Hello!!
This blog has been a long time coming and I can't believe its almost a year since I last posted something! The year has gone amazingly fast and I have now been working full time for two and a half years.....It has absolutely flown by!! Quite a few things have changed (for the better) and we are now operating at maximum capacity for the majority of the time. This means having around 600 cattle on the farm ranging from 3 weeks old to 22 months when they are usually fit for slaughter. Having this numbers of animals at any one time obviously increases the work load and general day to day labour. This is probably the main reason why I haven't had chance to blog recently (not to mention the rising number of hours spent on my bike!)
This blog has been a long time coming and I can't believe its almost a year since I last posted something! The year has gone amazingly fast and I have now been working full time for two and a half years.....It has absolutely flown by!! Quite a few things have changed (for the better) and we are now operating at maximum capacity for the majority of the time. This means having around 600 cattle on the farm ranging from 3 weeks old to 22 months when they are usually fit for slaughter. Having this numbers of animals at any one time obviously increases the work load and general day to day labour. This is probably the main reason why I haven't had chance to blog recently (not to mention the rising number of hours spent on my bike!)
One of the main developments that has enabled us to house more cattle is the construction of our new shed. It replaced two rather old and shabby looking shacks. The shed is divided into three separate pens and can hold up to 90 strong calves/stirks. The cattle have done great since moving in there in October, such that, it is an investment that will eventually pay for itself as well as improving the functioning of the business.
The new shed requires less manually intense labour and more tractor power! Fresh bedding is blown in with the straw shredder and silage is dispensed with the feeder wagon which gives my muscles a rest!
The new shed requires less manually intense labour and more tractor power! Fresh bedding is blown in with the straw shredder and silage is dispensed with the feeder wagon which gives my muscles a rest!
As a consequence of having this extra shed space, we now have a higher turnover of calves in the calves specific pens. Therefore we are able to rear more cattle for other farmers that do not necessarily have the space or time to look after vulnerable calves during their first three months of life. We usually have batches of 30 - 50 Continental heifers or Hereford bull calves until they weight approximately 120kg. Its nice to have a bit of colour in the sheds compared to the 'all black' Aberdeen Angus'.
One of the most exciting things I was looking forward to when I first started on the farm was seeing the whole lifespan of a calf and document its growth from its very first day to it very last. I soon realised that it was going to be a longitudinal experiment (18 months to be exact) and one that was not as easy as I first expected. This is because a single calf moves between roughly 5/6 sheds and 10 fields during its life, not to mention that every Aberdeen Angus looks incredibly similar when in a herd! However my chance came when a distinctively marked calf entered the system. This photo shows its growth, but in the future I wish to document one at more frequent intervals. |
So I have briefly explained the main changes that have taken place over the past 12 months and below are some photos taken throughout the year!