Spent the day being a Welsh Smallholder

I spent the day being a Smallholder near Aber helping a lady out who's just had her hip replaced.
I did a mini Dispatch, Pluck & Gut session and lesson for 2 people, to sort out a pen full of cockerels.

I dispatched them, showed them how to pluck and the others helped pluck. We then gutted them after leaving them to hang for a few hours.

I also made friends with goat kids, pigs and llamas!
She's struggling keeping too many chickens and ducks so I rehomed 3 to a friend and am trying to sell a few of her ducks for her.
Was a good day :)

After, we went to see Danny and Lady (the horses) to drop off 3 chickens and while we were there I tried to sort out a Silkie with really bad lice and Scaley Leg Mite problem - we gave her a bath but she was really struggling so had to dispatch her too.

Afternoon riding

Had an awesome afternoon riding Danny round the paddock!

Love this photo of Danny sticking his tongue out:

Victoria my flatmate and horse expert took the photos which I think turned out really well!

 

Dissertation

Can I use this photo in my Dissertation to sum up my Materials and Methods section?

Dermanyssus gallinae - Poultry Red Mite

Looking at Dermanyssus gallinae, Poultry Red Mite, under the microscope for my Dissertation!

I'm testing the efficacy of 5 essential oils at killing red mite in a lab situation...

Another day in the office...

Another day in the office?
I can't complain on a day like today

Loving life on the farm

Pet lambs and Quad bikes

We have a massive pen of Cade or Pet lambs on the Uni farm and I gave them a bit of environmental enrichment today with a few bales of straw, footballs and a bouncy space hopper! :P

Sian getting attacked by pet lambs:

...and Cody Bab!

3 of us chilling on a Quad Bike at 4 o'clock in the morning :)

Photos from the Uni Lambing farm...

Love this Blue Faced Leicester ewe and her happy little lamb

 2 BFL lambs stealing milk from their ewes while they were eating silage...

 "Did THAT just come out of ma foof?!"

Badly prolapsed ewe

We had a single Welsh Mule ewe tonight with a badly prolapsed uterus - no caruncles so not THE worst one I've seen but still pretty bad.
The guy we took over from said she'd been like it for a few hours but he hadn't thought to call the vet out...

We we're on our own so thought about taking her down to the vets in the pick-up but in the end we decided it was easier to call the vet out to us.
Keith came out, cleaned her and stitched her up - said it was a 50/50 chance she'd make it but she had lots of painkillers and antibiotics to kill off any infections and she's looking ok a few hours on.
It's interesting speaking to Keith the vet 'cos he's recently graduated from Budapest vet school and he seems to have done really well with the course. I get the idea that its quite practical and hands on so they learn the theory and put it into practice, which is how I learn better so I'm definitely going to look at studying abroad after I graduate.

One of the good things about being a Uni farm and on trial is that no expense is spared with regards to veterinary treatment, painkillers and antibiotics. If she had done that on another farm, the farmer would probably have stitched her up himself without giving painkillers and see how she gets on.

TB Testing on Uni farms

Have been out Bovine TB testing all the cattle on the Uni farms for the last few weeks - the few week old calves, all the beef animals and dairy cows had to be done!

We went out and tested them on Mondays and read the results 72 hours on Thursdays.

Was really interesting to spend time with Phil the vet and different farmers to ask loads of questions and see how they got on with it; was interesting to ask differing opinions about the Badger cull too...
Apart from my dairy placement I've not had much else to do with cattle so this was really good for me getting to handle so many animals in such a short space of time. We had young calves, growing beef animals and old dairy cows which all needed to be tested - I'd never used a cattle crush before either so I learned pretty quickly that if the human operating it isn't quick enough, you're straight on to chasing that cow back into the crush!

The farmers see it as a bit of a chore and loads of paper work, the vets see it as something which has to be done (and a money maker) and the farm staff see it as more paperwork, a chance to check every animal has 2 ear tags and to double check the cows we have. are the cows we think we have!

It all went really well and thankfully we didn't have any TB positive animals.

Lambing overload

Because of all the changes in staff there's a much happier atmosphere on the farm this year so if they ask us to stay a few hours extra, we're happy to do it!
I think that now we've been here 3 years, the other staff respect us a bit more and trust us to do things without them having to check up that we've done the job properly.

One week when both of the other lambers were away, Cody and I did somehow end up doing a 27 hour shift, only leaving the farm in the Defender to go to Morrisons and McDonalds for breakfast but after too many cups of coffee we did it ...and we won't moan when we get paid for it!

We've had visits from Uni security when sheep have been on the main road into town so we had to race up there in the Pickup truck, herd the sheep back into the field and then tie hurdles to the fences to keep the sheep in!

If they offered us a job for a year working on the farms I think we'd both snatch it up and have an awesome time!

Cantering for the first time on Danny

I know I need to put my heels down and sort my reins out... only had 5 lessons tho ;)

Uni Farm Lambing 2013

We're lambing on the Uni Farm again this year and it's completely different!

Loads has changed - there's a new farm manager, head shepherd (well, we don't have one at the moment!), we're covering most nights and all the staff seem happier. The 2 main lads Tom and Hefin are younger than the old one so we get on really well with them.

We've been doing most nights (12 hours which end up running over to 14 hours most nights) so practically living on the farm and they've put us on the vehicles insurance so we can drive round the farms, into town or home in the Uni vehicles!

Get to choose from the 2 pick up trucks, Land Rover Defender, a quad bike or a hundred odd tractors! haha
My favourite at the moment is the Defender!

Bareback with Danny

I jumped on Danny bareback to take him up to the field earlier to see if I could balance and just because he could.

I know from the photos that I need to put my heels down but I was concentrating too much on other things to think about that.

This was just before he trotted off up the lane with me - luckily he stopped at his gate where Dylan was waiting for him.

Started Lambing at the Uni Farm

Started my first night at the Uni farm tonight! As usual they were a bit(!) unorganised and called me in at 6.30pm for a 7.30pm start but managed to get there - security code didn't work but should all be sorted now :P

It's a Performance Recorded Flock so we do research which is all Home Office approved and so if any of the ewes need help, pain killers or medicine we can just call a vet.
It also means that we have to record any medicines we give them, the research means we do data collection about the ewes and lambs, how much feed they have, how much bedding etc etc.

Going to be spending nights for the next 3 months here and I'm really looking forward to it!

New best friend

Meet my new best friend, Danny.

We went out on a hack today through the Ceredigion countryside with me on Danny and Sophie on Lady.
They were both really well behaved and Danny was really good for me. He trotted across a field when I asked him to, even though I was a bit nervous of getting him to stop - but I managed to sit to his trot, which is completely different to the horse I ride at the riding school.

Hacking out

My brother Nat has been in Aber this week so we went up to see the horses and took Lady and Danny out for a hack.

Sophie went up front with Lady and I followed with Danny, we had Nat and Victoria walking with them to keep an eye on traffic and hold the horses if they needed to.

Nat doesn't like horses and is probably a bit scared of horses but we stuck a hat on him and Danny was good as gold!

Teaching a new inexperienced lamber

Sophie my friend and flatmate has never been Lambing before and so have been teaching her how to lamb!

This was a Welsh Mule twin who I think had already had her first lamb. She took about half an hour to have the next lamb so we turned her over and checked that everything is alright.
It depends on the farm and the farmer as to how you'd go about things next - sometimes the farmer will see how the ewes go but Richard would rather we intervened and pulled every lamb so that there aren't any problems with the birth.

Sophie checked the lamb was coming in a diving position - 2 legs pointing forwards and a nose following along behind.

They were so she pulled the 2 legs with contractions...

...until they extended, were both out and the nose was nearly out of the vagina...

...and pull!

A mahoosive lamb!
It's covered in yellow Meconium which shows that the lamb was stressed - we were right to intervene and pull it as it was obviously distressed in the womb.


Deio the New Zealand Huntaway dog!

Started Lambing 2013

Aberystwyth, Wales, and I'm back Lambing again for 2013 and LOVING it!

We started in the second week of February so have done a few nights already - am doing 3 or 4 nights a week for Richard and then will start the Uni farm in a few weeks!

This year the girls from last year aren't coming so I have a few new friends coming along who've never need lambing before so am teaching them the ropes!

Lambing sequence:

Looks like a big Suffolk single

Wiped the gunk away from his mouth and he was up and running around in 10 mins!
After this we'd give him Spectam (a scour halt) and spray a strong Iodine solution on his navel to stop infections trafficking up it and to stop joint ill.

Teaching Daf to jump on the beach

We've been on the beach all afternoon teaching Daf how to jump!

We started working with him in October and he was pretty uncatchable and unhandlable so now he'd backed and jumping its awesome!

We started off walking him over a line in the sand, then a stick, a few stones etc and worked it up to this - he'd jumping really well now.

Not sure who's having more fun - him or me but thank god for my waterproof trousers.

Getting Daf used to water

Now that Daf has moved to Livery he's literally a 2 minute walk to the beach so we took him down earlier to get him used to water and the pebbles etc.

He's lived in a kind of marshy field before so has met puddles but I think it was all a it different being led in with a bridle on. He did really well though and the curiosity got the better of him!

Moving Daf to Livery

We moved Daf from his field with Tinks and Flos to livery with his owners other horse, a couple weekends ago and have been going up getting him used to being stabled as he's never been in before.

When Amanda asked us to move him we expected to be loading him into a trailer but when we turned up she was there with two high vis jackets for me a Victoria and she asked us to walk him.

She said it shouldn't take long but after she explained where it was it sounded quite far.
It took us two and three quarter hours walking in the pouring rain to get him there.

Anyway, he's pretty cheeky and has been drinking from the hosepipe as we've been trying to fill up his bucket...

Looking forward to Lambing 2013

I'm really looking forward to another season of Lambing!

I have the new job at the Uni farm which I think will be about 6 weeks split between me and Cody - not sure if we'll be in pairs, on our own, or what yet though. At least at the Uni farm there's somewhere warm to sit and do Dissertation work, if we're quiet with the Lambing!

Richard from Glanystwyth rang me a few weeks ago to ask if I could go Lambing for him again this year. It'll be 3 or 4 weeks of 9pm-6am which is quite a lot when we have lectures and Uni too.
I asked the 3 girls who have come for the last 2 years but they didn't want to come 'cos of Uni etc which is fair enough. A few other people on my course want to come this year but have never been Lambing before, so it'll be really good to have help but will need to help and teach them how to Lamb too...

I thought about it and can't do 7 nights a week this year so said I'd do 3 nights - which is awkward splitting it when 4 people want to come with but it'll be fine.
He won't want 5 of us there every night ('cos its usually just 1 person) and I can't afford to split the money 5 ways and do it for £1 an hour or I'd rather stay at home in bed! :P So I've said I can give lifts to save £20 taxi's and will buy them waterproofs etc.

The 2 farms are so completely different...
First the Uni farm is a modern, almost clinical, performance-recorded system where we don't pull much and have to measure and record every detail for research:

Then Glanystwyth is a traditional Welsh farm with a massive shed with 1,200 Organic ewes and lots of little barns with lambs in:

Not sure when Uni start but Glanystwyth start in 2 weeks! :)

Smurf the Unicorn

It's been challenging but I've been working with a Unicorn this week. He's been easy to catch and lead into his stable but has yet mastered flying but we have plenty of time to work on that.

 HEY SMURF

New Job! "Relief Stockman and Dairy Worker"

I've just had an email to say they'll offer me a job on the Uni farms as a Relief Stockman and Dairy Worker!

Most of the work will be Lambing before and during Easter but they'll also try and get me some Dairy work which would be really good. I want to try and get more experience on the Quad and Tractors - quad is easy but have only really driven the old tractor at the dairy farm to scrape out the yard. Would be good to get more experience, especially when we'll be applying for jobs once graduated this Summer.

The application form says it will "involve assistance with weekend checking and feeding of sheep, assistance with lambing, assistance in the milking rotas or with calf rearing activities."
Cody also got the job so I guess it helped that they knew us from Lambing the past 2 years!

Looking forward to starting it next year!

Uni Farm Work - Interview

I went for my interview for the Relief Stockman and Dairy Workers job at the Uni farm this morning and think it went quite well!

There were a panel of 3 people interviewing, the head of the whole Department and Uni Farms, the Farms Manager (who I know from Lambing) and our Course Director, so they kind of knew me when I went in.

Then asked about my CV and experienced, asked questions about what I'd do in particular situations etc.
I said I didn't have much experience driving a tractor but am really keen to learn, which they said is something they'd be able to help with.

They were also asking about what hours/days I could do, whether term-time or vacations (both) and if I had a car to get there.
Milking will start at 5am so I'd have to be up at 4am!

Hopefully hear sooooon

Lunge lessons with Lady

We've been back with Lady the Welsh D today and changed from long reigning to lunging.
It's been a learning curve for both Lady and me - neither of us have lunged before and I think we did pretty well!

She took quite a bit of encouragement to get her walking and it took me a few goes to get the timing ring without ending up halfway across the field but eventually we got the hang of it and she was starting to listen to me with walk, trot and stop.

Hey Daf

Dairy Placement in Aberystwyth

I thought I needed to do some more work experience in Aber this year.
I've started helping to back and break in 2 young horses and thought Milking would be a really good idea.
Lambing in great and love doing it but its only 6-8 weeks of the year so thought we could do Milking a couple of days a week before or after lectures so would be good experience and doesn't get in the way of Uni work like Lambing can.

Now the hard part was finding a placement!
Uni built a new Rotary Dairy parlour near Trawscoed last year but when I asked we didn't get very far trying to get a placement there. I don't know any local dairy farmers so asked around and didn't really find anyone so went back to the Uni farm...

After a few emails and speaking to the Farms Manager they decided they were looking for relief milkers and stockmen. To apply for the job we needed to hand in a CV and fill out a 10 page application form!

Anyway, I handed it in yesterday and now we wait!

Work on the Uni farm?

I've been looking for Dairy work in Aber for ages, and Uni have just built a massive new rotary milking parlour for a few hundred cows so would be really good to work there.

I emailed the Farms Manager asking about work and work experience etc but haven't had a reply. They've just opened up a Vacancy on the Uni farms looking for Relief Stockmen and Dairy Workers, I says is for experienced people only and looks really good.
I meet the Essential Criteria and most of the Desired (I don't have Tractor driving experience - but willing to learn!). I've worked on the Uni farms for the last 2 years doing Lambing so that should help too

Will apply and see what happens! :)

Uni 3rd Year

Can't believe I'm in the 3rd year of my Animal Science degree already!

We've started lectures, had meetings about my Dissertation (booked a lab induction and have a hand in date for it!) and got practical dates.
They're mainly lab practically and no dissections which I think is the best bit but they're left to first years!

Have been trying to get some more work experience in Aber - Lambing is good but it's only 6/8 weeks of the year so thought Milking might be a good idea. Either one or a couple of mornings milking a week and could do more/less depending in timetables and exams.

The Newcomer in Fancy Fowl magazine

Grant Brereton, editor of Fancy Fowl asked me to write an article as 'The Newcomer' about Poultry Showing for Beginners and I was in Septembers issue!

Kilo is all grown up

I went to see Kilo my pet sheep earlier and he's all grown up now!

He lives with a couple of Pygmy goats, Dave and Wendy, a few other sheep and some chickens and is living the life of Riley.
We had a BBQ at the field and he came and sat at our feet, probably waiting for food, for a good few hours while we chatted away!