By Judy Barnet, Ag Columnist
We had another busy week, including Amy’s wedding. She is the young woman who helped me at the Highfields Pioneer Village for many years. Amy started there when she was around seven years old, helping me milk the cows and look after the animals in the animal nursery during the village’s three-day Easter Vintage Festival. She continued this for around twenty years, never missing a year. She quickly learned how to milk the cows and goats by hand and took over as the milkmaid. Amy would come a few days before the festival and stay with me at Warwick and, if it happened to be the school holidays, stay afterwards as well.
We were heading down to Brisbane early Saturday morning for the wedding but it was only quite late on Friday night that I started looking for something to wear for the special occasion. It had been in the back of my mind all week wondering what on earth I could wear. I knew the wedding would be fairly formal as I recalled Amy watching episode after episode of Say Yes to the Dress in the later years of her stays with me! A few years ago I bought a beautiful dress for just such an occasion so I wasn’t too worried until I tried it on and couldn’t get the zip done up! It was close but not close enough. I was fairly certain there was no way I could lose a couple of kilos overnight!
I had some other formal outfits in some drawers I hardly ever opened, but when I checked on them to my horror I found a mouse nest and chewed up clothes, complete with one dead mouse and an awful smell. I was devastated. It was a very “unhappy Jan” that went to bed. My last resort was to buy a dress on the way down in the morning, however, that wasn’t to be either as I had forgotten to switch my phone off silent and the alarm failed to go off. It was a rush to get the farm jobs done before we headed off with the best clothes I could find under the circumstances. Just past the Eight-Mile, I realised that I had forgotten about a wedding present. The past few weeks had been so busy it just completely slipped my mind. Kent Saddlery to the rescue! I ordered a gift voucher and had it emailed to me.
I am really noticing that the days are getting shorter. When I get up in the morning now the timing is right to see the beautiful sunrise over the dam. The sky starts a beautiful orange and no photo I take can capture the sight and do it justice. There are pockets of mist sitting over the dam and then the sky changes to yellow before my eyes. Sometimes after that, the mist comes down heavier. Such a beautiful time of the day. Richie is still slashing the paddocks after work each day before it gets dark but this will be the last week. The soil will start to get colder and the growth of the grass will slow down. I think we are always about a month behind Stanthorpe where the deciduous foliage is already starting to turn red.
One of the ram buyers from last year’s sale called in to see me a few days ago. He had a ram on board that he bought last year and what a magnificent specimen he was – the ram that is! As the sheep at my annual sale are only six to eight months old it is hard to know exactly how they will mature, but I believe this ram would hold his own at any show. It was definitely a proud moment.
Time is drawing closer for the calves I brought last September to be sold. The goal is to sell them before the end of June but as the time draws closer I am becoming more apprehensive about it. I must be getting softer as the thought of moving them to a feedlot makes me feel quite unhappy. They have such an idyllic life here – a big paddock that goes down to the dam with plenty of trees for those hot days and grain and hay whenever they want it. Speaking of the calves, I had to drive into their paddock with a bale of hay. The paddock gate is one of those COD (carry or drag) types, but really really hard to drag so I left it open. I thought the calves would be distracted by the hay but, no, they spotted the open gate and made a run for it. They kicked and bucked all the way to the bottom of the hill and then ran straight through the group of campers and their tents, taking them and their dogs by surprise.
I received an email from Cass and Jarod, the Blue Tree Project guests, containing a couple of photos taken from their drone. The rest are arriving on a stick as the files are too large to send via email. The photos are incredible.
Conditions on the farm were becoming quite dry but today we received 38mm of rain. Hopefully, that will give the slashed paddocks a bit of growth before the weather turns cold. I am planning to start joining the sheep in the next couple of weeks. It is a bit of a juggling act as the different breeds need to go in separate paddocks. A few of our internal fences are a bit Dad and Dave so we might have to do a bit of temporary fencing before the joining. My worst fear would be the Shropshire or English Leicester ram getting into the Southdowns and Babydolls! It is a good idea to have rams shorn a couple of months before joining, especially long wool rams. Rams should not be too fat either for paddock joining or they will tire. If purchasing rams, always check they are from a brucellosis-free accredited flock. This insidious disease can cause substantial economic loss in sheep flocks through abortion in ewes and sterility in rams. It is quite widespread in NSW. All rams sold from registered studs must now be brucellosis accredited. Cattle, goats and pigs are also susceptible to their own form of brucellosis.
I am still busy working on the Rare Breeds Trust Auction. Our president, Anne Sim, who used to breed Cheviot Sheep, has donated this beautiful photograph of her rams which I am hoping to get put on a canvas to add to the auction. The Cheviot Sheep are beautiful clean-faced dual-purpose sheep that were introduced to Australia in 1938, originating from the Cheviot Hills on the border of Scotland and England. They are a very fertile breed and great mothers. I don’t believe we have any in Queensland. The sheep are quite worm resistant and do well in hill country. They also tolerate the cold very well.
Finally, I am thrilled to say that it looks like the A.I. programme was successful this time around and the three heifers and one cow are in calf. I will be watching for the first signs of backward springing in around 2-3 months. Great news!
