Chooks and Cows

Our chicken supply in the freezers is running low, so Brian has separated the Cornish Game meat bird hens with their own rooster.
When collecting eggs for incubating, we need to know which eggs are the ones we want to breed. We will incubate a few eggs from the layers too, (Australorps, and crossbreeds of Sussex and Cornish Game) for restocking purposes, but most of the  incubator space will be filled with eggs from the big breasted and meaty Cornish Game.  Referred to as both Cornish or Indian Game which is confusing, they are distinctive looking birds with the thickest legs I've ever seen in any of the breeds.
Brian usually does a couple of incubations during spring to supply enough of our own chicken meat to feed us for the following year.
 

The mish mash breeds of laying hens in the foreground, with the Cornish Game birds in the yard to the rear. Both yards have a shed which the poultry are locked in every night,  and both have runs that allow access to separate paddocks for foraging during the day.

I wasn't going to mention the shortage of rain or the unseasonable warm spring days that we've had lately, but it's difficult not to.

We are mighty grateful that we have a bit of green pasture due to small rains in April and enough heavy dew to keep things alive.  Our 'made on farm' bio-dynamic sprays and natural fertilisers have played a positive part in keeping our soils in the correct condition to hold moisture to promote growth, but oh how dry the ground has become over the past week. If we don't get a few mls of rain in the next couple of days all this green grass will dry up and die.  This would be the first time we didn't have green grass through until November. The driest year we have ever seen since long before we lived here.
If we could cut a few bales of hay in September/October from our small crop we'd be thankful, but it's not looking very likely.   Hay is going to be very difficult to source this year, and we hope our small stockpile from last year will get us through.

 Our cows have access to hay every day. Some days they don't eat much of it because there's plenty of green feed in the paddocks, but they need dry hay for bulk every day to keep their rumen (and four stomachs) healthy and operating properly.

 So as not to waste hay, we use the tractor to bring a large bale from the storage shed on the other side of the property. Once the bale is opened it stays dry in this small shed that is close to the hay rack yards where the cows come to eat every day. Their main water trough is near the hay rack too, and our cows are used to coming to the same place each day so we can keep a regular check on them.
It's manageable for me to carry hay with the pitchfork from the little shed, a few steps to throw the hay over the fence to the hay rack.
The milking dairy is also attached to this main yard, for ease of walking the cows in to be milked.

When we're heading for a dry year and we know that feed will be scarce, wise farm managers and stock owners will always sell or butcher livestock (de-stock) and manage our breeding programs by choosing not to mate up our ewes. We know we won't have enough feed to keep our animals in top condition and we don't wait for our sheep and cows to become so thin and poorly that they are good for nothing... not to mention the discomfort to the animals.
We sold off some of our cows last year while prices were still high, to decrease the burden on our land. But then when our rainfall was below average this year during the months of April and May, we made the big decision to further down size our cattle numbers.
It was a sad day when we took Mulga Bill to market last month, but when a breeder out-bid the butchers we felt a small sense of relief to know he would be living happily for another few years.
Hard decisions have to be made and smart farmers will always under-stock rather than to keep more stock than their land can hold.
After we have shorn the sheep in  October, we will also need to sort out some of the older ewes and cut our numbers back, so some will be butchered for our use (mutton, sausages and mince) and some will go to market.  If we are required to buy hay, it won't be viable to feed anything except our best breeding animals. The rest will have to go.
Our young steer that we bought, hoping to make a profit after growing him on and re-selling him, will be valued at much less now that we're going into drought, so we will have him butchered early for our own consumption; paddock feed and hay will be too scarce to grow him for a longer period.  Our house cows, Lavender and Poppy will be the only ones staying with us at this rate.
We constantly keep an eye on our cows and measure their condition score. I am pedantic about their welfare and will not tolerate animals becoming thin.
When I see skinny cows on other properties my chest tightens!! It distresses me.  It's our duty as farmers, or backyard cow owners,  to keep them in good condition, especially if we expect them to raise a calf and produce milk for our consumption as well.
There are many reasons why a cow may be skinny, but usually the problem can be treated with the correct diet, access to minerals, good hay and proper management.

  Here is a link to Liz at Eight Acres' excellent post about cattle condition scoring. Her very informative eBook "Our Experience with House Cows"  is excellent value and available to buy here

We have to accept that livestock market prices will be a bit lower during times of drought; this is the cycle of farming life. We will occasionally have our bad years but we also have our really good ones. We are a resilient lot and we will get through.

My thoughts are with the drought stricken farmers in South Australia and in the north of our country, as we saw first hand the dryness as we passed through in May and June this year.
It has been interesting to watch on ABC TV  "The 7:30 Report" this week, stories of how some of the large landowners are managing and surviving this drought. Their grit and resilience is both admirable and extremely moving, and they are managing their stock in the best way they can with the resources they have. They have been through it all before and they will get through this one too.

The only thing that will help us is rain.