A Tiny Thaw that Melted the Daily View

Get down off that wardrobe Thing One and go outside, it is a lovely day. 

Did Miss c make you go outside too?

I am just watching The View melt.

Did I miss something?

No, we are watching The Thaw Tui. You can join us.

Is it thaw time? 

No. It is just a thawy day.

But the chooks don’t mind, they are still hard at work preparing the corridor paddock to be sown with new grass seed in the spring. I spread the contents of Queenie’s sunroom stall out there for them to flick about.

Yesterday it stayed above freezing all day. This meant I could catch up on lots of farm chores. It is hard to spread manure when it is frozen solid, so yesterday and today are perfect days for this.    The new compost heaps will be started today too.

Daisy begins her Once A Day milking today. From now on (if all goes well) she will be milked at 9.30 each morning. Her tests (using the California Mastitis Kit) came through OK though I will take more tests throughout this transition and then once a week after that. As you know a cow’s udder has four separate quarters, a sample of milk from each of these quarters is tested. This is very simple to do and now that we have the kit we will know if she needs attention. The consensus is that she has been fighting a sub-clinical infection. There were the remaining traces of this in two of her quarters. Though no other indications at all. But her natural health has fought it.  So we will watch  closely. If the somatic cell  levels increase we will go back to twice a day. But I do think that with a more laid back milking schedule,  less demands on her body plus a twice daily dose of the homeopathic remedy she will recover tip top health and a better attitude. It is all about balance and we need to help Daisy recover her balance.

I won’t go away and leave a milking cow again.

You all have a lovely day.

celi