Gypsy Day fast approaching

regolith · May 25, 2013

1 June 2013. Who's going to be on the road?

If you're in New Zealand, please share photos if you've got them.
Me, I've done two road trips already and haven't taken a single photo yet. Saw a similar sized ute with what looked like an empty trailer who couldn't keep up with mine?? going uphill yesterday. Must've been something in that trailer or he was heading for his nearest garage.

alisonb · May 26, 2013

Rego- can you tell us more about Gypsy Day please, will you be on the road as well?

Putangitangi · May 26, 2013

Cows moving up ours yesterday, but I think they just go from son to father for the winter. Presume the son is not moving. Luckily I'd just delayed moving my own cattle over the road, or things could have been tricky!

hillsdown · May 26, 2013

Here is a link Alison http://www.dairynz.co.nz/news/pageid/21 ... _Gypsy_Day

Never heard of it before either and would like to hear from someone that participates in it .

Ouachita · May 26, 2013

Rego,
Seems like I remember you posting some pictures one time about this. I recall a laundry line tied to the tailgate of your truck. Looked gypsy to me. Was that it?

regolith · May 29, 2013

Ouachita":2r5gx388 said:
Rego,
Seems like I remember you posting some pictures one time about this. I recall a laundry line tied to the tailgate of your truck. Looked gypsy to me. Was that it?

That might be what happens when Gypsy Day comes around without a new job... I did get one though, after about two weeks & paying grazing for the dry cows.

Most of the dairy cows in NZ are dry on 1 June and that is the date the new 'season' starts, and all the dairy farm workers/managers/sharemilkers who are moving on to new and better farms make the move. In the case of herd-owning sharemilkers like myself, there's a herd of cows, a tractor, farm machinery and tools moving to a new farm. If the old and new farms aren't too far apart the herds are sometimes walked along the main roads. A farm owner who sells his farm and buys another will usually also have 1 June for the changeover date.

I don't think I could count on one hand how many times I've moved on Gypsy Day. Since I've owned the herd, four times, this one will be the fifth.
The farm I've been leasing has a new owner and some of his cattle are already here, the rest will be arriving this week.
Haven't seen any cows walking yet but Friday, Saturday there will be herds on the roads for sure. Mine were travelling 200K so they got on a truck a couple of days ago, I walked round them later that night and they're all safe and sound on the new farm but telling me they're pretty p'd off about being in an unfamiliar paddock.
I've hopefully got just one more truck (farm machinery) to load and two more runs with my own vehicle and trailer to do this week to shift everything, then there's plenty more to do in the six - seven weeks before calving starts.

The truck companies will be glad of the sun today. I was lucky to be loading my cattle out of good facilities but on a lot of farms mud can make the job impossible. Can you imagine the pressure doing every farm move in one week puts on these truck drivers?