Chunky Monkey gang

Where has the week gone. No idea. Good Friday and i had to work.

Moved cows off the top field so it can start growing for hay. So horses are now on the track which i finished putting up last weekend. No way i could keep them on rotation with the cows in the bottom field. Billy would have a field day chasing new born lambs. He got loose last week and instead of running up the field to me as i was calling him. He came so far up, saw the rams and took off chasing them. Fortunately they ducked under the single strand of electric fence out of his way. He is such a sod ith the sheep. They are a game to him.

Finished lambing yesterday. Was 3 weeks, not the 2 i thought is was going to be but even so its all over for another year. No stray june lambings to deal with this year. 20 lambs in total so percentage is a little bit down. A predominance of males too. Was the same last year. But i suppose its evenning up, after a number of years of having more girls.

Today i have just taken delivery of a bull on hire. Would have like one before so we could go back to Autumn calving but there seems to be a shortage of hire bulls currently. Calves are being dehorned on Sunday and next Friday the vet is coming to castrate the two little boys born last December. So all go.
 
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Hard life this going out all day in the field. So they come in for little sleep overnight.

Last friday a friend came and helped me put all the tags in the lambs ears. We foot trimmed all the mums. Then Saturday we moved them all down to my neighbours field which has a lovely bit of grass on it. Cant upload the video of the lambs playing at the moment.

Heres the inquisitive calves.

Is that an imposter fresian cow amoung the dexters? No its Billy.
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Hard life this going out all day in the field. So they come in for little sleep overnight.

Last friday a friend came and helped me put all the tags in the lambs ears. We foot trimmed all the mums. Then Saturday we moved them all down to my neighbours field which has a lovely bit of grass on it. Cant upload the video of the lambs playing at the moment.

Heres the inquisitive calves.

Is that an imposter fresian cow amoung the dexters? No its Billy.
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And I hope the woollers appreciated the Billy Idol tune playing in the background! (Showing my age now,.......)
 
The calves are lovely, such cheeky characters chasing the ram 😁 I’m very envious of your beautiful fields and hills, it’s gorgeous.
 
Blimmey long time since i posted in this thread. Must update more.

Just completed a 12 hour day on top of yesterdays 9 hour day. I know its the norm for some people. But weekends are for relaxing after youve been at work all week. I guess not when you have lots of animals. Im not getting any younger and walking up and down my steep fields is very hard work. Ive done so much walking today moving sheep. Roger my new ram has never been in my fields so he seperated himself from the two big boys and went off on his own so there was a bit of extra work to try getting him up into the yard, but eventually i managed to catch hold of him and get a halter on him. He has been halter trained by his previous owner. Think he'd been round the show circuit. Hes only been with me a month. Anyway 3 rams all now in with there ladies for the next couple of months.
Then took chunky up and did a full clipped on him. I didnt go over with the fine after taking off with the medium blade like i normally would but it was much harder to get rid of the line effect. That fine blade makes all the difference.
Billy is so scared of the clippers but he must of come over to investigate a good 15 times. A soon as the clippers headed in his direction he was gone.
Then took the boys for a quick in hand walk.
 
Never argue with nature. Animals know best.

So the cows have been on a paddock at the top of the field. As its frozen all the surface water pipes have frozen so i cant use my little drinker so they had a trough of water which has actually lasted 2 days. I thought great cow would be calving so easy checking.
Any this morning trough is empty no sign of thaw so i have no choice but to move cows to a paddock that has running water. Bottom of the field of course. So hay went out yesterday all i had to do was open wire let cows in, close wire. So cow due to calve comes through sniffs hay walks off to the very bottom of field. Im thinking oh heck she must be desperate for a drink. She gets down near water, stops for a good scratch on the trees then heads towards water area. But she didnt go for a drink nope she is stood at the fence looking towards the woods. So she starts walking the fence line. I walk down to meet her. So i took the wire down and off she went to the next wire to wait for me to take that wire down. So then shes in the paddock with the woods so off she went into there to hide.

Just typical im on a long day and other side of town for work. So after i showered, i whipped down at 10.30 in the rtv with a bit if hay to find her. She had a mouthful but then took herself further into the woods. She has started discharging. So ive had to leave her to it.
She knew quite clearly where she wanted to calve. I wont be home till dark so i could be playing hunt the calf if she decides to let it sleep and walks away.
It amazes me, how they just tell you what they want.
 
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Finally a new addition. Its a little girl. Didnt get to find out if it was horned or polled. Mummy made it very clear that i should stay well clear as she full charged at me. I dodged behind a tree. She is normally a cow i cuddle. Not tonight. More bull in a china shop.
She just needs a few days to settle. We will have to get our hands on calf before the weekend to eartag it. So mummy will get a big bucket of food put in front of her.

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Only been lunging the boys the last few weeks. My cold is still draining me and i am struggling to just walk down and up the field to feed them still. Getting back up and down with them for in hand walks just doesnt appeal.
Chunky has days where he plods in the walk when lunging so ive had to try and enthuse him which then results in him trotting. He just cant seem to find active walk mode on the lunge maybe due to arthritis. Hes managed to find canter gear on the lunge a few times too which has been nice to see. But i only ask for a couple of circles canter.
Today it was my intention to take them both boys out for an in hand walk for a change. Billy decided however to play me and be an complete a***hole. He decided he didnt want to come to me to have a head collar on and everytime i approached he swung round and walked off. So i got chunky through into the next paddock. Billy came to the gate but as soon as i went to the gate off he went. I put a bale of hay out, he followed to each pile i put out but again each time i approached him he buggered off.
So in the end i lost my rag and told him me and Chunky were going on our own. As soon as i got hold of chunky and started walking him up the field Billy starts calling out, charging round the field. I couldnt look. I just walked away. Me and Chunky didnt go far, we did stop off to feed one batch of sheep down at my neighbours, Billy couldnt see or hear us, but we could hear him calling. By the time we got back to the field Billy was a dripping mess. I put Chunky back in, picked up Billys head collar and walked straight to him and put it on. So he just got lead this way and that round the paddock for a few minutes.
This non catching issue is generally done when he sees me with the lunge bridle in hand. Although the last few months he was so much better. Hes never been one for lunging i think because if he trots on the lunge it causes headshaking pain. But Billy has got much better at lunging as he has generally accepted that the lunge is only done at walk now due to his leg lameness. He was clearly having an off day.
 
I feel you, not being able to catch something is one of the few things that really really winds me up! I guess it’s a bit different as you know it’s because he’s associating it with discomfort, but still!
 
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Florettes baby is doing just fine. Calf seems quite independent and keeps running off from mum. Which winds mum up. Think she might be a calf with attitude. We caught it and gave it its official ear tags yesterday. Mum got a big bucket of food shoved under her noise in an attempt to distract her. As soon as i got hold of the calf i got circled, food was no distraction. She has calmed down, just very protective, thankfully didnt try taking me out like last week.

Jade is bagging up. She was enthusiastic to come and see me tonight and looked smiley. Shes been anti, dont touch me for months. No calving date for her, so its guess when im due, but i think she will pop anyday judging by how fast the udder has dropped.
Frances is also bagging but not as quick and shes a first calver so not expecting as much udder. Shes down to pop Thursday.
Promise i will get more baby calf pictures.
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Jade calved yesterday, another black female.

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Went out to check them all just as it was getting dark and Frances is missing. She's taken herself off down into the woods to be alone. Nothing yet but I shall be going to do a late night check.
 
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Frances had calved by 10.30 last night. Mothering fine, but kickin calf everytime it went towards the teat.
Still kicking calf off this morning. Will check her again this afternoon and if i dont see her feed it i shall do it myself. Ive got some colostrum sachets in my kitchen cupboard, might be a bit out of date but I'll mix with some cows milk and feed it.
 
Frances had calved by 10.30 last night. Mothering fine, but kickin calf everytime it went towards the teat.
Still kicking calf off this morning. Will check her again this afternoon and if i dont see her feed it i shall do it myself. Ive got some colostrum sachets in my kitchen cupboard, might be a bit out of date but I'll mix with some cows milk and feed it.
I've seen sheep do the same, why do they do it I wonder? I think someone on here told me it was when a sheep had too many lambs? Or could it just have been a sheep with lambs and a stray lamb trying to latch on?

Why do cows do it? sorry for all the questions. I hope you can feed it okay.
 
Shes only a first time calver. So lacks any experience of being a mum. First time sheep can do the same.
Having said that, dear Plum who i lost to TB a few years ago who was an experienced mum did it one year. She was so besotted with her calf that she wouldn't let it go under for a drink. As she was prepared to mother it we left the calf with her. Once a calf has had a few kickings they soon learn not to go near to the back end for a drink. I fed her calf for two months twice a day. Slowly he started to reduce the amount of milk he was taking off me. Too young to be weaned. Concern started to set in, but he was still growing and looked well in himself. Had started to eat hay. Then one day as i went to feed him. I thought i saw him under mum but thought i imagined it. A few days later he flat out refused any milk. It was a few days after that i saw him for sure latched on and drinking from mums teat. She had sneakily been feeding him for some time we reckoned.
Mums udder had gone down after calving but if the calf doesnt drink the cow will naturally dry off and the udder does disappear, so we assumed this was the case, but in reality calf must have been taking a small amount of something for sometime. It was just so odd to not see her feeding it till it was two months old.

With sheep that have twins they can also reject one, feed one, but lambs can be smart and ive had a few where the one thats ditched learns to feed from behind its mum. Mum doesnt realise. Always better to let mum feed it. If she really dislikes her lamb to yhe point it is being hammered badly i will take it away. Ive never managed to foster on so i end up feeding the orphans myself.
 
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I could have done with your search and rescue team tonight. She wasnt telling me where it was stashed. Little minx.

She was in the middle of the field as i walked down looking across the field into the next paddock as though it had gone under the wire and she couldn't get to it. She came over to greet me then followed me round the field back into the woods where she had calved. A couple of others came exploring to. Back out the woods walked up the hedge line, she followed me. Walked back across to comb the tump of scrub and long grass. Then walked back down the field to the woods again. She came part way back down to find me again. So i walked off and stood well back and observed. He turned and started looking towards the hedge line. So i walked back up the hedge line. Theres a thicket of brambles so i got in behind right next to the fence, peering in spotted a black figure laid down. I had to crawl right in underneath all the brambles. Calf wasnt stuck but tucked right in out the wind. Jumped up in a panic when i disturbed it.
Got it out and reunited with mum and spent time watching. She never kicked it even when it went round her back end but it made no attempt to go for a feed. I stuck my fingers in its mouth and it sucked my fingers.
Ive left well alone tonight it was sticking with mum more. It seems strong enough and did have energy to run when i found it which is hopeful. Hopefully mum will rejoin the rest of the cows by tomorrow instead of being away from them so if the others are nursing theres she'll twig and do the same.
 
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