Hendra Farm Blog

February 2010

Well, as expected, the nightmare of the ice and snow has disappeared only to be replaced with the delights of mud, glorious mud! The only ones who are enjoying it are the pigs, which absolutely love the soft ground for rooting. Everyone else is rather fed up with slopping around in a quagmire - including me!! With one of the Zwartble ewes getting very close to lambing, I brought her, and a friend, in to the warmth of a well bedded stable. This also has the benefit of me being able to monitor her 24hrs a day on the CCTV. After keeping me waiting for about a week, she eventually produced two gorgeous ewe lambs late one afternoon. Unfortunately one of the lambs was limp and cold - you put a finger into the mouth to check the temperature- which necessitated a night indoors in a box by the oil burner, and a heat lamp. I also gave her a precautionery dose of penicillin. Thankfully she came around fairly quickly, and I was able to bottle feed her the all important colostrum a couple of times through the night. I always keep a supply of powdered colostrum on hand for times like this, and it can mean the difference between life and death. I got her back to Mum the next day, and bottle fed her for a couple of days until she managed to figure out where Mum's milk bar was! Thankfully, Mum was very helpful and let me milk her, so baby didn't go withough that all important first milk. Not an auspicious start to the lambing season, but at least all is now well. Just need the weather to improve now, so I can get them back out into the field.

Egg production is now seeing a marked increase - my customers will be pleased. The birds have survived the rigours of this winter well, with only a couple of losses. Extra vitamins in the water always helps, and the hens have been allowed to free range in the paddock with the rheas and wallabies, so their run has had a really good rest. It is always a good idea to rotate their roaming areas so you don't get a build up of pests and diseases. However, I don't think they are going to be terribly impressed when they are shut back in again. It is a very large run, but they love to whizz off into the field in the morning to check out what the wallabies have left behind from the previous evening's feed bowl!! Greedy birds!

December 2009/January 2010

I've amalgamated these two months as they have both followed a very similar pattern, as happens at this time of year. It's been a continual process of feeding, watering and mucking out, together with the delights of defrosting numerous poultry drinkers twice daily, breaking thick ice on water buckets, carting buckets of water from the house to the yard because all the pipes are frozen, and constant replenishing of haynets and feeders for lots of hungry mouths!! Although the snow hasn't caused too many problems - the sheep and horses just dig it away to find the grass underneath, the icy roads and yards have proved a complete nightmare. Thankfully, the trusty Landrover got me safely from A to B as some of my fields are a couple of miles away from the main farm. Very useful when you're weaning, but a bit dodgy when the roads resemble skating rinks!! The dry and cold weather is always welcome, as the animals really do thrive in it, but the wet and cold isn't much fun for anyone. Still, we've all survived, with only two of the Zwartbles requiring a warm stable for a few nights as they are accustomed to being in during the Winter months.

Thoughts now turn to preparations for lambing as some of the ewes are due at the beginning of March. Booster vaccinations of Heptavac are given to all the ewes approx. 6 weeks prior to lambing - this will ensure that some immunity is passed on to the newborn lambs - and feet are given a routine trim. Mineral licks are put out in the fields, and access to ad lib haylage continues to be available at all times. Supplementary corn is offered, but my girls turn up their noses in disgust, preferring to chase me across the field demanding their daily ration from the 'bun bag'!! This consists of all the unsold goodies from a local bakery, which the horses relish, and ensures they come out of the Winter looking as round as the doughnuts they have eaten! Ok, it's probably not the what the dieticians would recommend, but the animals absolutely love it, and it makes me extremely popular in the mornings!! The daylight hours are gradually getting longer which makes life a lot less rushed, the daffodils are pushing up through the soil, the trees are growing buds, and the chicken have started laying again - roll on Spring!!!

November 2009

Oh, what a month - not one I particularly want to repeat. When smallholding goes well, it can be the most rewarding thing in the world - when it goes wrong it can be truly devastating. Back in October, one of my female crias (baby alpaca) broke her leg - nothing to serious, a simple fracture that was expected to heal in about 6 weeks. All went to plan, the cast was removed, leg seemed fine, baby was walking gingerley as expected. A week later a massive abcess burst out, baby was rushed to the vets and intensive antibiotic treatment commenced. Several conversations between my vets and the most experienced alpaca vets in the country ensued, and all avenues of treatment followed, including an operation to remove a bone fragment. Baby recovered well and we all celebrated our achievement - three days later she died! We had all become very attached to this very brave little alpaca who endured all the needles, poking and prodding with incredible trust and bucket loads of cheekiness - how we all miss her!! However, life goes on and there are all the other animals who demand my attention. I have sold some of my non pedigree Jacob sheep, and have now become the proud owner of some Zwartbles!! The idea is to use the Zwartble ram on some of my Jacob and Herdwick ewes to produce a heavier carcass, faster finishing, meat sheep, whilst still retaining the quality and leaness of the meat. They are incredibly friendly sheep and very quiet - just as well as they are very large!! I have also acquired two pigs, Pinky and Perky. They are destined for pork chops and sausages come February which I'm sure will be very popular with the guests in my holiday cottages. The weather has been absolutely foul, which makes the hard work even harder. I am feeding the animals haylage much earlier this year because the grass is so wet - it doesn't satisfy them. The fields are holding up okay so far, but if the rain continues as it has then I think I shall be growing rice next year!!!