New Fields
Across the Way at the West Barn the crew and I have finally finished the new fences.
Every end is tied off and the electricity is on.
I let these two in to test the waters then came back to check on them a couple of hours later and they were back in their accustomed sleeping place. Sigh.
But that does not matter as on the weekend all the young beefy cows will go across to the new fields and all the animals to be bred and Carlos the Tiny will gather at the home farm.
So Part Two of the Cow Shuffle:
Aunty Del, Lady Astor, Naomi and Alex (with Txiki in tow) will be together with Carlos here in the home fields. My two big girls (Aunty and Lady) are way too big for him but it will not hurt for him to try. You never know. But I think he will breed Naomi and Alex OK. Anyway, I am thinking of giving Lady a pass this year. She will be milked until the winter and if Carlos does not breed her (and I doubt that he can) she can skip a breeding season and get next summer off to fatten up again and give her udder time to repair. She is not a spring chicken anymore.
Once Aunty is over her troubles (she retained her placenta – had a shot for that yesterday -and her udder is still hard with either odema or this touch of mastitis) she will be bred back too, probably in August.
Over to the Other Side will go Aunty Anna ( at 9 months old she is too young to be near a bull) and Bobby T, Difficult and Bobby T2, they will be joined by Txiki and Naomi in a couple of months.
I have one more field to fence (the one with all the clover flowers) and then it is done over there.
Now I will get ready for milking – Aunty is to be milked three times a day for a few days to clean out her udder really well and get it in order for a long milking season. I want no more mastitis. The best thing for mastitis is to keep the milk flowing and I am having a hard time isolating where the infection is – (all four quarters in the udder are separate remember) – the symptoms are so fleeting. So we will milk often.
Luckily she and I loves the milking shed and I have good help.
I hope you are having a good day.
love celi
15 Comments on “New Fields”
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You will be driving cattle across the plains soon 😉
When she does, I’ll be there with a video camera. 🙂
I don’t know why I am surprised to see what different personalities cows can have. After all, my tortoises are full of sparkle and pizazz!
Your fences are beautiful, and I envy them. My animals are too big and too stubborn to be impacted by electric fences. They push on through. My best buddy, Al, the Aldabran Giant Tortoise broke his raised feeder. He swung his leg over it and laid down so he could eat more comfortably. The poor shepherd’s hook stood no chance against his quarter-ton frame. And your grass is truly lovely. I’m re-seeding in the hopes that my giant boys can have at least SOME grass this summer. They mowed it down within two weeks, and it doesn’t want to come back!
Have a glorious day enjoying the fruits of your labor!
I love reading your blog and learning a bit every day. Had no idea cow udders had 4 sections.
Great that the fences are almost done, that is quite a hard job.
Have a great day. I am cooking all day as I am hosting a South African dinner for French friends tonight.
The fences look great, long straight lines 🙂 Hope Aunty Del picks up soon. Laura
I am in Switzerland surrounded by happy cows with bells. They are put in the high country in the summer to graze. The place is called an Alm. ( remember Heidi?) . The Alm farmer turns the milk into great cheese. The butter here is out of this world and so is the cheese.
Your fences are EXCELLENT! well done everyone! Love hearing the cow-plans.
I wonder if you had shock collars on the most adept escape artists and invisible fences with the regular fence, if that would contain them? Or maybe I’m speaking udder nonsense.
The electric fence works just fine – no-one escapes.. c
So the home field are about to be devoted to lurve. Carlos the Tiny will have to be renamed Carlos the Unfeasibly Ambitious or possibly even Carlos the Impressively Agile, depending on his hit rate 🙂 And just look at all that beautiful clover. That will make beautiful milk.
That photo of the weathered post, all the angular lines of different materials and purposes AND a tiny bird in flight has to be one of my all-time favorites. Thank you.
What beautiful, healthy fields of clover C! 🙂
I feel so frustrated trying to keep up with all the names and number of cattle. Eleven?
Just remember the major players – Aunty Del and Lady Astor. The rest are just bit players this summer.. c
Getting those fences built was such a much-needed but major ordeal. I bet you all breathed a sigh of relief when you finished. Your woofers sure do earn their keep.