Country-Wide December 2020

Page 12

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Suzie is working from 7pm on December 24 to 7am on Christmas Day.

Sheep graze on the Corboys’ farm.

Snow hits tailing figures Spring snow caught Suzie Corboy while the ewes were lambing on her Catlins farm.

A

fter my last column and mentioning the lack of snow, I will avoid discussing the weather this time, as all of us in the Catlins know that the lack of winter snow was made up for by spring snow, catching most of us while we were lambing. As of mid-November, when writing this, our feed levels are looking better than normal at this time of year. However, with ground being taken out of pasture for growing winter crops, and last year's crop paddocks still not growing grass, these feed levels can change very quickly as a result of a cold week, or no rain. This farm needs regular rain, and if it doesn’t rain for a week we start to get worried! Most of the lambs from the ewes have now been tailed, and at present it is not looking very promising that we will achieve 150%, partly due to the forementioned snow, and maybe a few too many ewe deaths. I used to record ewe deaths as it was always difficult to believe we lost so

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many ewes over the year, but when you start writing it down you realise that the figures for deaths at the end of the year are actually close to reality. This result is disappointing as the ewes scanned 197%, so there are a lot of lamb losses. We haven’t started tailing the hoggets’ lambs, but are optimistic we will come close to our best lambing ever in hoggets. Hopefully close to the elusive for us, 100%, as they scanned a record 144%, and for once didn’t get much bad weather while they were lambing. OWAKA We didn’t have to lamb many hoggets either, so that is pleasing. It is a pleasant sight on a sunny day to see a fat hogget lying in plenty of grass, with two healthy lambs snuggled up to her. This year for the last few weeks of moving break fences for cattle on fodderbeet and while checking calving heifers and going around the triplet ewes, (we don’t check many twin ewes as they are mostly on the hill). I started listening to audio books that I

had downloaded on to my phone. I don’t know why I didn’t start doing it earlier in the winter. It is rare for me to read a book, as I always read far too late into the night when I get a good book, therefore missing out on sleep, and I am quite a slow reader, but listening to books means I can do two things at once. We had 147 heifers in calf this year, and calved more than 10%, which at the time felt like far too many. Most of the heifers we had to calve were Simmental and Charolais X, and some were very large boned. These heifers were bought as weaned calves, so we don’t know their parentage, but the heifers themselves were big, well fed. Not sure if we can do anything different next year. We finished calving with about 90% calves from in-calf heifers. At least the dry heifers can still be killed on the heifer schedule, so all is not lost. At the beginning of December my ambulance roster changes to two days, two nights, 12 off from the current two days on, six days off. This will need a bit of trial and error to figure out what works for me in terms of when to sleep, but I am looking forward to the new roster. I am working from 7pm on December 24 to 7am on Christmas Day so we won’t be going to my parents at Wellington this year, which is disappointing as dad is a great cook, and we always get very well overfed. I hope you all have a great festive season when it arrives, and make sure you take some time off to relax and enjoy a bit of R&R.

Country-Wide

December 2020


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Articles inside

The right balance

2min
page 89

Emissions analysis beneficial

2min
page 88

Caring for their mates

6min
pages 65-71

Hemp trial leads to skincare export

1min
pages 88-89

Zoom without the gloom

3min
page 86

A whole new wilderness

4min
pages 84-85

More photos from Country-Wide

1min
pages 90-92

Selling the fine wool story

3min
page 87

Selling stock takes good relationships

4min
pages 82-83

Regional council seeks collaboration

4min
pages 80-81

Wean earlier and heavier

10min
pages 54-57

Concern over stock exclusion rules

7min
pages 78-79

Ram buying - what’s your genetic plan?

3min
pages 58-60

Looking back and forward

4min
pages 62-64

Lows and highs in a year of Covid-19

1min
page 64

Wiltshires get the nod

16min
pages 44-51

Stock Check: Farming’s sustainable gains poorly marketed

3min
page 61

Weaning for a successful tupping

4min
pages 52-53

Wool or meat – A bet each way?

7min
pages 40-43

Focusing on forages

9min
pages 34-37

Tips from top performers

5min
pages 38-39

Contracts give certainty for buyers, sellers

2min
pages 31-32

Opportunity knocks for strong wool

8min
pages 28-30

Produce products consumers want

3min
page 33

My challenge to you...

3min
pages 25-27

Going online for work and workers

1min
page 24

The meaning of being a ‘co-operative

6min
pages 22-23

Tragedy on the farm

3min
page 21

Great expectations

3min
pages 14-15

Shepherding, when I’m 64

3min
page 11

Snow hits tailing figures

3min
page 12

Chris Biddles has a few words of thanks for Winston

3min
page 10

Our time to give thanks

3min
page 13

Half-hearted on water

1min
page 8
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