By Judy Barnet, Farm Columnist
This week on the farm has been an exciting one with the birth of twin lambs – the first for the season!
They are Southdown Lambs, one ram lamb and one ewe lamb from Ewe 50 who is one of my oldest ewes.
I was, as always at the start of the lambing season, a bit nervous as we do sometimes have trouble with crows, foxes and feral cats.
The old ewe went to the furtherest corner of the paddock to lamb of course – ewes having twins are much more susceptible to losing a lamb to predators as whilst they are birthing with the second lamb the first is very vulnerable to predators.
We had another addition to the sheep flock this week. I had a phone call asking if I was interested in taking on a 1-month-old poddy lamb. Bronte is a gorgeous Damara/Dorper-cross ewe lamb who has won our hearts.
She was rescued after being abandoned by her mother and raised by Dot. It is not easy to part with a lamb that you have raised from a day old, fed and looked after for a month and I sensed Dot’s sadness when she handed Bronte over.
I am hoping Dot will come out and visit Bronte and follow her progress as she gets older. Our Saanen milking goat Candy had a doe kid this week. She dotes on it and keeps it close at all times.
Candy’s daughter Unihorn also had her first kid this week – the day before Candy. However, Unihorn is not as attentive as Candy and is forever leaving it somewhere then forgetting where she put it!
We are incredibly lucky that Covid-19 has had very little effect on us being out on the farm and we feel deeply for the people whose lives Covid-19 has turned upside down.
Our woofers Yves, Monica and boys Abel and Indigo arrived with their 4wd and trailer plus a car all ready for their move to Hobart, however they have now found themselves with no choice but to leave both cars and their whole lifes possessions behind, being unable to travel through NSW in order to reach Hobart.
They have however been able to book flights directly from Queensland to Hobart and we will be sad to see them leave next week. But, there is an upside to this – Richie and I will travel with their car down to Hobart later in the year, Covid-19 situation permitting, and take a week or two holiday with our friends!
I am now fully vaccinated thanks to my workplace giving me to opportunity and am looking forward to eventually being able to travel.
Doug Walker, who owned my farm before me (the farm had been in Doug’s family since soldier settlement), contacted me after reading about the old rose I mentioned a couple of weeks ago and let me know that the rose was planted in the spring of 1965 – but I am still not sure of the variety. Thank you also to the people that contacted me letting me know they were enjoying my weekly column.
The Queensland Branch of the Australian Stud Pig Breeders had their AGM this week in Warwick and I was able to catch up with the president Brian Grayson for a chat about his farm on the Condamine River at Killarney.
Brian’s is a family farm that was originally 365 acres when owned by Brian’s parents, who were also stud pig breeders. They established a Landrace Pig Stud in 1957 and it is still going, run by Brian today.
The stud currently has 35 breeding sows and their progeny is mostly sold as spit pigs. When I asked Brian what advice he would give to anyone considering going into pigs he offered two suggestions which I whole heartedly agree with – Research your market and decide what your aim is for the pigs you produce.
It costs the same to feed a stud pig with known genetics and growth history as it does any old pig you buy from the market so buy the best stock you can within your budget and opt for less pigs but better quality.
Well, dinner is nearly ready – tonight we are having Peking duck that we killed on the farm this afternoon, cooked on the wood stove in an orange sauce (Yves says it is called Confit Duck).
Monica has also made a vegetable lasagne and a potato salad. No rest for the wicked, Yves is passionate about using local produce so we also killed an old rooster that would have otherwise made his way to the compost bin – Yves roasted him in the wood stove then put him into a pot of boiling water (without a rock) adding all sorts of things from the garden to make a chicken stock. In the wood fire went a giant beetroot nestled into the coals. Time to eat!
Until next week, take care and stay safe.
