The end of the year is coming up fast, with Christmas only weeks away.
The weather continues to be humid and wet, interspersed with periods of very welcome cooler weather.
This year the growing season has started early, with the heat and moisture the grass has responded with vigor. The experiment of seeding a small 2.5 acre paddock over Winter went well, and Dominic has just broadcast a summer seed mix in the paddock during this last rain period. I am hoping it will provide good nutritious feed for our dairy cows and the few finishing steers who run with them. The previous sown winter crop seemed to satisfy the dairy cows more and we got a couple of good feeds off the paddock. If this summer crop takes well, we will probably put it into the driveway paddock too, about another 10 acres. When we run the irrigation to these areas this will all work together to help finish our beef animals better and quicker as well as create some drought resiliency.
Even in the rainy times, possible drought is always on the mind.
Here is a short list of some of the things we have accomplished in the last six months:
- We needed to move on our Senepol bulls so they wouldn’t be mating with their daughters, so in October we attended our first bull sale and purchased a Belmont Red bull for $8000.00. We chose to invest in this breed as it ticks a lot of the boxes we need to make this property a success. The breed is hardy, does well on marginal feed and most importantly for us, the stud we purchased from focuses highly on good fertility and temperament. They raise them with a minimal amount of grain and the bulls are finished on sown pasture instead. On top of this the Belmont Red also gives a good quality animal for our paddock-to-plate venture.
- Following on from our bull purchase, in November we purchased 32 young Belmont Red heifers. We hope they will all give us a calf next year. With the improvement in our calving rates, we should be primed to increase our availability of high-quality grass-fed and finished, chemical-free beef to our customers in the following year, as well as have some spare to sell at the sales.
- After a big sigh of relief on completion of our on-farm water infrastructure up to the house, due to the weather and other commitments, Dominic hasn’t gotten around to start trenching to the front paddocks yet. All is prepped and ready – now we need some dry weather and time to break ground in the front acres.
- Dominic continues to brainstorm a way to construct some sort of cold room come market vehicle, and I think he has cracked it! He is looking at constructing a cold room/freezer room on a trailer, so we can attend the Mulgowie Markets more easily and maybe also start attending other markets in the area.
- Here is another trial that has proved itself a success. Supplementing the cattle with raw apple cider vinegar is working. Not only does it seem to help them forage better and maintain condition, but it also seems to be helping with the fly load.
Here’s a short anecdote – one of our dairy heifers, Cocoa, hasn’t been doing well since she was weaned. When we started putting out the raw apple cider vinegar for them she would drink cups of it down, just slurping it up. Over the weeks it seems her digestion is improving and she is putting on condition. Also, when she was struggling with her health, she had heaps of flies, now she has the least of the group. All encouraging results. [We have been trialing giving the animal’s apple cider vinegar, diluted 50% with water as a natural supplement. More info about this is here]. - We have continued to attend the Mulgowie Farmers Markets. We’ll see you all on the 7th of December! Thank you to all our customers for your continual support through all the ups and downs, rain, heat and wind. So much of our efforts is focused on building our paddock-to-plate business and improving our product & systems so we can financially support the maintenance of our Nature Refuge and ourselves. The feedback from our customers helps uplift our spirits and helps us maintain our motivation.
In November we decided to consolidate both our beef herds together, giving us a total of 209+ animals; cows, calves, yearlings and weaners… and including our new additions, the Belmont Red heifers. Having a larger herd creates more impact on the paddocks, so we are getting a better graze and fertilizing happening. We can see the improvement in the speed of the grass regrowth and thickness. It may seem like we bang on all the time about grass and pasture, but if we can improve these factors, not only will our bottom line get better, but some of the huge workload will be reduced as well. All this translates into a better quality of life for us and our animals.
That’s a wrap on some of the goals we have achieved in the last six months. 2025 is just around the corner!
Related Posts:
