We couldn’t ask for better weather for Family Day! A great day to get outside. I expected to be on my way to Toronto for the Beef Farmers of Ontario AGM. My boyfriend / partner ended up not feeling good and ended up in the hospital. They are planning on sending him on to Thunder Bay for further testing, but he was my farm sitter for the week. It was much too short of notice to try and make arrangements for someone to come and take care of the farm. I wavered on cancelling but while I was trying to get my head around it all I had a cow calve, so thought that might have been my sign to just stay home. I was sad and disappointed, but life happens. Not all is lost, I can join parts of the meeting on-line. I will certainly miss out on the fellowship but there will be other years I can attend. I need to be smarter and start training someone to take my place for circumstances like this. I will put it on my list. Like I have explained before, if it is just doing regular chores, it isn’t so bad but when you’re calving it adds a whole other level. Not everyone is willing to truck around every couple of hours all night long. I do have a decent camera system, but nothing is a good as a walk about.
My first calf was out of a second-time calver, and she had a nice little heifer. I figure now that I am home, I won’t have much activity until the end of the week. It looks to be a nice week so that takes a lot of the stress out of the season. As I have mentioned in the past all our animals have an RFID tag in their ear. I am going to try out a new style this year. It is a bit smaller and thought I would see how they worked. Most of our tag complaints are about tag retention. Not so much in the calves but the cows. They just find ways to lose them.
Marlee was out on Saturday and helped me apply the “Clean-Up” product on the cows. They were all getting very itchy with lice so this product should clear that up. They get so itchy they scratch patches of hair off and it looks terrible. You can reapply this product, if necessary, but I am hoping one treatment is enough.
The Rainy River Federation of Agriculture is hosting Ag Day once again on April 6th. They are in the stage of looking for sponsors and businesses that would like to take part in their trade show. Since they are using the Barwick Hall, there is an option to display larger items outside if you should desire. If you are interested, please reach out to Rebecca Mahon at 807-276-3616 or Bernie Zimmerman at 807-275-7912. It is always a great event and you won’t want to miss out!
