Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Yesterday
was my day off after two weeks of 50+ hours work. I am thankful to have had the
day to catch up on a few things: sleep in, my blog, begin my final internship
report, some shopping, and finally baking.
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| River on the road to town |
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| Case IH and John Deere are well represented over here! |
Last
night Mount Tongariro (AKA Mount Doom in Lord of the Rings) erupted. It was not
a large eruption with lava spewing everywhere, but it sent a cloud of ash 1 km in the air and
was enough to cause concern for further volcanic activity as well as cancel
many flights throughout the north island. Hopefully it won’t cause an issue
when I try to fly home next week!
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| Mount Tongariro - taken from the Desert Road during my vacation a week ago before the eruption |
This
morning it was nice and sunny. I was at the farm at 7:30 AM and started by
riding a bike across the road with Sam while Becs and Bong took the white ute
pulling the large calf trailer. We drove over to the paddock of springer cows
to collect the fresh cows and their calves – 10 in total! Once we had the calves
in the trailer and their mothers across the road to the cow shed, it was time
to go get the cows and calves from the other paddock of springer cows near Josh
and Becs’s house. I drove the white ute and trailer there while Sam, Drew, and
Josh took their bikes. We picked up 10 new calves in that paddock as well. I
took the calves back to their shed where Josh and I unloaded them.
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| Springers across the road |
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| Collecting more new calves! |
When
Sam and Drew got done driving the springer cows to the feed pad, we drove over
to paddock 72 where the springer heifers were moved to yesterday. There were
only 2 calves waiting for us so we picked up the calves and sorted out their
mothers to take the back to the cow shed.
After
lunch I walked outside to drive back to the farm and could smell the sulfur in
the air from the eruption last night. You could even see the haze from the ash
cloud over the mountains. When I returned to the farm I found Hamish treating a
cow with severe swelling in her third eyelid. There was a small open sore in
the middle that looks like it was caused by something sharp or irritating, but
you could still see the eye behind the swelling. Hamish decided to use an
antibiotic eye cream and see how it looks by Friday. I watched Hamish begin
working on pulling a dead calf from a cow and then had to leave the vet area
for the cow shed. During the afternoon milking, I had to:
·
Draft
80 autumn calved cows from Herd 1 and place 50 in Herd 2 and the rest in Herd 3
·
Take
note of how many cows in each herd – counted by the automated drafting gate,
thank goodness!
·
Draft
any spring calved cows from Herd 2 and put back in Herd 1 (sometimes they go
into Herd 2 accidentally but they need to be in Herd 1 to be sure they get
enough to eat)
Wednesday,
August 8, 2012
My
first job this morning was to dust (using Cal Mag) the grass in the following
paddocks that the cows will be eating today: springer cows in paddocks 8 and
13, colostrum cows in paddock 44, and the pennos in paddock 34. When I was done
I entered breeding dates, health events, and calving dates into the farm computer
software MINDA at the office. At 12:30 PM I had a meeting with Campbell Chard,
the general manager for BEL Group, to discuss my internship and the possibility
of getting more UW students to come over here to work for BEL Group.
After
lunch I returned to the farm at 2:30 PM and finished entering data. Next I
shifted dry cows in paddock 79; they are supposed to go to the BEL Group dry
stock division soon for grazing off the farm because they are not due to calve
until October. I dropped off two new calves to the calf sheds that were born in
the vet area. I also dropped off a new heifer calf in the calf shed after I
chased her down in the colostrum cows’ paddock. My last job for the day was to
go shift the Herd 1 cows in paddock 19 another 35 paces so they had more to
eat.
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| Heifer calves enjoying their time in the sun |
I
cannot believe I will be leaving New Zealand in one week! Due to the eruption
on Mount Tongariro, all flights throughout airports on the north island were
cancelled yesterday. Thankfully I was not trying to leave yesterday and flights
are going as scheduled now. I am looking forward to getting home but am trying
to enjoy every moment as much as possible during my last week here.
Thursday,
August 9, 2012
We
collected ~30 new calves this morning!
Becs,
Sam, and I went across the road put 7 new calves in the trailer. Drew came to
help Sam and I on our bikes drive the cows back across the road to the cow
shed. Next Sam, Drew, and I drove to paddock 13 where we collected 14 new
calves. We drove these springer cows to the feed pad and then went to get the
new calves from the heifers in paddock 72. There were 5 new calves there plus 2
heifer calves that were already in the trailer from the vet area. We sorted out
the heifers that had calved; Drew and Sam drove them to the cow shed while I
unloaded the calf trailer. On my way home to lunch (I took a bike) I counted at
least two other calves in the pasture.
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| Sorting through springer cows in paddock 13 |
I
returned from lunch at 1:45 PM and spent my afternoon milking with Sam and
Elmer. After milking the first 3 herds Rhox took over for me and I was done for
the day.
Friday
- Sunday, August 10-12, 2012
Wow
what a weekend…I am not sure where it went but it was filled with lots and lots
of calves…about 40 new calves per day! I was busy with getting cows and calves,
moving cows, shifting fence reels, and milking cows each day. Saturday the
weather was beautiful, sunny, and warm but then of course it rained all day
Sunday. Saturday morning I treated 2 fresh cows for milk fever and had to treat
one of them again on Sunday morning. Although I am looking forward to going
home, I am not looking forward to the next few days of saying goodbye to the
people and places that have been my life for the almost the past 3 months.
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| Finally - a picture of my on the bike! |
Monday,
August 13, 2012
Today
was a weird day if I can say that. I started off at my normal time by dusting
today’s grass for the cows in paddock 13 and the colostrums. It took me longer
than it should have though when I lost the pin to keep the duster spreading the
Cal Mag. After looking around for it I knew I was not going to have any luck
finding it so I drove back to the cow shed where Josh found a bolt for me to
use temporarily. Once I was done dusting I pushed Herd 2 cows from the cow shed
back to their paddock. It started raining a bit here and there throughout the
morning too so of course everything seems to go slower in the rain.
After
lunch I entered more calving information into the MINDA farm software. Within
the last week we have had over 300 calves! Next I helped move some cows around
in the vet area for Rhox to be able to treat more lame cows. When I finished
helping Rhox I was done for the day.
Date
|
Number of cows due
to calve
|
Actual number of cows calved
|
7/26
|
0
|
9
|
7/27
|
22
|
20
|
7/28
|
25
|
15
|
7/29
|
17
|
24
|
7/30
|
17
|
7
|
7/31
|
0
|
8
|
8/1
|
1
|
23
|
8/2
|
0
|
24
|
8/3
|
17
|
16
|
8/4
|
42
|
39
|
8/5
| 120 |
40
|
8/6
|
24
|
46
|
8/7
|
26
|
30
|
8/8
|
31
|
26
|
8/9
|
32
|
43
|
8/10
|
33
|
49
|
8/11
|
26
|
49
|
8/12
|
29
|
39
|
8/13
|
32
|
24
|
8/14
|
42
|
49
|
Tonight
Josh, Becs, and I drove to Sam and Rachael’s house for supper. Rachael cooked
dinner and Becs brought dessert – apple and rhubarb crisp. It was a great
evening with great food and wonderful people I have gotten to know during my
stay, including Justine my internship coordinator. I hope tomorrow is a
memorable last day at work. I am still not looking forward to saying goodbye.
Tuesday,
August 14, 2012
LAST
DAY OF WORK!!!
This
morning started out gathering today’s fresh cows and their calves, as usual.
Sam and I rode our bikes while Becs took the white ute with the calf trailer
across the road to the springer cows. We collected 17 new calves! By the time
we had the fresh cows sorted from the rest of the group Drew arrived to help us
take the cows back to the shed. Next Sam, Drew, and I went out to the other
springers in paddock 13 where we collected another 15 calves! I had to treat a
milk fever cow when we got out there but she got up right after I finished
getting the second bag of calcium into her. Once we had all of the calves Sam
and Drew went back to the sheds to unload and I drove all of the cows to the
shed. My last job before lunch was to get Herd 1 cows from paddock 34 and drive them to the
feed pad.
At 1:45
PM we had our weekly staff meeting. Afterwards Drew, Becs, and I did more
springer drafting across the road in another mob of dry cows on pasture. We
sorted out about 40 more cows and added them to the group of springers across
the road. Once we got back to the sheds and unloaded calves, I had to drive to
town quick before they closed at 5 PM for some farm supplies from Farmlands. On
my way home from the farm after dropping off the supplies and taking some last pictures I stopped to check
for new calves in paddock 13. There were 4 new calves that I could see so I
tagged the 2 heifer calves and also wrote down their mothers so it is easier to
sort out which calves go with which cows in the morning.
My last night in New Zealand was a quite night of supper with Josh and Becs, followed by some packing. I wonder when it will hit me that I am actually leaving tomorrow...
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| David, the feeder at Ashton, and I |
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| Rhox (left), myself, and Bong (right) |
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| Becs and I |
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| Sam and I |
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
I woke
up rather early this morning as I couldn’t sleep. I finished packing and then
had enough time to post my second to last blog before leaving. Becs drove me to
the small airport of Napier. She waited until we heard the call for me to board
my flight, said our goodbyes, and before I knew it I was in the air on my way
to Auckland at 3 PM. My flight from Napier arrived in rainy Auckland on time
and the one in LA left Auckland at 7:30 PM. The flight was 12 hours but we
landed in LA at 1 PM still today…longest day of my life! I only slept 3 hours
at the most though on this flight, hoping that I would sleep well when I got
home.
I made
it through customs without a hitch and 2 hours later I was on my last flight back
to the twin cities, which arrived a little before 11 PM. Waiting at the airport
for me were Mom, Dad, and my wonderful friend Jenn with her daughter Mara. It
was the perfect greeting!
Its 2
AM Thursday and I am still not asleep so I decided to write this last entry.
The fact that I am home has not sunk in entirely yet but the feeling hit me in
the middle of my long flight to LA. Honestly when I look back it feels like New
Zealand never happened, like all I have are the memories of people, places, and
experiences…I blinked when I arrived and then it was time to go home. There
were definitely some tougher days but I would not trade any of them after my stay…and
now it is time to get back to reality. I will miss how life felt a little
slower paced when I was in New Zealand compared to the US. These next two weeks
will flip a 180° circle on me: from working on a farm in New Zealand to moving
into an apartment and beginning my first year of veterinary school at
UW-Madison. I am excited to move forward in life now, grateful that I took the
opportunity of a lifetime to get out and see what the rest of the world has to
offer. Again, thank you to all of my family, friends, and everyone in New
Zealand who helped to make this incredible opportunity a reality and made my
stay unforgettable.
Cheers!
Jenn
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