Seven Little Dwarfs

At 7:15 am the sun was peeping over the escarpment into a crisp clear morning. The heavens had left a nice little gift in the rain gauge of 7mm of precipitation which fell last night. After emptying the rain gauge I wandered over to the farrowing shed where I had put Doreen nearly two weeks ago when I produced colostrum from her teat. We had no idea when Doreen was going to give birth as we had originally thought she had been in pig when we picked her up from Fernleigh farm but for some reason she didn't take and by process of elimination we deduced she had been serviced by Prince just after we picked her up. It could have well been on the way home from picking them up as Scott had to stop the ute due to it swaying all over the road as Prince was attempting to mount Doreen.

But this morning was the morning and as I approached the shed I could hear a little unmistakable squeal and upon opening the door there was one little piglet snuggling up to mummy's tummy, I had thought that there were something wrong with the back legs as they seemed to be stiffly splayed forwards . I came back into the house to get the camera and by the time I returned another piglet had been born and was still mostly encased in membrane.

I stayed around to witness the next two being born back feet first and I gave both of them a sling by the back legs to help flush fluid from their airways in an attempt to give them a better chance of survival. The birthing process was quite interesting and most of what I had read was actually happening, Doreen shivering and the twitching of the back upper leg then there was the clear discharge prior to the actual arrival.

After the fourth there was, what I had presumed, the afterbirth. On checking back a little later another piglet had arrived and then by 11:30 there were 2 more to make seven, and what looked more logically to be the placenta.

Its very scary watching by yourself even after reading all about the processes as its difficult to really establish whether or not there really are problems and exactly how and at what point you would intervene. Probably much like you wouldnt read a book about cricket and then go out and play a game without some hands on training.

Where as Beatrice had given birth late afternoon before a cold night, Doreens birth was in the morning in much milder conditions, even so I had the heat lamp already in the shed turn on. This didnt however prevent 2 casualties that evening where Doreen had rolled on them. Its so disheartening to find the squashed bodies, the alternative is the farrowing pen which goes against letting the animals exhibit their natural behaviours.

We now stand at 5 little pigs with the runt surviving, 3 males and 2 females all snuggled up under the heat lamp and Doreen having a well earned rest as we enter into the second evening.

The Three Little Pigs

Friday evening was a bizare but rewarding evening. At 5:30pm with my usual feeding routine I headed to the pig paddock to feed the crew. No one was in sight so I yelled the ritual, "pig, pig, pig, Prince, Doreen, Beatrice" Prince being his usually enthusatic self stuck his head out of the galvernized iron water tank converted into a pig shed and looked around then bolted the 50 yards toward me. Doreen then emerged and waddled in my general direction. I yelled several more times for Beatrice but she didnt appear. I got to the shed and stuck my head in and was bowled over by the sight of Beatrice lying on her side and two tiny little pigs staggering about in their fragile state not really bigger than my hand.

Panic set in, this wasnt meant to occur yet. Beatrice hadnt even looked like she was ready. She had dropped around the back udder area, however her teats hadnt looked like they had formed yet, not compared with other near farrowing sows Id seen.

In the Chaotic state of my thoughts there were a number issues I was trying to resolve quickly, getting Doreen and Prince out of the Paddock, creating a barrier so Beatrice could exit the shed but the piglets couldnt, establishing an escape area for the piglets, food, water and protecting the piglets against cold and foxes.

I lead Doreen, then Prince back to the house pens individually and by the time I returned to the shed at 6:30pm the third piglet was born. I took the tail gate off my ute and put it against the pigshed entrance propped up by rocks dirt so the piglets couldnt excape and then put a gate inside the shed as a piglet escape area. I gathered food and water for Beatrice and as for guarding against foxes I pondered getting our keplie sheep dog, Basil, and tying him up near the shed but thought that he would bark all night and possibly stress Beatrice so I decided to park my ute next to the shed and camp for the night. I hoped that me checking regurally and the body heat of Beatrice would protect against the cold and for 2 of the 3 it did.

I dropped off between about 3:30 and when I awoke at 4:30 I checked and found the last piglet born lying out by herself and when I picked her up she was alive but ridgidly cold. I brought he back into the ute and cranked up the heating. At 6am her body temp had returned and I bought her back to the house and placed her under a heat lamp and went and collected colesterum from Beatrice and then every 30 minutes fed her Natalies baby formula. She then started to struggle breathing like there was still fluid in the respirtory system. As per the literature I swung her by her back legs between my legs. This did provide some relief however Im guessing the fluid had been down there for too long and she passed away around 4pm.

Not long after that we brought Beatrice and the two piglets up to the farrowing pen they were meant to be in to begin with. We were hoping there would be more then 3 however not surprised as Beatrice is getting on and aparently litter sizes decrease the older a sow becomes.

Tomorrow Ill be ear notching which is required for identification purpose. I think Doreen is now also close to farrowing so Ill be a little more prepared however I wasnt expecting them both to be farrowing around the same time.

After writing the above and before retiring for the evening I went to check on the piglets. Only one was visible. After looking around the pen I nudged Beatrice to move and as I suspected one of the piglets laid squashed to death underneath. So the Three Little Pigs are now One. Its a harsh reality of life.

Crutching

With Lambing at Greenvale in full swing with one mob of sheep a second mob were being prepared today starting with crutching. The sheep were rounded up the night before and as many as will fit are put inside the shearing sheed and a number of them put under the shearing shed in case it rained. Aparently shearers dont like shearing wet sheep.

After the shearers finishing crutching they are pushed out the shoot. Once enough sheep have been crutched they are pushed up a run with the help of Ace our Australian Kelpie so that they cant move. This helps with the next process which is drenching which prevents worms.

The sheep are now ready for the next process. The lambing.

Time for some more wood

Our wood reserves are slightly low so we loaded up the ute with the chainsaw, the logsplitter and the kids and hunted some dead wood.

While we did manage to fill the back of my dual cab ute with fire wood we really need to spend a good full day gathering wood.

Farm Day 08 with the Claytons

Farm Day is an Australian wide initiative which one of the many goals is to bridge the gap between rural and city folk. This year around 350 Farm families played host to city families for a day and have the city cousins get involved in the day to day farming activities. Farm day allows farming families educate the city folk in the reality of farm life and practices.

We volunteered to be farming hosts this year. Our guests originally from North Leach in the UK but more recently in Melbourne were the Claytons. James and Rachael with Polly (3yr) and Kate(3mths old) and Liz (James mother) arrived at Greenvale late Friday afternoon just in time for the end of day feeding of the animals. I introduced the Claytons to our assortment of poultry and fed Doreen the Wessex Saddle back and then ventured down to a paddock near by and fed Prince and Beatrice our other two saddle backs.

After getting the kids to bed we adjourned to the dining room for some scintillating conversation regarding farming practices over several bottles of red wine while dining on roast leg of Greenvale Lamb in front of a roaring fire.

The next day was a special day, not only because we where hosting our city cousins but because it was Pollys 3rd birthday. We started the day by assigning responsibility to Polly to let out the chickens, checking all was well with the wee chickens. Ben was having none of the reassignment so we then decided both Polly and Ben should let the chickens out. Then it was on to feeding Doreen, in the house pens, and then giving Rory the calf his breakfast and then down to lower house paddocks to feed Prince and Beatrice.

On the way back to the house Yuri the photographer from the Weekly times arrived and we spent the next hour and a half trying to get the perfect photo. This ranged from gathering around Prince to marching in line formation up the fence line. For our second round of shots we gathered around the round hay bale situated in Rory the calf and Madison the lambs paddock. Neither Rory nor Madison wanted to come and pose in front of the haybale neither did Ace or Basil our Australian Kelpies that wandered by at that point. At one point Yuri yelled at me to just grab the calf and drag it over... yeah right. We did however manage to make the front page of the Weekly times (Well Madison and Polly did).

After our photo shoot and after what was to be our breakfast but more like brunch of home grown poached eggs and bacon we regrouped and headed out to shift sheep. We had a herd of sheep that required shifting from a paddock over the road that we were planning to crop to the top end of the property. Over the road we saw a bunch of our resident Kangaroos and then rounded up the sheep with the help of our Keplies Ace and Basil. The sheep essentially shifted themselves and we just tagged along for the ride.

Once the sheep were locked up in their new pasture we headed back to the homestead via the old orchard. Ben and I ditched the quadbike and climbed in the back of the ute for a trip to the wheatgrass paddock to check out the steers. Our second large wildlife spotting was on the way to the Back Block paddock, a wedge tailed eagle flew over us and landed on a large dead tree beside the river dropping whatever it had in its claws due to the fact that it was being harassed by a bunch of crows.

We did a bit of wheatgrass bashing and drove through the wheatgrass which was as tall as the ute and then went and check the cattle an animal which Liz seems to somewhat fear. She was admirably strong though in confronting her fears.

It was a light grazing lunch of cold cuts, cheese, salads, nice bread etc. It was grazing as it wasnt really long since we had tucked into bacon and eggs. During lunch we read and listened to Rachaels and Pollys interview with the ABC (http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2008/05/23/2253406.htm) and realised that she and Polly were keen on seeing the big tractor. Where as we had planned to go gathering firewood there was no doubt what we would be doing. So we all got loaded up into our respective cars and headed off to our other property at Mafeking which backed onto the Grampians where brother Scott was sowing with the big tractor we have named Shrek. When it came time for rides Ben shot up the ladder like a bullet and fended everyone else off as its the machine that he believes that only he and Uncle Scott are in charge of.

It was Polly and Rachaels turn to ride Shrek however when it came time for Polly to climb up into the cab it all became a bit intimidating and Rachael rode shotgun without Pollcy with Scott cutting a couple of laps sowing oats. To experience this first hand is invaluable as it really inspires thought provoking questions and really opens up an educational dialog.

After group photos with Shrek it was time to head back to the homestead and..... birthday celebrations and the cutting of the cake and of course a well earned cup of tea.

Although we would have loved to have the Claytons stay another evening they had to get back for commitments back in Melbourne. James and Rachael mentioned that the visit well exceeded their expectations and we agreed that it did ours also.

Thanks to Deb Bain and the Farm Day team not only did the day achieve its goals of education it also as equally importantly generated a new friendship. (See all pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com.au/AnthonyKumnick/FarmDay)

You looken at me?

Hey Beatrice, youve got a bit of food on your lip there !!!

Lambing

The first of ewes in lamb will soon have finished lambing and its been quite sucessful so far compared to last year when we lost litterally hundreds of lambs to the forces of nature, the cold, crows, foxes and eagles. This year by comparison we have only loss a hand full. Amanda and Jude witnessed one ewe giving birth to 4 lambs... Ben and I past by one night and found one by itself which we picked up and relocated nearer the flock hoping that it would find its mother.