F&F Chitchat a hocht, an feirmeoir bocht

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Was dehornng calves for a relative last night. He normally does them as yearlings but I offered to do them. They were strong enough, but one particular was very big and stone mad. He dragged me around the shed trying to get him in the crate. We let him off but then decided to put him in the crush gate. Low and behold he had no horns. Cow was a black and white simmental and calf was red and white. The AA polled genes must have carried through somewhere. Nice bit of luck for once. Shame to have just one yearling to poll.

Have an 11 year old white CH cow here, shes 12.5% Angus. Her CH and Lim calves never have any horns even though theyre only 6% Angus.
Its amazing how the polled gene carries through sometimes.

Odelay wrote: »

How does that work out with the cat?

Have the robin shut into the spare room. Though forgot to lock it one day and found the cat sitting on the windowsill just watching the robin flutter about in his cage. :pac:

An article from the New York Times that's currently generating a bit of interest.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/magazine/dirt-save-earth-carbon-farming-climate-change.html

It describes the concept of regenerative grazing and also slurry spreading dairy farms having more carbon in the soil.

Then me oul pal Cyanobacteria gets a mention too.

Maybe, its the next generation.

Rightly flustered here the last couple of days looking for a week old calf in 100 acres of a winterage. Mother is very milky and looks to be well sucked, was bursting with milk the day she calved and the calf was very hardy and sucked himself the day he was born. Haven't seen a trace of him since. Don't think she could be dried up so quickly. You'd often see them hide the calves for the first few days but a week is stretching it a bit. What he think? To my eyes the cow is sucked but my minds playing tricks on me at this stage. Walked the legs off myself today but it's a needle in a haystack kind of situation. Keep hoping I'll catch the cow by herself heading back to him.

Would the drone be any help in having a look see?

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Rightly flustered here the last couple of days looking for a week old calf in 100 acres of a winterage. Mother is very milky and looks to be well sucked, was bursting with milk the day she calved and the calf was very hardy and sucked himself the day he was born. Haven't seen a trace of him since. Don't think she could be dried up so quickly. You'd often see them hide the calves for the first few days but a week is stretching it a bit. What he think? To my eyes the cow is sucked but my minds playing tricks on me at this stage. Walked the legs off myself today but it's a needle in a haystack kind of situation. Keep hoping I'll catch the cow by herself heading back to him.

Can you make the sound of a calf bawling, you know the sound they make when they are distressed? Turn your back to the cow and try and throw the sound around with your hand moving over your mouth. Sounds mad as I read it back, but it often worked here to get a cow to go looking for calf.

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Can you make the sound of a calf bawling, you know the sound they make when they are distressed? Turn your back to the cow and try and throw the sound around with your hand moving over your mouth. Sounds mad as I read it back, but it often worked here to get a cow to go looking for calf.

Ya I can do it alright, have tried all the tricks at this stage. Some of the cows can be very cute. It's the area that's catching me. Could literally spend a week walking it and not find a trace of him. There's about 40 acres of scrub and bushes in it along with all the rocks and nooks and crannys in the open parts.

Lady Haywire wrote: »

I had that problem with a heifer last year, didnt see the calf for 4/5 days and it only on 10 acres! Found it eventually by starting at the cow and walking in a spiral outwards around her. She started to take more notice of me andnow throwing an eye at me when I was in the direction the calf was lying.

Works if your near the calf alright, could be a half a mile away for all I know though. Feckers do be all heading to the nut trough as soon as they hear the jeep coming up the road aswell.

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Rightly flustered here the last couple of days looking for a week old calf in 100 acres of a winterage. Mother is very milky and looks to be well sucked, was bursting with milk the day she calved and the calf was very hardy and sucked himself the day he was born. Haven't seen a trace of him since. Don't think she could be dried up so quickly. You'd often see them hide the calves for the first few days but a week is stretching it a bit. What he think? To my eyes the cow is sucked but my minds playing tricks on me at this stage. Walked the legs off myself today but it's a needle in a haystack kind of situation. Keep hoping I'll catch the cow by herself heading back to him.

You dont have a dog? Let him out for a run about. The cow wont be long gettin protective and head back. But be careful she could decide to chase the dog.

I have a crazy bird (a blue tit) that's assaulting my kitchen window. Or rather, the lintel above the kitchen window. He's not attacking his reflection and he doesn't bother with food left on the sill, just keeps flying up to the lintel like he's trying to get something (nothing there). He's there a few times an hour, most of the day. I was curious about what he was at when he first appeared. Two weeks later, he's just wrecking my head

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Ye haven't had a scourge of flies- bigger than midges but similar shape- in the last week or so? They all hatched out from the lake beside us and have been plaguing everyone around it since. They seen to like sitting on white painted walls etc so the tit could be after those.

Could be after spiders either.