By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist
After a few crazy windy days, I awoke on Sunday to a beautiful calm and crisp morning. Taking Dora for a walk down to the dam, she immediately flushed out a mother duck and seven half-grown ducklings. Scanning the dam I spotted a swan – it looked like it had a nest in the reeds. Silverfish were jumping out of the water and a solitary pelican was cruising. I never cease to be amazed at the beautiful sight I awake to each morning, mentally comparing it to what I saw and experienced during the drought and how I felt then. To be honest, I am not sure I could go through another drought.
I was up, not so much bright, at least until after a second coffee, and early, at 4.15 on Monday morning. We had plans to worm the goats and also to vaccinate and castrate the calves. Fairly ambitious considering our dad and Dave set up for the goats, I thought, but then again I am generally a pretty optimistic kind of gal. Things actually started reasonably well, the calves were well behaved and the job was completed in less than half an hour. On Sunday, Richie had opened up the gate out of the goat paddock to encourage them to come out and be closer to the yards. This worked well but the goats were nowhere to be seen this morning. I left Richie at the yards to organise the gates and went for a drive. I soon located the goats down at the dam. With my bucket of feed, the milkers were eager to follow me so we set off on foot up the hill towards the yards. The ferals followed not too far behind and all was good until we reached the yards.
The milkers were happy to go in but those naughty ferals (that’s not exactly what Richie called them) would not go through the gate. No way Jose! We decided we would have to resort to plan B and went up for breakfast as Richie needed to go to work. Plan B was to leave the yards open and put feed in every day then sneak down and shut the gate. Of course, the goats can jump every gate in the yards, so yarding them is only half of the job! Anyway, I have another plan to finish setting up the cattle yards and line them with rubber or something similar so the goats can’t see or jump out. I will have a gate strategically placed so the goats can come and go at will lured by a bit of feed every day. Once in there will be no escape. I hope.
Last week I mentioned that I was taking my old pet sheep No. 18 over to live with Roger at Killarney. I thought I had better get her in today so I could leave early tomorrow. The only trouble was 1: the sheep were all in the steep timbered country, and 2: the quad bike was under repair which left me with Shanks Pony as the only option. At 6.30am I started my trek up through knee-high grass up the hill. It was hard work as the country is very rocky. About half way up I found sheep but not the one I was looking for, so after getting my breath back and thinking I should have brought a hat, I continued on. It probably is only about 400m to the top, but by golly it is steep. Once at the top I spotted a mob of sheep only about 500m away along the top fence-line near a gateway, so with my bucket of feed I set off to find No. 18. Sure enough, she was there and happy to come and get a feed. Now it was a choice of heading back down the hill or slipping her through the gate and continuing along the fence-line then out through our boundary gate onto Brockhampton Road and back into the home paddock on Walker Road. I knew this option was further, but I thought it might be easier than trying to get her down the hill through the trees and gullies, as the other sheep were likely to lead her and I on a merry sheep chase. An hour or so and about 3km later, we arrived home back at the yards, hot and thirsty!
I was going to take Dora about for her morning walk – well when I say walk, Dora usually walks while I ride the quad – however, the quad is out of action at the moment requiring a bit of maintenance. After yesterday’s 4km walk I briefly considered taking the rider mower and killing two birds with one stone, walking Dora and mowing, however, due to the number of stones on the track I discarded this idea and resorted to walking down to the dam and up to the calves. I still clocked up about 1.2km on this walk. On the way back the sheep and deer were near the fence and I was intrigued to see the deer scratching his antlers on a young sheep who in turn looked to be loving the attention!
Tuesday saw me head off in the old Cruiser with No. 18 over to Killarney. It has been some years since I have visited Killarney, in fact, it was a picture on a calendar of the plateau country in Killarney that actually was responsible for my move to the region over 30 years ago. It was love at first sight with God’s own country at Killarney, although the job I found was in Warwick and the farm I found to rent was at Loch Lomond, so I didn’t quite make it to Killarney. Anyway, the sight I saw when I came over the hill that looks down onto Killarney took my breath away once again. It truly is God’s country! I chugged through town at about 30km per hour and up Pine Street, missing Roger and Paula’s house, too busy looking at the views as I continued up to the water tower. Once again, the views were to die for! Back down to Roger and Paula’s who have a one-acre block and are well on the way to being self-sufficient. One acre of beautiful Kikuyu pasture, approximately three quarters of which is planted with well-guarded fruit trees and plenty of big no-dig garden beds. What they have achieved in the short time they have been there is amazing. I enjoyed a cup of tea and accepted gifts of ginormous homegrown garlic bulbs and some heritage tomatoes. No. 18 immediately made herself at home!
On the way home I visited my very dear friends Bill and Jan at Tannymorel and had a look around their farm. The grass was so lush and tall you could only see the heads of the cows, the hay shed was full and the spelling racehorses fat and shiny. It was great to catch up with them and also to see the progress on the mural that is really starting to take shape on the big shed at Tanny. Tanny is a beautiful little village and the mural will be a real asset to the area.
One of the biggest projects on the farm has finally got underway. Nathan Sweet Excavations came out and did a pad for the shed we are putting up and also a pad for our storage containers this week. Anthony was a skilled and professional operator and a really nice guy to boot. I could not recommend an excavator company more highly. Fingers crossed we are hoping to get the concrete laid in the next two weeks. I know CJ will be thrilled as she is waiting for the shed to be built so she can relocate into Dick’s Hut, which is currently filled with – ummm, how can I word it politely – currently filled with bits and pieces that you may need on a farm one day!
One project that is not coming together as planned is the AI (Artificial Insemination) of the cows. They are currently in a small paddock behind the house that is rapidly running out of grass. I didn’t worry over Christmas, but it is now the end of January and not one cow has been AId. This is entirely my problem as some days I forget to check them twice daily, so I have more than likely missed one cow. I was also away a couple of days and the one cow I did contact the AI man about, he was unable to come out and attend to on that day. I have just checked my calendar and noticed that Varina should be bulling in the next couple of days. Of course, I am going away Friday night and won’t be back until Saturday afternoon. If I can’t get them done in the next month I shall have to come up with a plan B.
The Mmpie duck – back from the brink
Finally, I thought readers might be interested to learn about the Magpie duck project. The Rare Breeds Trust’s talented poultry coordinator, Cathy Newton, who also happens to be an esteemed poultry judge is leading the project.
The Magpie is a black and white English duck that is a hardy and active forager. They lay fairly well and in times past were also used for table birds. Where was the Magpie duck in Australia? Up until the year 2000 the Rare Breeds Trust thought they were either never here or had become totally extinct. The official standard was in the Australian Poultry Standards – describing the distinctive cap and penguin-like colouration – but they were nowhere to be seen.
A couple of years ago some images of ducks having some of the characteristics of the magpie were seen on Facebook. Would it be possible to take those birds that may have magpie genetics in them and breed a flock selectively to get closer and closer to the real standard magpie duck? That was the proposed challenge and it was taken up by Cathy, who acquired some eggs from the flock in Tasmania that was producing offspring with some of the magpie qualities. A magpie duck group was set up with a number of breeders to work on the project over many generations, later including further stock to strengthen the offspring. There are now recovery flocks in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. The breeders share birds and draw in new people to work toward the conservation goal. The latest to join the group are Matt Brown and his children, from Rockhampton. They have managed to buy some females and have been provided with a chocolate and white drake to breed their first progeny. It’s exciting to be trying to bring back a lost domestic breed for Australia’s future.
