The Aussie Thread

[Bek]

Oh and PS

Was up at Charters Towers doing training for my traineeship/apprenticeship. And one of the other girls that was there happens to be the daughter of the property manager of one of the large charolais/charbray studs. And there's a fair possibility that I could be going to Sydney Royal with them. All though it's not concrete yet. but fingers crossed!

 

[Keren]

We got 8 ml of rain . . . and what annoys me is in the papers and on the radio they are saying "The Riverina recieved a welcome soaking over the weekend, with 4 ml recorded". Since when has 4 ml been considered a soaking :?: :?: :?:
Honestly some people are CLUELESS!

Now that I've vented . . . I've got babies I got two sets of twins yesterday, a buck and a doe in each, with not many problems. One doe has a large teat on one side that the kids cant get on to, so I am having to milk that out to prevent mastitis, teat damage etc. Hopefully if I do that for a few days they will be able to drink from it. I dont want to have to do it for the whole time. Other than that, they are all good. Now I'm just waiting on the maiden to kid.

Mick's sale apparently went very well. I didnt make it but from all accounts the show gear went for double and triple the price of new equipment :shock: and the cattle went for extreme prices too. Good on him.

Off the Albury show tomorrow, they have cancelled the stud section this year and are only holding the all breeds heifer show and the commercial section. We were so annoyed we would have liked not to go, but the cow (Tingle) was Supreme last year and she is still eligible this year so we wanted to bring her back and thought we would bring a few more. So we have a team of 6 and a half entered. That should be enough to keep me busy.

On the down side, we lost another foal at work. First was snakebite, second was very prem. And in total we have lost 7 kids to our 'mystery abortion' and two does. But on the upside, the abortions seem to have stopped and we have had five does kid successfully in the past week or two.

 

[Bek]

Sounds like a mixed few days for you Keren!

Congrats on the kids! And good luck at Albury this weekend.

Hope none of the other animals have anymore kidding/calving/foaling problems

 

[Keren]

Well, I thought I would rescue this thread and let everyone know what I am up to.

Its been hot and busy here. Has reached 40 the last few days! Combine that with the flies . . . not pretty. I've been really busy lately, between my own animals, work, and uni. Exams have started, so everything else has been put on hold.

I weaned my poddies, so no more milk to make up Thank goodness. They are doing well. The angora kids are growing like crazy. They are cheeky little brats, friendly as anything.

Its been pretty quiet here on the show front. No more cattle or goat shows until february.

Actually, I got my driving harness today, so after I make a few adjustments to it (and once exams are over) I will get stuck into training my harness wether. Oh yeah, I've gotta build a cart too. Thats my holiday project.

Anyway, I think I'd better go and do some more study before its off to bed. Hope everyone is doing well, hope everyone has had lots and rain and has heaps of green feed. As well as lots of healthy happy spring babies.

Cya

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Its been raining sort of for the past week of and on with mainly mist. Theres been a very cool easterly gale blowing the past couple of days. This has been due to a low off the Queensland coast. We had 764.5 mls for the past year. About 100+ mls less than our average. We have stacks of green grass about, its growing quicker than the cattle can keep it under control. We need a dose of warm weather now to utilise the rain. Our growing time is less up here in the mountains than that of the coast. Happy New Year to all.
Colin

 

[Bek]

I'm pretty sure we're up on our average....not quite sure of the figures

The dam up here - Bjelke-Petersen got another year's rain in one night a couple of weeks ago

Hope you all had a good new year & christmas.

That Charolais stud ended up cancelling their sale...

Insteading of going into stud cattle for the time being I've been thinking about getting good quality crossbreds and breeding show & feeder steers.

 

[Bullseye]

Gday Keren, Australian Cattleman, Bek, in no intentional order...

Happy New Year!

Good to hear you're getting a share of the rain, that's often being bucketed out around the country. It's very likely where I am in the next 7 days we'll receive approx. 200 mm. We've had a great spring, not so good early summer but it's picked up now and looks better every day. With this amount of rain it should fill the dams that have only been filled halfway so far.

I've put in a small area of Millet for green fodder and this rain we've been getting lately is just terrific. I moved the cows and calves onto it today. What a sight seeing them all "pig" themselves in the deep vegetation. :lol:

This sure beats feeding out poor quality dry old hay like we had been doing last winter.

Seeing green sure has a lot more to do than envy, when you've got livestock it's peace of mind.

 

[Medic24]

Any of ya'll taken time to visit Dove Lake and area around Northern Tazzie? beautiful aint it? ;-) :cboy:

 

[Keren]

Medic, I love Tassie, especially the north areas around Sheffield. Its my home away from home. If I didnt have so many family members here, I think I would be there permanently. Its such an amazing area.

Yes, I have been to Dove lake, done the whole hiking thing.

When did you come to Australia and where did you go?

Port Arthur is probably my number one on the list of places to go in Tassie.

Did you know there is a place called Paradise in Tassie?

 

[Medic24]

Yeppers, did the Port Arthur thing to with the wife on one of our honeymoons.... took the ghost walking tour of the prison grounds after dark...........and then over to the convict cemetery island...........was interesting to say the very least.

We enjoyed the walk around Dove Lake , but kinda felt spoiled walking on walkways for most of the hike. We loved staying at the Cradle Mountain Resort, even if the drinking water was brown from all the natural tannins etc., Heck of a thing to be sitting in a nice bubble bath of dark brown water whilst trying to do the 'honeymoon thing'...lol, I started the bath and was first in, and when she peeked inside, she seriously asked if I had an 'accident' in the tub :shock: .........lol :lol: :lol: ....aaaaah such sweet memories....lol ;-)

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Rain,rain and more rain. During the past few days we have had more than 125mls at home and yesterday we had 125mls in one fall at one of our properties 5 klms away. We have lost about 400 metres of fencing across flats and part the way up the hills.Wonder how much we will get this afternoon. There are storms about once again and it is quite warm. The coastal areas to our east are over the worst for their near record flooding. One shire that touches onto our shire has lost 10 bridges. They had over 300 mls in one hit followed by 100 to 200mls afterwards.
Its green and lush here now.
Colin

 

[Bullseye]

That must have been quite a torrent of water across the flat. Was there a lot of debris caught on the fence to have it damaged so much?

 

[Bek]

I've never had the chance to visit Tassie, always wanted to though.

Looking at these floods....wow. I actually wish we'd have some, not heaps, just minor flash flooding would do me. Although at the moment we have plenty of water.

I'm having show withdrawals Actually more just the fact I only really see my friends at the shows, so I havent seen any since August(well most of them anyway)

 

[Keren]

Bek, I've got a real bad case of show withdrawal too. I have to wait till 9th February for our first show. But I am the chief steward for the goat section for that show, it is the first time they have offerred goat classes, so I have plenty to do in the meantime.

Pretty quiet here, we have finished kidding at work. Did a heap of pregnancy scanning, not real pleased with the new scanner. Didnt do as good a job, and the last goat to scan kicked the probe and severed the cord :annoyed: - so we wont be doing more scanning anytime soon.

Finally got my own kids tattooed and everything - just my luck the good little angora doeling broke one of her horns, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to show her anymore. It has to be the good one, doesnt it. On a better note, I brought home my new show Boer doeling, I'm very excited to have her home and start feeding her up and breaking her in for Canberra show. She's so pretty! :lol: Actually she is looking better and better every day, which is very exciting.

I'm off to an angora stud sale on Sunday, may come home with a buck if they go cheap enough. But I'm really just going for a sticky beak.

Things have really dried off here, no more green bits and a lot of dust. Really violent dust storms this evening, if any of my photos turned out alright, I'll post them.

Take care everyone.

 

[Bek]

How did the sale go Keren? pick up any bargains.

Looks like i have no job for this year's show season either, i've been sending resume's here there and everywhere, only 2 people have even got back to me and both have said no.

it's gunna be a long year for me, now that it looks like i have no shows

 

[Ozraptor]

G'day from Canberra -

Just joined up today

- the joys of a long weekend ;-)

laters ..

jack

 

[chrisy]

G'day from Canberra -

Just joined up today

- the joys of a long weekend ;-)

laters ..

jack

hey jack, hello and welcome, I'm chrisy from London England. hope you find these boards useful. see you in the coffee shop. Chris

 

[Bek]

Welcome Jack, great to see another Aussie, we'll be taking over soon :lol:

 

[Ozraptor]

Good to hear ;-)

 

[Keren]

Yay for the Aussie thread coming back . . . I've missed it!

Welcome to the boards Jack (even if you are involved with the dreaded Angus :lol: )

Its raining here, not enough to be significant but enough to piss the goats off lol. Weaned them all yesterday so there's a LOT of cryin going on, especially since its now stormy. I found my poor pet wether hiding from the rain and thunder by huddling in the corner against the fence :roll: (the fence is hingejoint). Yeah, cos that was a good shelter spot. He must have been grazing down there when the storm hit, and he's petrified of loud noises, and reckoned that was the only shelter. You know, I tell people all the time goats are smart, but sometimes they make me wonder . . . along the same lines I moved my does to a new paddock in which the water source is a creek, stupid buggers couldnt figure out that you can drink from a creek, nearly died of dehydration the first couple of days till I figured it out and got them a trough (the creek often runs dry so I would have had to get a trough for that paddock eventually, anyway). Still, I suppose it will help dry them off, being deprived of water :lol:

Been so, so, so, so busy! Trying to get everything ready for Henty show (9th) and then Canberra. Scared the crap outa me when I realised how close Canberra is.

Been really hot here, up in the forties. Thanks to this storm, its actually nice and cool now.

Oh, I got a new electric fence tester. Its name is Keren :lol: Ouch that hurt!

Sent my two poddy boys off to my boss's place because we finally realised whats behind all the bad behaviour. I weaned them off the bottle but not off me. All the destructive behaviour, and the jumping, was to get to me or get me to come out to them. So I sent them off for a holiday, and in exchange brought three back to my place that needed 'humanizing'. But you know, I just cant win, cos I get them home and a few minutes later, I find out one of them can jump just as well as my boys!! :frowns: But the electric fence fixed them.

Well, think thats all I have to say (said a lot more than I thought I would actually).

Hope everyone is getting lots of rain, and growing lots of grass.

Cya