Heifers on heat. In the absence of a bull, they’re nuzzling. And treading on some nice lucerne.   Barn kittens dominating the food and pushing out Legend the pup. They growl when they eat and are known as the piranhas. Legend gets his own back later. All the kittens end up chewed and saliva-dampened atContinue reading "Random animal photos"

The digger making mountains out of the vines, piquets and wires. When the fire ban is over this will be lit into a big bonfire.     After the fire is burnt out we’ll remove the wire. We’ve already had several visiting metal merchants wanting to recover the wire.  

The herd has now left the Florida* paddock and is now eating the ripe lucerne of California, but they left a lot of Florida’s grass still standing. This is mostly early spring grass that is now dormant and was left when the cows ate the fresh stuff underneath. Most of the dry stems were troddenContinue reading "As exciting as watching grass grow"

The old vines are all removed. Now we have 12ha/25ac covered in long gouges. Here’s a photo of the California paddock sans vignes.     Links F. W. Owen has some excellent info on putting water lines out to the paddocks. He also has an interesting comparison between high revenue/high costs farms and his low-costContinue reading "Water, weeds, death and hundreds of long trenches"

Here’s the view as I was heading off to the Costanza paddock to cut some lucerne.     I’m one of those odd folk who look at the tiny details in photos. There’s a blue cow water trough used as a kid pool. A fancy backpacking tent used as a kid tent. And, of course,Continue reading "View from the office, Renault 90-34 tractor edition"

This farm has about 10 hectares of lucerne, or 25 acres of alfalfa for the Americans. These are hay fields. They aren’t fenced and they have not been grazed. Locals would never put cows on a lucerne stand for fear of bloat, although they run cows on lucerne in other parts of the world andContinue reading "We’ve got Hay Fever!"

The cows have spent the last two weeks in Colorado, a big paddock next to the house. It is called Colorado because it is the highest point on the farm, with the ridge that runs from our farmhouse west across to the next farmhouse (as yet unoccupied). We’re using American names for our paddocks. WeContinue reading "Running cows on a tired hay field"

This little one was just born. The mother cow, known as Big Cow, is the chief of the herd. She has been cleaning up her little one. It’s about thirty minutes old at this point. I’m keeping away and haven’t looked too close to figure out the sex.     After a good wash itContinue reading "First calf born on the farm – a little Salers"

This is Seventy-Eight. She’s a Salers cow and she’s my buddy. I should look up her official name on her cow passport. All cows have passports here, pink cards that list their details.     One year old heifers are usually jumpy, but Seventy-Eight is always the first to come and see me when IContinue reading "Cow Seventy-Eight"

The five Mirandaise heifers spent their first night outside, so I went to check on them in the morning. They were looking just fine.     The grass is getting eaten.      They came when called.     Elfie wanted a brush. The cows are molting and as you brush them the winter furContinue reading "Morning Mirandaise"