Dairy Farm for Sale

A little tour of the farm

The cooler Autumn weather is here and in the last week we have had some good rain. So far for April we have received 72.5 mm of rain which has soaked in to the paddocks well. Last week I took a few photos of the farm when I was getting the cows. In this post I would like to share them with you.

A nice shot looking across part of the farm as I head down the main track to get the cows.

The cows got sick of waiting for me so they decided to make their way home to the dairy.

The view looking back down the track from the day paddock.

As mentioned in a couple of previous posts, we have been composting this year. The compost has now been screened ...... all 270 tonne of it......and is being spread on the paddocks.

 The cows are almost home and ready for milking.

The early calving cows are all done and the heifer calves are growing fast. The rest of the cows start calving late June so this morning we dried off 30 and are now only milking 140.

Please note we have added extra information on the The Price page.

Until next time

Linda    :)

 

A quick update

We have started Autumn.....my favourite time of the year. The hot weather is over and the mild days are followed by cooler evenings. There is a green tinge coming back to the paddocks. We have missed most of the rain which is flooding areas of North East Victoria and our thoughts are with those farmers who have their properties under water.

As mentioned in my last post we have started composting fertiliser to be used on the paddocks. The rows were formed and last week were turned over and are composting very well. It won't be long until we will be able to spread it out.

We have also put some of the early calving cows and heifers on the calving pad, which has had a couple of loads of wood chips for bedding spread on it. With the first cows due in 10 days it won't be long until I'm back feeding calves.  

Linda 

Another year begins

We are into the new year but life doesn't slow down on the farm over the 'holiday season'. There is always something to do. The farm has dried off ........ well I guess it is Summer and we have to expect it. A nice break in the weather last week with 30mm of rain has freshened up some of the paddocks and gave the turnip crop paddocks a well deserved drink. I took this photo yesterday afternoon when I was waiting for the cows to walk home.

The irrigation dam is full and looks really nice with the vegetation around it.

This photo was taken when I was nearly home with the cows......looking back towards where I had come from.

We made the decision late last year to make our own compost fertiliser to spread over the farm. 

We are stock piling the ingredients at the moment and have so far got rolls of old hay from our outpaddock, chicken poo (2 truck & trailers) and the scrappings off the calving pad (the big pile in the left of the photo which will be moved soon). The contractor will be out on Monday to start emptying our first effluent pond and this sludge will be used as well.

We have been strip feeding the turnips to the milking herd, and this combined with silage and the paddock feed has held the cows milk production. We will be drying off 27 cows next week as we have some March calving cows and they will join the 2.5 year old heifers to calve.  So it will be back to rearing calves soon but I don't mind as the early calves always do so well and are a breeze to look after. 

Linda   :)

Oh and yay Warrnambool Cheese and Butter have announced a step up of 8c & 20c which is great news. Things are looking very good!

The end of the year

Another year has zoomed by and the Summer weather is here. The paddocks have started to go off but we do expect it at this time of the year. Silage is being fed to the milkers which seems to be holding them at the moment. It won't be long until we start drying off about 30 cows as they were joined to calve in mid March. 

A 'small' hiccup with the tractor in November..........well it caught fire and was a write off........ meant there was a hold up to the harvest season. We have a new Massey Ferguson tractor which I'm told by Russell is wonderful. We only have 2 paddocks left to make into hay.......with one of those going into small squares for the calves. Hopefully by Monday it will be all over.

The bulls have finished with the cows for the time being and have been put back into the bachelor pad paddock! They spent the first night squarking but have now settled down :) .

That's all for now.

Happy new year to everyone.

Linda    :)

 

 

It's Spring time

We have managed to make a start on the silage and have baled 2 of the 12 paddocks that have been locked up. We are just waiting for a good break of warm weather and it will be all go. Russell has also put in 2 summer fodder crops for the cows and the turnips are up in under a week. The drizzly rain of the last few days has kept the ground moist and will give them a good start. The farm is looking great and the Spring application of fertiliser means there is a lot of grass. The dams are all full, but then again they usually are at this time of the year. 

Most of the calves have been weaned with just the last 8 in the front calf paddock. We have finished AI and now it's the bulls turn to clean up the rest of the cows. Currently milking 168 cows but we have another 30 heifers to calve next March.

Linda   :)

Warming up

The weather is really starting to improve........lovely warm days with just the odd cold one thrown in to keep us on our toes. The Spring fertiliser has been spread and it won't be long until we start to see the benefits of it. That also means that we will start to think about which paddocks to lock up for silage.

We are almost finished calving with only four more cows on the calving pad. They are all springing and should be calved by the end of September.

The vet was out last week and preg tested our early joined cows and we have got about 60 (includes heifers) to calve from mid March onwards. Russell started our AI program on Monday which will see these cows due to calve in late June.

Linda   :)

Update

I can't beleive that it has been almost four months since I last gave an update. We are on the 'down hill' run with calving with only 45 cows left to go. The AI calves are all but finished so the rest will be by our Jersey bulls. The heifer calves are going along well and growing fast. We have had a wet year but fortunately we haven't had the recent deluge that Gippsland farmers have experienced. The days are getting longer, the temperature is rising and there's the feel that Spring is just around the corner. It won't be long until we start AI - around middle of September.

Linda 

Update

It's hard to beleive that April is nearly over for another year. The days are getting shorter and the evenings are chilly. Our early calving cows and 2.5 year old heifers are all but finished calving.....only 4 to go. We have started drying off a few cows giving them a break before we start calving on the 2nd July. The fertiliser was spread a couple of weeks ago and the grass has really kicked on. We have almost finished our last crop paddock - turnips & millet, we have had excellent value from the 3 paddocks that were put to crop for summer fodder this year. Making the most from the sunny autumn days we decided a few weeks ago to get the exterior of the house painted. It's looking great and Aaron will be back tomorrow to finish it off.

Russell & Linda

Lots of new's'

Yes we have had lots of new things happening on the farm lately. First we installed a new stove in the kitchen - a nice stainless steel one. We have had new heifers calving......there have been 4 so far. These are some of the 20,  2.5 year old heifers that will calve over the next 2 months. And finally we have been spreading new gravel over some of the farm tracks, and also the tanker turn around.

Linda    

Yes the farm is still for Sale

Just a quick answer for those who have been asking. The price and details are listed on the right hand side of this page.

Cheers

Russell and Linda