I can often measure the hormonal maturation process of our yearling males anecdotally, just by looking out of my office window. In the spring, when those feed groups of young boys (we usually have at least 2 different ones) are still just approaching their respective 1st birthdays, there is of course the odd jostling here…
What a week it’s been here! On Monday we blitzed through a full blown version of herd health day (read: with toe nail trimming) in just 5 and a half hours. Even by our standards, that was pretty quick for 250 animals. Though as my better half pointed out, the due girls were all kind enough…
It got a little bit whiney around here the other day. With shearing completed early last week, it was finally time to wean the last 12 crias (8 males, 4 females) from the 2012 birth class! Fitting, I suppose, that they should leave the confines of the Arena just prior to the arrival up there…
Mother Nature was toying with us yesterday on our last scheduled shearing day of 2013. I got back from dropping the boys off at school and pulled into the Arena’s parking lot here at the farm only to see snow flakes hitting the roof of our car. Needless to say, I was not amused. While…
Hard to believe but it’s that time of year again already. Just 2 months or so after putting the 2011 show season to bed it’s already time to start doing a bit of planning for our first spring shows in April. Admittedly, if we were hardcore we could be heading off on the road in…
Those of us that have done this for a while are well aware that a juvenile’s fleece can change radically over the course of a year. Not always necessarily for the better either. Though having said that it is rare for a cria which impressed us early on, to then flat line completely in their…
