Dairy photos

Got some photos on the Dairy Farm so thought I'd pop them on here!

Calves nomming on my hand...


Sid! My favourite calf :)

 Little red calf


 Lesbanim calves kissing each other


 Inside the milking parlour...


 Cow being milked


 Clusters / Milking unit on a cows udder


 Cow on antibiotics being milked out into a dump bucket


 Milked out mastitic milk

And last but not least!

Me with my arm up a cow...

Third day at the Dairy farm this week and like it!

I scraped out the yard with this little old Case tractor! :))

Told Michael I couldn't reverse but he said would be fine and I was :P I did down along the cubicles and didn't crash... he did have to do between the cubicles nearest the parlour 'cos it was fiddly but only 'cos we were in a rush.

Dairy - Been milking!

Been milkin' today! :D
Got there at 9 and had to scrape out and then bed down (sawdust + straw) all the beds (for 80+ cows).
Then bedded down some more and moved some heifers out, bulls over and moved some calves :)

Went out in the Tractor with Michael to give cows out in the fields some straw. "Have you ever driven a tractor?" Nope "Ahh, you'll be fine!" ... didn't today but they'z said I might be scraping out :) - will warn them I hate reversing ;)

Did some jetwashing + then home for lunch 'cos its only round the corner.

More jetwashing then prepped + washed 4 calves with Anna ready for a show at Stoneleigh!

Got the cows into the yard + into the dairy and started milking! The parlour is all mechanised and has sensors, 2 walkways either side with 4 bays. A gate opens to let cows in + then out after too.
They all have numbered collars on so you put that into the machine and put the milking clusters on - have to check they're not on antib's or have mastitis, they get milked into a dump bucket, not the bulk tank.
Fed some calves their milk in buckets and had my hand nommed and clothes sucked!

Washed all the clusters + all the floors in the parlour and that was us for the day! :D

Going Milking!

I decided a while ago that I wanted to get some Dairy and Calving work experience.
I applied years ago to a place round the corner but got turned down 'cos I was too young for insurance - think I was 16 or 17 at the time.

I wrote a letter explaining what I'm doing at Uni and what experience I already have and took it to a local dairy farm. I spoke to a lady there, the farmers daughter and she rang me a couple days later, I can go next Monday! :))

Have experience with most farm animals now but hardly any with cows so am looking forward to it.
Start at 9am which I thought seemed quite late for milking but we'll see!

Womble progress!

Was SO happy with Womble (one of the rescue ponies) today! :D

He let me hold him on a lead rope straight away this morning, then we let him smell the brush + managed to brush him all over (apart from his tail) combed his mane and let us spray him to make him all shiny.
Kevin came to look and was surprised! After a few goes I managed to pick up his foot and then Steffie hoof picked his front feet and everything!

We took him for a walk onto the yard on a lunge rope with Kevin and took a few photos, took him back to the stable and he refused to go in for Steffie + Kevin and would only go in for me :P

Considering he needed 2 lots of sedations and a tranquilisation dart just to get a head collar on him a few weeks ago, he's come a MASSIVE way in just 2 days.
I think he really trusts me now + know it sounds stupid but theres some connection!
ily him :))

Making friends with Womble

Been a horsey day at work today!
Helped Steffie muck out all the stables, I say help, I just held the horses, got straw and emptied the barrow. Think theres 16 although a couple have chicken stuff + tack in!

We took a few horses out to the field to give us 6 stables for some horses coming in.

Womble the little pony came in as a rescue and was really skitty and has been calming down a lot.
Me + Steffie went in and he let me hold his head collar rope today so we stood with him for ages. Let him go + did it again. He doesn't like women as much but eventually let Steffie get him.

He still won't let us touch him much, only his nose + face, but managed to scratch his neck :)

Cambridge Agric Tour; Pigs

The sows farrow in these outdoor units which are bedded down with deep straw. When they're due to farrow they nest down and the little windows at the back means the farmers are able to check on them easily without disturbing her.

 Once the piglets are a couple days old they'll be up and about, running around the sty and outside.

 The sows had loads of room separated off by electric fences which the piglets could run underneath if they really wanted to but they tended to stick close to mom and not venture too far.

 After about a month the piglets were weaned and moved into groups with big automatic drinkers and feeders which they soon got used to and had a lot of space to run around and wallow in.

 You can see here the size of the field they were in and how much space the pigs had, this was just once of the fields they kept - they had tens of fields like this full of pigs.

 Everything is arranged like a clock around the central unit in the middle so if the pigs need to be handled they can just open one of the gates and herd them into the middle making it stress free and easy for the staff and the pigs.

The middle unit had lots of gates and panels to allow them to separate groups of pigs by size, sex or for any other reason easily then back up a trailer to load them straight into to move them off site or for slaughter.

Cambridge: Agric Tour

I've been to Cambridge this week on an Agric Tour to go and see loads of farms, demo farms and various new enterprising businesses.

Lots of them are LEAF demo farms (Linking Environment And Farming) so are the best of the best, and supply to Waitrose, Harvey Nichols, Harrods and other places like that.

On the way down on Tues we stopped at Bottom Farm to see Duncan Farrington who makes Mellow Yellow - Rapeseed oil, salad dressing, mayo and things like that for Waitrose and farm shops.

On Wednesday we went to G's who grow salad. They grow it from seed in big plastic trays in huuge greenhouses made from the same stuff as the Eden Project, then it gets planted out. They grow 80million lettuce each year in the greenhouse, then they buy more in from Chichester and Hull for when they plant into the ground!

Then they're planted out with a siik machine they built on-farm...

Wednesday afternoon we went to another LEAF farm that grow Organic and Conventional vegetables. We got on a trailer on the back of a tractor and he drove us round the farm!
They have to irrigate the crops (for quality rather than yield) and it costs £30,000 a week! Saw all of Waitroses organic red onions for this year in one field, and 25% of their conventional red onions.

Thursday morning we went to Thrift Farms to see Robert Law who was Farmers Weekly's "Farmer of the Year 2006" and grows crops and has sheep - 300 pet lambs this year!
Some of his sheep are on land owned by OFCOM so they're walking around the monitoring pylons and things! He has to be careful with fencing up there and can't use electric fencing 'cos it interferes with their equipment.

Thursday afternoon we went to Midloe Grange Farm to see more wheat. We were walking through a field of wheat and saw a baby hare just sat there...

Off to the vets!

Delyth (from the Uni farm) rang at half 8 and said she's on the way to the vets, did I want to go with her??

Of course I did! :P
Just had to get out of bed and she picked me up and we went straight to the vets.

The ewe had twins stuck, trying to come out at the same time! One leg was coming out first.
Managed to get them out and all 3 are alive :)))

All kicking off here now though *RollsEyes*
Lamb 24 (a PHD girls trial lamb) escaped. We were looking for it everywhere, I eventually found him round the back by the bull beef sheds.

Got a Suffolk with twins that prolapsed, pushed it back in and now she can't lamb past it
... a Blue Faced Leicester that had a prolapse, put it back in + a prolapse strap on her, who is now lambing
... another triplet ewe thats lambing.

Lambing Uni farm on my own

Lambing at Uni farm iab!

On my own tonight :( 'cos the other 3 either have friends round or are going to Cardiff!

Will be fine ... just be paranoid of the scary noises + wind! ;)

I'm staying longer in the morning (I asked) 'cos I want to go round the fields with Steve, see the sheep + hopefully turn out some lambs + ewes :)

Not normally tired when we leave at 7am so will be fine + can sleep all day ;)

Have recorded a couple lambs but not much else happening here tonight. Delyth is staying with me for a couple hours for the hand over + stuff.
Time to put the kettle on! :)

On my own and it all kicks off!!

Back in halls :)
Actually not tired at all. Was a good night shift but some stuff kicked off too!
Pulled a big Texel lamb who'd got his shoulder stuck and she threw something else out straight after... Looked like a mahoosive afterbirth + prolapse.
Phoned Delyth, she said its just a prolapse, push it back in, will be ok.
I sent her a picture and she texted me straight back... "I'm on my way, might need a vet"

We managed to get it back in eventually, holding the ewe upsode down so gravity helped us. Put a spoon and strap on to try and keep in it.

We had two 1st year Zoology girls come this morning to help. One wants to be a vet, was nice but has never even touched a sheep! The other one was soooo cocky. "I've been lambing for 3 years, I know this blahhhh" Chatting rubbish ;)
We were lambing a ewe and so I got them to help, fell and try to pull it. The cocky one messed it all up so we had to get Steve the shepherd to help in the end.

Me + Phoebe (researcher who works days) just had to walk off in the end! They've said she's not being asked back :P

Lambing pictures...

Ross the lamb:

 Milking Jordan...

 ... bottle feeding Harvey ...

 .... and bottle feeding Junior.

Tonights update...

We'z were literally just getting ready to get her to the vets and she lambed 2 of the triplets on her own!


The last one had to be pulled and had been dead inside her a couple days, but no vets ( :) but :( 'cos I didn't get to go) and she made it, with 2 lambs!

Had another ewe with 2 lambs coming at the same time ... one forwards + one back!

Had to ring Steve to come + do it but they were fine. We've ran out of pens so had to turn ewes and lambs that are ready to go out to the field, into holding pens next door (with loads of pens + runways + cool farm mechanichy stuff where they shear, vaccinate ... stuff like that) so we could move fresh lambs into their small pens.


Just had a quick shower to get rid of Eau d'Ewe. Time for bed me thinks!
Not tired at all though!

First night Uni Lambing

Was out first night lambing at the Uni farm today!
Me + Sian were there, got picked up at 10 and Delyth explained everything about the sheds ... have got Blue Faced Leicesters, Texels, Beulahs and Lleyns. Then theres their 'hybrid' sheep called the Aberdale which they're improving the prolificacy of with the Inverdale gene - they have more twins + triplets and can be kept on rubbish grass so the better grass can be kept for others!
The big shed is split in half with an invisible line and either side has to be treated as completely different sheds 'cos they're on different trials.
Can only use one sheds stuff, silage, straw etc 'cos its all weighed out and costed down to the pence.

Then theres another 2 tiny sheds outside, one of which is part of a PHD students trial.
For the trials we have to weigh the lambs, sex them, then score them on presentation, how difficult the birth was, if needed help and the level of help, vigour after 5 mins of birth, if needed help to suck, a bottle.... Then the ewe on mothering ability, milkiness etc.
Its not hard to do just need to get your head round it and it takes a bit more time to do! Is good to say you've lambed a Performance Recorded Flock and were part of trials :)

They had 1 case of Salmonella and so we've been kitted out with wellies, waterproof trousers and big high vis bomber jackets that we leave at the farm ... especially as we're lambing at another farm too.

Its such a change from the last farm, its all brand new, and has different ways of doing things. We're not meant to pull any 'cos it affects the trial data whereas we had to pull everything at the last farm.
We also have the farm office to do in which has heating! and a kettle, toaster, sandwich maker, washing machine, fridge, freezer... lol

Delyth left at half 1 and we were fine after that. Had 1 breach that we sorted out and 1 Beulah that was normal presentation but took aages to get the lamb out so we helped her. Just left them to it as best we could, if you go in and lamb everything it will affect all the trials data!

We left at half 6 and Cody + Becky turned up to do the morning shift with Steve the shepherd + learn about lambing! :)

4th Night Lambing in Wales

Video: Which one is it?!

Uni Sheep Farm...

We went to the Uni sheep farm earlier to see the shepherd + just see the farm in the light!

Theres a big shed split in half with an invisible line, then 2 small sheds and each group is treated differently and on different trials. We need to only use that groups silage, meds etc. Then have to weigh the lambs, sex, score on lambing, if needed help, if needed help to suck, score the ewe's mothering etc...

They've had an abortion problem and 1 case of Salmonella so are bigging up the Biosecurity. They took us up to Stores and ordered us big high vis jackets, and gave us waterproof trousers + steel-toe wellies. Has to be high vis 'cos of H&S apparently?!
Then we've got to get changed + leave those clothes at the farm so we don't spread it to the other farm. Its probably overkill but of it ever got passed over the Uni farm's (and probably our) name would be black!
Best be safe! :)

They don't just have a microwave ... have a kettle, fridge and hot chocolate, cup a soup etc!! :P

Me + Sian are there tomorrow night :))

Lambing Update

Person sorting lambing out texted me to see how we got on.
I said "Ok, had to ask my friend to come + help me though! No idea how you lamb nights on your own?"
He basically said he didn't know what to say, he can easily lamb 100 ewes on his own and the farmer won't pay 2 people to do an easy 1 person job!

:/

I told Sian, my friend who came to help and was was really annoyed too! We're allowed a couple of us to go (originally said there were 4 of us) but will have to split the money. If the 4 of us go, which we probably will, we'll get £2 an hour...
I don't mind the money, its just I thought it was hard and I've been Lambing before. Me + Sian were working all the time (didn't even sit down all night!) but Cody has never been lambing before so how is she meant to be able to cope with that?!

Anyway, I spoke to the farmer earlier and he was happy with us, apart from the lamb that had a swolled head and died - we should have got to it quicker. Thats fair enough + I knew we should have, but we were moving sheep so couldn't have done it any quicker! If theres 4 of us it should be better :)
He's happy to have the 4 of us there, just we'll only get 1 persons pay.

Back on Thursday night! :)

First Welsh Lambing Night Shift...

Got the taxi there, got lost but eventually found the place. Rang the bell for 10 mins ... no-one in. Walked up to the sheds in the pitch black and there was a man there. Just a contractor the same as me, and he left when I got there!
The book with pen numbers + lambs which needed milk and stuff was in Welsh!

On my own with 800 sheep in lamb, a little old dog and loads of wierd noises freaking me out.

There was a triplet with 2 little lambs (she'd lost the 3rd) which were reallly cold so I hoiked them out and put them in a pen under a heat lamp - couldn't even find where they were plugged in at first!

Texted my friend Sian but didn't have signal to took ages, eventually she got it and said she'd come up and got a taxi there about 2 hours later. 10 mins after that the farmer came! So he explained everything to us - they pull all the lambs if they can, to stop them getting stuck or their faces covered with the membranes and dying.

There was a sheep struggling to lamb so the farmer had a look and the ewe had ruptured her muscles all along her belly and around her bag so the lamb was right down and he could hardly reach it. Got some strings tied around its head + legs after 10 mins, tried to pull it out and eventually did. Was already dead 'cos she'd lambed prematurely, the other twin lamb was so far down inside her it was impossible to get to so we had to leave her to it.
Then there was a ewe which had a head out and no legs so it was stuck, the lamb died and the head started to swell, making it even harder to lamb! Had to get the farmer back to come and lamb it which he struggled to do.
While that was happening there was a ewe with triplets trying to lamb so I went and helped her, the first one came ok but the second was its legs out and head bent right back, pushed it back in a bit and got him out, then delivered the last one - first thing to go right! :)
Then we had another ewe that wasn't due until the 10th who started to lamb - it was a tiny lamb so we tried to help it and failed, phoned the farmer and he came out - she was aborting so we just had to leave her.
Everything was going wrong and we were wondering how we'd lamb the rest of them?!
Penned up some sheep so went back to check on them all 15 mins later and there was one lambing so we helped her out and it went fine.
Did the same for the next 6 hours! Adopted some triplet lambs onto a single so that each ewe had 2 and could give them enough milk.
Fed the ewes and bottle fed the lambs at half 4.

We were just getting ready to leave at 6, checked the ewes one last time and there was one with just a head out. Couldn't leave it 'cos it would swell up and die. I lambed that and then did its brother too. Just about to leave her to it and realised she was a triplet so pulled the 3rd one! Good job we realised!
Taxi didn't come until half 6 so got back at 7ish!
Think we pulled 25 lambs, which isn't bad :D At home we only pull the lambs if the ewe is struggling and the lamb is stuck but here we pulled most of them and if she had one lamb we'd pull the others stright away instead of leaving her. So its more hands on and pulled more in 1 night than a in week at home!

We didn't stop at all for 9 hours, hardly had time to grab a drink so didn't nom my Hula Hoops in the end! Its ridiculous how they thought 1 person could do it, esp leaving them on their own having never been before! Even with 2 of us it was really hard work, probably needed 3 or 4 of us to be able to pen, feed and lamb at the same time...

Start Lambing tonight

Spoke to Rhydian earlier, who's sorting out Lambing. He said they only need 1 person tonight to start at 9pm.
Bit of a pain 'cos we were going to share taxi's and it'd be better if we were in 2's!

We rang one taxi the other day who quoted £14 but phoned our friend Ace and he said £9 so have booked him for half 8!
Hopefully we'll be in pairs next week so we can share the taxi, and waiting around for the ewes to lamb!

Rhydian is lambing tomorrow but will find out who's doing Monday and during the week. Hopefully we'll be able to go in pairs as it gets busier. He said only experienced people so I'm fine but Cody has none so really she can't go on her own. The other 2 have a bit so they should be ok.

We finish at 6am then need to get back to halls. I'm always up 'til late anyway so 6/7am is too much of a stretch :S
... unless we have 9am lectures! :|
Tbh I'll be tired for a few weeks if its £80 or £30 a night, and it'll be really good experience to have lambed on 3 farms , see the differences etc. :D

Lambing tonight...

Spoke to Rhydian earlier, who's sorting out Lambing. He said they only need 1 person tonight to start at 9pm.
Bit of a pain 'cos we were going to share taxi's and it'd be better if we were in 2's!
We rang one taxi the other day who quoted £14 but phoned our friend Ace and he said £9 so have booked him for half 8!
Hopefully we'll be in pairs next week so we can share the taxi, and waiting around for the ewes to lamb!

Rhydian is lambing tomorrow but will find out who's doing Monday and during the week. Hopefully we'll be able to go in pairs as it gets busier. He said only experienced people so I'm fine but Cody has none so really she can't go on her own. The other 2 have a bit so they should be ok.

We finish at 6am then need to get back to halls. I'm always up 'til late anyway so 6/7am is too much of a stretch :S
... unless we have 9am lectures! :|

Tbh I'll be tired for a few weeks if its £80 or £30 a night, and it'll be really good experience to have lambed on 3 farms , see the differences etc. :D

Think I'z got another chest infection too 'cos been really struggling to breath and taking my inhaler. Cba to book a Drs appointment if it'll clear up on its own.
Just been to CKs and got some cough medicine :) and Olbas menthol lozenges "To help keep breathing easy" ... worth a try ;)

Another day at the Zoo

Back at the Zoo again today.
Cleaned out more monkeys! I did Mango, the capuchin that was eating an egg last week.

Got them all clean and then put Easibed down and hay in their nestbox.

They took in 4 or 5 new cockerels on Sunday so asked me to identify them.
Not sure what they were but were crosses. 4 had single combs and 1 had a huge Derbyshire Redcap-esque comb. Big long legs too!

Then we started scrubbing down the Petting Barn where the rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils, mice, chinchilla, vervet monkeys ... and even porqupine are!
Scrubbed down the walls and windows and the pens, to get ready for (hopefully) lots of visitors over half-term.

More Lambing??

Someone emailed me from the Uni today saying he heard I was looking for Lambing and would I go there + stuff.
You're a day too late!

He isn't the farmer, just is sorting out people to go lambing for the farmer, so I asked a few qu's and said we'd got the Uni lambing already booked but might be able to do both 'cos that doesn't start for a couple of weeks.
Would be night shifts again, and there are 800 ewes in the shed at a time and as some leave, it gets topped up, so could be quite busy!
Its in Trawscoed which is about 8 miles out of Aber(?) so we'd have to get a Taxi there, which would cost  ~£14 each way!

Hopefully will be able to do both!! :)

Lambing 2011

After emailing lots of people, being forwarded on and trying for quite a while I've finally managed to sort some Lambing out!! :))
Was surprisingly hard to do considering we're in Wales!
Emailed Uni's Farm Manager and went to see him today with my friend Cody to get it sorted out....

They have a big shed with 400 ewes in then there are another 2 sections of the shed which have cows in one it and the other had a metal runway or something.
Waited around for a bit and managed to speak to the Farm Manager and then the Shepherd.
There will be 4 or 5 of us going and 'cos of lectures we'll be doing the night shift!
8pm - 6am and then on 2 days we start lectures at 9am and finish at 6pm!!!

Will be worth it to go lambing and play with the lambs, can sleep in the afternoon! :P

We got there on the bus today which took about 20 mins but the Arriva buses stop running at 6pm in Aber and won't start till 8am so will have to look at other buses or a taxi. Becky does her her car up here but we won't always be with her!

Need to sort out what experience people have so he can put us together and sort out a rota :)

Alan, Alan! - Zoo

Another day at the Zoo today :)

Was good - I cleaned out Miriam + Roley, Jean's pet Capuchins. Cleaned the window, scrubbed and scraped all the surfaces and shelves and scrubbed the walls. Swept everything up in there and put fresh Straw and Easibed down for them.

Then I scrubbed down the wood in the Kookaburras and hopefully made their enclosure look a bit better :)

Went and helped Cody clean out the Black and White Ruffed Lemurs after that.

The Emu have started laying so they have loads of Emu eggs and have been giving them to the monkeys! They crack them open on their shelves and then eat all the egg :P

I got really excited 'cos of Alan!

They (Prarie Dogs) hibernate so I didn't see them last week, but there were at least 6 out today!
They're in a big enclosure with with Ring Tailed Lemur - the lemur came over to the bars and I stroked their feet - were really soft!

The Marmosets had their pop-hole opened this week so can run outside into their run. The babies were coming out and running back in, but they'd jump over onto the bars by us, had to stroke their tiny little feet :)) Soo cute!

Mom Marmoset (hiding in the background of the photo) wasn't very happy and would jump at us too then do a lap of the cage. They were all sticking their arms through to try + get the phone! :P