As we enter into 2019 our focus comes onto calving, being a spring calving herd we have all our cows calving in a 12 week block from late January to late April. We have to prepare for lots of work throughout this period. The focus of all the team on the farm is to look after all our girls to the highest standards. We calve around 420 cows a year in the spring which is challenging in many ways, we run a simple grassed based system where cows are grazed from February till late November. We raise all our youngstock on the farm and our dairy bull calves are sold to go to beef.

Early January ….

The reality of that calving is imminent, lets get sh*t sorted, we have to clean and prepare all the calving pens / clean all calf feeders and generally get everything ready for the busy period to arrive. Last year has been super busy with lots going on the farm, a new building going up, new cubicles going into sheds, a new 25k ltr bulk tank, new feeders in the parlour

and a real upgrade to the farm facilities. We also went through a serious drought that hadn’t been seen for 40 years which was very challenging and tough on people physically and mentally throughout the industry.

So now with the new shed 90% complete we have our first few heifers in and we have had two heifer calves this weekend which is a great feeling to get started and get 2019 calving  season off to a good start.