• At last - another calf.

    4. september 2020, Australien ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    A new calf this morning so three to go.
    No-name is recognising that the ute and “come on” means food. He eventually realises that he has to come to you if he is to get a drink.
    Kathy Z has named him Nemo and we are very happy with that.
    When the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, cows will push their heads through the wires or they will reach over the top, putting a lot of pressure on the fence often resulting in damage. Spraying the grass on the other side of the fence with weedicide, kills the grass and takes away the temptation - in theory anyway. Along the front boundary, we have a double fence protecting trees we've planted. This area isn't grazed so has a lot of lush temptation. We sprayed that area this morning - Janette drove and I sprayed. Hopefully this is a fence that won’t require maintenance this year.
    One cow is hobbling a bit so we want to get her in to the yards and have a look at her. We moved the mothers to be into one half of the calving paddock - courtesy of the newly completed fence. Mothers and calves were then moved into the other half. Hopefully this will facilitate us getting the patient across the road and into the yards.
    Janette has been worried about a calf that doesn't seem to be thriving. We had a look, and it does look small. As we watched, it was suckling, but it's clear that mum has little or no milk. So, our idea is to also get this cow and calf into the yards tomorrow. The plan is to keep mum and calf confined and supplementary feed the calf - wish us luck!
    I sprayed the calf with an aerosol green paint called tell-tale so it will be easier to spot.
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