rain

December 8, 2014

As The Storm Clouds Gather

This week our storm season has heralded it’s arrival with many bangs, crashes, rumbles and flashes of light. With it, thankfully, has come some rain. Not a lot, but combined with the humidity it’s getting the grass moving.

This afternoon,  from about lunchtime on, massive thunder heads built and turned into wild storms that closed the Pacific Highway and put on a mighty fine light show for hours.

Just on dark, as we walked back home from the dairy, Jess noticed some interesting clod formations. 

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This storm had passed to the south of us, and seemed to be rolling back in off the coast directly from the east.

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This was taken a few minutes later, looking southwest. The clouds were forming interesting ridges and whorls.

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This is the same direction about ten minutes later from 500 metres down the road. Those clouds look a little hail like for mine!

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This last one was taken from The Bight lookout near Wingham.  That dark line to the left is actually a bolt of lightning, but my camera (read Aspera Tradies phone) was on the wrong speed.

These beautiful clouds brought very little moisture with them, but they were lovely to see after so long with bright blue skys.

August 27, 2014

Weather Update and New Beginnings!

I really want to thank all those who read my last two weather reports – they can be found here and here – and tell you how much I appreciate your concern. It really does make a difference to know people care.

Well, here’s is the final update.

It looks like, at this stage, the live export trade is not effected by the sanctions. Though we know the export market from here won’t last for various other reasons and have prepared ourselves for this. But what the ongoing effects will be for the dairy industry are yet to be seen. Watch this space……

My last post was a cryptic one, I know!

I didn’t want to say too much in case it all fell through – again!

At the beginning of August, we were offered as many of 120 cows as we wanted for free. We took 85 of them. Before it rained. When feed was short.

Madness, right?

Maybe! It brings our milking herd to just over 200 cows.

So about now you’re probably going “Great! What? Free!?!? How does that happen??”

Some of you may remember about a year ago we were going to start breeding Wagyu X calves for the Japanese export market using cows we didn’t need to pay for. Except the person we had to deal with at the time was behaving in a very shady manner. If you don’t know, its here.

Well, its now being run by a far more competent person. They offered us the cows, we took them!

The deal is, they supply us 85 cows, we supply them 85 Wagyu X calves weighing 110kg’s.

Wagyu calves are notoriously hard to keep alive. I have had a few (OK, a lot of!) people be very negative about the whole thing.

You know they were born to die?

Have you ever reared a Wagyu before?

But we have done our homework, don’t worry!!!

And we have surrounded ourselves with positive people willing to help.

I realised a long time ago that if you listen with an open mind to those who know what you don’t, the information will flow.

And it has!

So, what brought this on?

Dean, hubby’s first born, decided he wanted to come back to the family farm. It’s something I’m not 100% sold on. I feel, at 19, he needs to be out exploring the world and how he fits into it. But, it is what it is!

And he – rightly so I guess – wants to be payed…
And to be able to pay him, we need to grow our herd.

To have him home, though, means another set of hands. We have another man who turns up most days and helps because we have taken some of his cows in.

So all the stars were aligning big time!

We had hands, ability and the offer to get big without too many overheads!

We didn’t have rain or feed though. It has rained since and we are hoping the grass grows quickly.

We anguished over this decision more than we have for any other decision. This is a huge commitment. Huge!

The cows arrived 2 weeks ago. So far, we’ve handled it!

Oh, 22 Wagyu X calves turned up with the cows! Ages vary from 6 weeks old right down to 2 newborns. So I was thrown right in the deep end!

So far, so good!!!

One of the reasons I started this blog was because there is no information readily available about rearing Wagyu calves in Australia. So I thought I would put the information out as I discovered it!

And I think this would be the perfect opportunity to show the negative Nancies that it can be done, you just need to follow the rules! In the mean time, I’ll use their negativity to fuel my fire.

Maybe time will show I am cocky and arrogant. Maybe we will be game changers in the industry! Who knows.

One thing I do know is this….

You won’t know if you don’t have a go!

So, I will endeavour to keep those of you that are interested up to date with the goings on with these calves!

And, as happens, lots of other great things have started to fall into place on other fronts as well! But that’s for another day…

Exciting times ahead for us!

By the way, I have deliberately not mentioned names or companies. I am still trying to get in contact with people to get permission and set boundaries.

 

July 25, 2014

Silly Mistakes

I made a silly mistake.

I looked at the 28 day forecast.

Mid North Coast 28-day rainfall forecast

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
26
High
27 28 29
Low		 30 31 1

Aug

 2
Low
3 4 5 6 7
Low		 8 9
10 11 12
Low		 13
Low		 14
Low		 15
Low		 16
Low
17 18 19 20
Med		 21 22
Low
Chance of rainfall somewhere within district
Nil
<25%		 Low
25-50%		 Medium
50-75%		 High
≥75%

The high for Saturday is a 90% chance of 5-10ml.

The 12 month forecast was even more depressing.

Then on the My Weather page, I found this.

Taree Ap Year To Date
Average rainfall to Jul 781.0mm 91.0 day(s)
Total for 2014 342.4mm 91 day(s)
Total to this day 2013 1009.2mm 98 day(s)
Wettest day 90.6mm Mar 2
Lowest temperature 0.2°C Jun 28
Highest temperature 37.5°C Jan 2

It shows we’ve had less than half our rainfall for the year. On top of the less than half we had last year. If you haven’t read that blog, you can here.

We are one of the lucky few who have some fodder conserved. It’s not brilliant, but its better than nothing.

The rain is something we cannot control.

Nan’s philosophy was it always rains at the end of a drought.

Thank you – I think – to Elders Weather for the information.

 

 

 

 

July 17, 2014

Daily Prompt – Nosey Delights

From the yeasty warmth of freshly baked bread to the clean, summery haze of lavender flowers, we all have favorite smells we find particularly comforting. What’s yours?

I was lucky enough to grow up in a peaceful, lush and at the time, isolated place called Nowendoc.

Our 900 acres of hilly beef cattle country is bordered to the west by a State Forest. My parents still have a 99 year perpetual lease on 300 acres within the boundaries of the forest where we used to put mature cows to winter. I say used to because they don’t put any stock there now. Too many have gone missing with the only trace being horseshoe marks in soft soil.

When I was a child I was a loner.

At school I spent my lunchtime reading in an out of bounds area which the principal ignored (she got me).

At home I spent my daylight hours on a horse.

I would catch my horse on the weekend in the morning, might come in for lunch, but mostly I’d get home with enough time for my horse to dry off before the cool night arrived.

These are the days that my nosey delights come from.

If I think hard and breath deep, I can smell…

The sweet smell of my horse, slightly sweaty.

The earthy scent of freshly disturbed humus rich soil.

A whiff of musty honey near a native bee nest.

The occasional stench of death.

I think the one I miss the most is the smell of a summer storm rolling in from the west.

I would feel the air pressure change and my excitement would build.

There would be a rumble of thunder you could feel as much as you could hear.

A waft of earthy scent building to the glorious and unique smell of our native eucalypt forest that I’ve never smelt anywhere else.

Slowly, the fresh smell if the rain mingled with the forest, cleaning the air.

These are the smelly memories of my childhood.

My happy place.