Busy Days, Big Paddocks!

I must confess to feeling more than a little daunted- but excited at the same time-about what lies ahead in the next couple of months. So just between you and me (and please don’t mention it to anyone else) internally I’m completely freaking out. Now don’t forget, you and I are going to keep that quiet, right?

Right?

 As it happens, I am often asked (more than a few times a week) how is the farm going? So, what is the honest answer? As of today, I reckon it would have to be somewhere around a two out of 10, but a solid two, mind you.

 More importantly, I can really see some of that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel…which should arrive in Lake Boga around April (I didn’t say it was a short tunnel, did I?)

We have steadily been bringing our young stock home over the past few weeks and looking around the paddocks there is now about 800 of them poking about the place with a few more still to come.

And that’s exactly what they do and are doing, poking about. Our fences are geared for the more traditional, fat old dairy cows, whose paddock- hopping ambitions are now distant memories (some of occasional successes), curtailed circa 2023 by a combination of gravity and their huge bellies.

Yes, the days of high jumping are long over for these stately cows, they’re happy to be (and much better off) leaving all the leaping and bounding of our fences to the younger girls.

 With all of these cows in residence, and more still to come, the big question is: how am I going to manage to irrigate our 3000 acres of land come Autumn?

 I’m confident I can do it, provided the right circumstances fall my way. For example, if my phone stops ringing and consequently diverting me in the direction of other activities and if my dodgy foot stays at its current diagnosis of dodginess (or even better still, comes good) I’ll be well on the way to succeed.

Having access to cheap water is not something any of us ever have all the time, but we have it now. This means we will need to have all systems running at full tilt to take advantage.

The key start date of March 1 is fast approaching and there is a lot of preparation and seeding to be done before then. All of this new land of ours is not really geared for livestock- lots of big paddocks, no internal fencing. Lots of big paddocks, no water troughs. Lots of big paddocks, no laneways for stock movement.

We have had two lots of fencing contractors here in January and have not made a dent yet. Did I mention lots of big paddocks? I’m concerned about how we are going to pay back this new farm. As we all know (and often live to regret) it’s easy to buy new things, it’s a lot harder to pay for them.  

My first bank manager used to say, “farm expenditure expands to consume all available income.” The milk price is good at the moment; however, milk production is terrible due to the wet winter and spring but for the first time in a couple of years we have nearly caught up with our bills. Knocking this new bit of land into a useable format for us will keep us poor for some time (read above, big paddocks).

With all these problems ahead of me there is only one sensible solution to keep my mental health in check...I’m off to go and buy a big, shiny new toy-who mentioned big paddocks?