the tractor with the bale handler was ready and waiting.

The disc harrows that were on loan to the property over the river needed a new disc. One which had a crack snapped off over the weekend. Fortunately it was an outer disc and only took a few minutes to remove. A replacement is  now on  order. The missing part has disappeared in the soil somewhere.

The weaners have finished strip feeding the Oats and are now on rougher feed and silage and not very happy about it. A lot of standing around and looking longingly. They will have to put up with what they have for a couple more weeks until some other paddocks have responded to the warm weather.

The cows and calves are in a similar situation as we run out of good quality green feed. They have eaten the last two bales of Ryegrass silage which they devoured quickly and are now back to Kikuyu silage for a couple of weeks. Some of the better paddocks have been irrigated and fertilised and are looking good. Just a couple more weeks and all will be well.

All but 6 cows have calved with two new babies at the weekend. At least one of those 6 doesn't look in calf. In a couple of weeks the two herds will be merged again and paddock management will be simplified.

Looking forward to some rain, green feed and less time managing multiple herds. Feeding out silage to three herds and moving the irrigator twice daily id very time consuming. Wonderful when nature does it all for you.