Australian Talk.

[wbvs58]

Now that photo catches my eye Suzie. I like it much better than the other one, looks very natural and real.
I got the gates finished for the new yard and got them hung today, they worked out real good.
Storms all around this arvo but just passing either to the south or slipping around NW of us a bit frustrating. I went into town late this arvo and it looks like they had a good drenching in there.
Ken

 

[diana55]

Lovely photo Suzie. You have been super busy as usual. Ditto on the dirty palms. We have them at our investment house and they were OK when small, nuisance now.
Glad Jed is such a hit Ken. Pups are so exhuberant.
I could almost feel your pain Jilleroo, trying to lift that calf. I've done the same with ewes and its not fun. Hope calfie survives. Guess your hubbie had his 'man eyes' on when he went the ramp- its a male trait. Mine can't find anything in the fridge.
Finally picked up new hard drive for computer from slack technician and then found out monitor was faulty (apparently was problem all along......derrrrrrrr....my fault). So new monitor and printer and all working....yay....
Started hormone shots on donors this morning and they aren't impressed. Being flushed Dec 7. Very hot today 39C which is a bit of a shock as temps have been below average lately. Cloudy and few spots rain with chance thunderstorms tomorrow.
My offsider is back from Canada which is great. She had a fabulous time and has photos of new heifer. Now if I can just figure out how to get them on ranchers.net. Had lot of trouble last time I tried.

 

[Suzie Q]

Computers are great when they work Diana. So frustrating when they don't.

I can't get over the temperatures I am reading in here. Geez you want to be outside from 4 am and back inside again by 8 or 9 and don't go out again until the Evening.

Thank you so much for your feed back Ken. I will send to my friend what you said as she is very interested in photography and is practicing which is why she took my photo. The other one I gave my hubby my camera and he was wandering around taking photos. I was surprised when he gave me the camera back as I saw him standing there with the camera and I thought he was taking the table of people I was talking to, not just me.

I printed out the other photo and put in a frame. Now, not only have I fallen in love with my camera again, but I will print out that photo and put it in a frame as well.

I have to learn to take my camera with me again. The other day when raking I was coming up the paddock and a pelican was gliding onto the dam. It would have been a wonderful photo with our house as the background in the distance. I was cursing not having my camera.

Then the next time up the paddock the second pelican not only glided, but went around 4 times, so I would have been able to get numerous photos and probably video as well.

 

[jilleroo]

Yes, another lovely photo of you Suzi! Still waiting for our grand-daughter (?) to be born....she's overdue now.
2 year old grandson has been out here, giving orders, bossing us around, driving the tractor, riding the ponies and bikes, swimming in the pool etc etc. Exhausting!
Diana, I had a lot of trouble with Ranchernet - I think the secret is make sure the photos you're uploading to it are in "small" size. If I forget to resize my photos, it times out on uploading them.
It is only 39 degrees here today which is relatively cool. Heating up again from tomorrow and there's plenty of heifers will be calving before the end of the week. I've got one heat-stressed part-angus born on Sunday morning that I'll be poddying if he survives. Just too hot for the little black or grey guys. I've been tubing him but this morning he was up and about and sucked the bottle. Mum is long gone unfortunately. The senepol-sired calves are fine, frisking about.
Still persevering with the big heifer calf I picked up last week - she's sucking her mum but has health issues due to lack of colostrum in her first couple of days. So medicating her well but the infection is causing her to feel the heat too much to leave her to chance in the paddock during the day. I load her in the Jymny morning and night and cart her to and from the stables - I heave her front end up and she helps by climbing with her back feet while I shove....she then proceeds to poo and pee as much as she possibly can for the duration of the trip....wait until hubby gets a whiff of the Jymny.....
I've also got a big tall dopey heifer who is trying to calve, on and off, lies down on her side, gives a few pushes, has some mucus out, and then gets up and chews her cud. This has been going on for four days now. We've put an arm in a couple of times but can't really tell what's happening, it might be a nose, no feet, can't reach much until she pushes it up more. Oh dear. I don't like her chances. We had one similar last year and the calf was turned sideways sort of, we got it out, dead, but it was very difficult.

 

[wbvs58]

Gee you have some patience with those calves Jilleroo. It sounds so miserable with the heat. I know what I would be doing with the calves, probably the same as what your hubby would do if he was allowed.
Diana, it must be hard coming up with a new treat every day for those donor cows.
I had another day in the shed today welding up the frame for Jed's new pen on the verandah. Fairly warm by our standards up around the 30 mark, gets a bit hot in the shed with no flow through ventilation, however with my new fan it keeps the air circulating just nice and things are very pleasant. The only problem is when I am welding it blows away the shielding gases and leaves holes in my welds so I have to turn it off when actually welding.
Ken

 

[jilleroo]

Yes Ken, I have determination, persistence and patience where animals are concerned. But the poddy steers we sold this year made about $900 each and were the same size as their peers so its also economically worthwhile. Most of the pods always seem to be males which is good. I don't get attached to them long-term, they go into the system once they're weaned. However, the little brahman heifer I picked up the other day is a fun cutie, always frisking about and very friendly.
Palms have been mentioned in the last few posts - I was cleaning up the garden this arve and barrowing loads of leaf trash out to burn. I dropped a large palm frond I'd been trying to balance on the load. A pony mare was following me and she picked it up and dragged it along, right over to the burn heap. I'm careful not to put anything poisonous out as the ponies sift through it of course.
Hubby talks tough but is very soft-hearted, always takes the kindest option and will go the extra mile to save something, even though complaining about it. We have to calve the heifers now to get the benefit of the wet season. Most ppl do out here.

 

[melking]

Hi Friends. Hope everyone had a good few days, I know I did. Are any of you aware of the amreican television show called outback hunters? I really like it, but I would also like to know if it is even remotely true.

 

[Suzie Q]

I haven't seen it Melking. What do they hunt. Most hunters I know of are pig hunters and that is true, although there are a lot of rules to keep it humane for the pig. They all have trained pig dogs.

LOL Jilleroo. Do you have a trailer for the jymny? It was a lot easier getting the 2nd twin in the trailer than trying to put it in front of me on the quad. I just tied the legs with baling twine.

LOL Diana that post of mine to you must of jinxed us!!!

The computers were down at work yesterday. A hardware problem so it didn't get fixed, which meant that I was unable to do anything. I did some filing, went shopping for stuff they needed, went to lunch, came home and did the petty cash. Boy they spent a lot for the Birthday Bash. We have a $500.00 float for Petty Cash and I gave it to them on the Friday. They went through almost twice that by the Monday!!!

Then I stamped pamphlets for the afternoon. I did quite a few boxes and from my estimate I only have 2 boxes to go to send the pamphlets off to the Beaudesert Times.

We baled last night. YAY 142 bales and it is in the shed. That should keep us going until the next time we bale. Fingers crossed.

I am not going into work this morning unless they ring to say the computers are working. I am going to a Christmas Lunch with the Garden Club instead!!

 

[burglar]

Jilleroo, where do you get your poddies from? What breed have you bought?

 

[jilleroo]

I'm sorry, Burglar, I don't explain things very clearly....these poddies are from our own herd. When I say "picked up" I mean from out in the paddock somewhere, not at another property or saleyard etc. Most of our cows calve this time of year and it is in general quite uneventful. However - I usually manage to locate a couple of calves which are in need of assistance for some reason or another - mother with a bad udder, an abandoned twin etc. We get maybe two or three poddies per hundred heifers that calve this time of year as well. Some years we get no poddies.
Melking, I havent seen "Outback Hunters" either...where is it set? The other night I happened to flick across a programme called Big Australia....and they'd been filming around our signpost! They held it in focus in a shot along the highway while waiting for some trucks they were filming to come by. We get some "strange" (to us anyway) US shows about hunting in the swamps etc.

The crook heifer hasnt changed, still trying to push something out but not distressed - yet...
I reached in and couldnt feel anything of interest at all.

So much to do, so little time, I shouldnt be on here.

 

[burglar]

No Worries Jilleroo, I would love to get a poddy some day, if nothing more than for the kids. Would need to be a heifer though, cant go sending the family poddy to the butcher. Do they ever have poddies at the saleyards or do you need to find them privately?

 

[wbvs58]

How many sleeps to go Dale? The saleyards is not a good place to get a poddy but if you put the word out during calving season something is bound to crop up.
It's not sounding too good with that heifer Jilleroo. I'd make up a long hook and see if you can jag a leg. The Vet I worked for in Ipswich after I graduated had some great calving gear. It was a very old practice that had serviced the many dairy farms in the district then, so a lot of calvings. A previous owner even wrote a James Herriot style book about his exploits in the practice. Anyhow he had a lot of hooks and crutches of various shapes and sizes, it was great to have the right implement to hand.
You might be able to use one of your meat hooks to give you a bit of extra reach.
I spent most of the day in the shed again. I got Jed's pen finished, all ready to install now, and then I got back onto my impellor and it is virtually finished, just got to machine around the outside to tidy it up. It looks real good just like a bought one, I am optimistic that it will work.
Mel, I haven't heard of that show Outback Hunters, tell us what they get up to and we will tell you if fact or fiction. I have been watching a couple of your shows lately, Turtle Man, very funny, and Gator Boys, also very entertaining.
Ken

 

[jilleroo]

Thanks for the meathook suggestion Ken. We've got one here with blunt ends which could be useful. However I think the gun will be coming out tomorrow. Just been over looking at her now, she's okay for the time being, not suffering too much hardship.
She's always been very flat-sided, I don't think its a big calf which has probably given it room to get into a silly position. You'd swear she'd calved if you didnt know better. Hubby is away but son might come out of town if he's not on fatherly duties and dispatch her, I avoid it where possible. We might have another go at getting the calf first - or not - she's a heifer we could live without. I had to reposition a large bull calf the other morning and it was hard hot work, lying down to make it worse. All turned out ok.

Burglar, you can go on the www.petlink.com.au site when you're ready and probably get a poddy calf or two. The agents at Warwick saleyards would probably get you something if you asked them also. Ken would know more than me. Not long until you'll be on your way!!

 

[burglar]

Hi Ken, 13 sleeps as my kids would say. Bought a JD 55hp tractor last night that gets delivered on the 17th. Planing to slash about 50 acres the love grass down and hopefully some January rains will gets some us nice regrowth come through, along with a bit more fencing we should be ready to run a few head by February. Have one dam full not sure about the 2 new ones as yet.

Thanks for that link Jilleroo, Would you say most poddies are Dairy cows or crosses? I'm guessing Droughties and Angus would be kept and fostered before people would sell them off cheap.

 

[Suzie Q]

You can contact Dairies as they get rid of most of their male calves. Some of them have beef bulls so as their calves are a cross.

The computers came up at 8am yesterday, so I was in at work by 8.30am, and went to the Christmas party by 10.30am. I then went back to work until 5pm and came home in the rain.

Lovely rain. I don't know how much as I slept like a baby and haven't been out yet.

 

[wbvs58]

Gee Dale you don't mind doing things by remote control, tell us a bit more about the tractor. If you haven't got a slasher yet you should consider a mulcher or flail mower. When a slasher cuts love grass it windrows it leaving the thick and fibrous material on the ground stopping anything from growing through, the mulcher chops it into short lengths and disperses it evenly on the ground and it quickly is incorporated back into the soil. I have seen the dead lovegrass on the ground 3 years after being slashed.
I am off to an auction on Saturday, there is a mulcher going through, photos have it looking a bit rough but that is OK if the price is right, I don't mind doing a bit of work on it.
We had 7mm rain last night and another short storm this arvo gave about 7.5mm. Not big totals but if you get that every day it is OK. Overall the place is not looking too bad at the moment.
Ken

 

[burglar]

Thanks Ken, that is great advice, and makes perfect sense. I am going to have to call the guys at chesterfield and see if I can work something out. Currently I have the 5055e John Deere with challenger 3021 loader and 4-1 bucket and a 6 ft Superior EL72 Slasher with castor wheel. I hope they will be ok to swap out the slasher for a mulcher.

Glad to hear about the rain, looks like there are some high temperatures coming this weekend.

 

[melking]

Hi all, the Outback Hunters show seems to limited to the northwest and is all about crocs. Several of the actors are portrayed as aboriginals and they work for the "tribe" to relocate rogue crocs. Some of the others are just ordinary blokes but none of them seem to have anything to do with killing the crocs, they all seem to relocate. Maybe crocs are a protected species. It is an entertaining show, but I do wonder at the authenticity. Really busy here, we are hosting a holiday party for foster kids at the property on dec 15th and I am trying to line everything up

 

[Suzie Q]

If you are seeing Steve Irwin then yes it is real and yes they are into preservation and conservation and not killing them.

He died a couple of years ago. His wife Terri is now back on the TV with their 2 children Bindi and Bob I think. Called Wildlife Warriers I think.

We ended up with 10 mm. Nothing yesterday.

 

[jilleroo]

Well the crook heifer is now dead and buried. We couldnt reach anything at all and it was getting very smelly with the heat.
The heat is "drier" this week so its not as uncomfortable as it was.

Melking, crocs are protected in Aust. I don't know why - how many do we need? More and more ppl are getting taken by them, the latest being a 7yr old girl. Such dangerous animals and very "angry" by nature. They will fight and eat each other, let alone any hapless meal that stumbles their way. I can't see anything wrong with "big game hunters" being allowed to trophy hunt for a fee. They're busy culling water buffalo at present because they break the croc eggs - good on the buffs, I say!

No grandchild yet, she's a week overdue and they won't induce until next Thurs. I leave on Wed to go to Mackay to wait with other d-in-law for their new bundle - hope this one arrives before then.

Burglar, you'll be able to get a beef poddy calf I'm sure. There's folk at Warwick who seems to sell them frequently, about $150
which is not too bad for a decent calf a couple of weeks old, if its just a one-off thing for you.

Our local christmas tree is tomorrow night, held at the CWA hall up the road. That's our big community night of the year.
It certainly doesnt look like storms are going to interfere with it anyway....