This week on the farm

And then there were 2 - Mrs Dorset Horn had twins.

By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist

It was a spur of the moment decision. As a Capricorn, I am not generally given to impulse decisions or buying, but on the way to pick up some sheep near Allora on Wednesday I glanced at the clock on the dash and said to Richie it is 11 am – calf sale time @ the Pig and Calf Sale – shall we go? This was halfway down Albion Street. Richie hummed a hawed for a minute and said I don’t think so. I said last chance, there is one more right-hand turn before we go over the bridge. He replied why not then so there we were!

We were spoilt for choice with calves, there were some rippers there including a couple of Yaks (Brahmans), some big strong healthy Swiss Brown calves and some big beautiful Speckle Park x calves – the latter I knew would be beyond my budget! There were some good size Frisian bull calves and in the second last pen were two small sad looking Frisians huddled in the corner. The sale began and first sold were the pen of Frisians making $125 each. Then came the Speckle Parks which made a whopping $440 each. The two Yaks reached $455 apiece and then came the Brown Swiss calves I’d had my eye on.

Auctioneer Dennis Bourke announced in only a way that Dennis can that these big strong calves would grow into bullocks by next Friday! Well, I reached my limit of $185 but they were not to be mine and reached $230 each. I had to be realistic – the milk powder to rear them is $110 per bag. Two bags per calf plus calf rearer pellets, hay and incidentals like scour treatment and electrolytes would most likely be needed.

I went down the line to the last pen which contained a lovely shiny black Frisian cross bull calf and waited patiently for Dennis to sell him, not even thinking of the two miserable-looking specimens in the second last pen. I looked over at them when the auctioneer was unable to raise a bid and my heart melted, imagining the poor little buggers just four days old and heading off on a truck to the abattoir, and said $60. “$60, $60, going once, going twice – no further bids – I sell at $60 to Judy Barnet”.

I later rang Ross Newman the vet to order some electrolytes and scour tablets just in case and said to him, “Seven years have gone by since I got out of calf rearing. I have no idea what made me stop and buy these two calves.” He laughed and replied, it’s a sign of an animal-aholic! Well, in for a penny, in for a pound I said, you may as well give me supplies to raise half a dozen calves as it is cheaper in bulk and it takes not much longer to feed six as two! I have to pick up my glasses from the optometrist next week so I guess I will be heading back to see if I can buy a few more!

Richie had just finished putting together a set of yards for the sheep in the dam paddock. The reasoning behind the yards was to save bringing the ewes and lambs up to the main yards, well, that was the plan anyway. What do you think he asked? I scratched my head and said something about it looking a bit like Dad and Dave. He glared at me and said. “Well, it’s only temporary.” Ha! I well know the definition of temporary on the farm. It means permanent until it falls over from old age or, in this case, it fell over before we could get the sheep yarded. The yards had a gap about 12m wide to let the sheep in and then required two operators at least to drag the “temporary” fence panels into the gap once the sheep went in. The cows were delighted at the amount of feed we put inside these yards to entice the sheep, the fat lambs were also happy to meander in and stuff themselves. A few quiet pet ewes and their lambs also went in but the rest were not so keen.

Richie got after them on the bike, however, as soon as he got a few in I had to drag up a panel and try to block the rest of the gap. Needless to say, as I dropped one panel to grab another the yards fell like a stack of dominoes. Although we have a spare 300 or so star pickets available to make the fence stable, due to the temporary nature of these yards they were not used. It was decided to let them all out and take them down to the main yards. The plan that day had been for Richie to start work a couple of hours late so we could yard and vaccinate all of the lambs. We started at 6 am and by 1 pm we decided it was too late for Richie to go to work.

Oh well, the job’s done now anyway! We weighed the fat lambs. Oops, these days they are known as “prime” lambs for consumer marketing purposes, but old habits die hard. They weighed in between 55 and 58kg so I guess it is time they are on their way. There are also eight or ten really old ewes that I will have to cull this year. I am getting softer as the years go by and my heart sinks at the thought of the old ewes waiting in line at the abattoir. Perhaps I will call the home butcher and eat lots of mutton this year instead of lamb. It is kinder to have them not leave the farm although obviously, this is not an option for most farmers.

The picture of the 3 Damara Fat Tail Sheep are the new arrivals at the farm from my friends who have recently sold their farm. Louis on the left is a well-trained wether that attended the St Marks Fete earlier this year, ZigZag in the middle is also a pet and Badger is the wether on the right. Damara sheep are very intelligent – I call them the Brahmans of the sheep world. They are good doers and store their fat in their tails. They are very hardy.

I hope everyone has had a good week and enjoyed the rain that has been around.

Cheers, Judy