Today at work

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
First 2 deer calves born today.
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Daren’t get any closer as both are no more that minutes old.
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
How would you cope if they got into difficulties calving ? I imagine they are some flighty customers
It’s not easy, but fortunately I rarely need to intervene. Deer are our least most domesticated farm animals and don’t respond well to much in the way of intensification. I maybe get one bad calving every 2 years out of 120 hinds. There isn’t really a lot we can do to help. I would think that just about every deer farmer has tried and it is nearly always completely as useless. Either the calf will die, or the hind and usually both. Vets can’t really help and if one is real difficulties, it is best to euthanise them. The best thing to do is if you see one about to calve, go away and come back much later in the day or the next day. They will usually manage all by themselves. It’s purely natural selection. Problem Calvers’ died out generations ago.
 

Two Tone

Member
Mixed Farmer
Suppose you just have to treat them as Lims, think they share the same gene pool 😊
I used to farm Lims. Many a time I had to go in to the yard with a teleporter to pick up a dead calf!
Deer farming is a lot less hassle. It fits in with the arable really well too.
They live out their entire lives. Calving will peak about 7th June. I have 2 busy days in September, weaning the calves and setting out the 3 rutting groups. A 4th group of older mostly baron hinds looks after the weaned calves. The breeding stags are de-antlered a few days later by using general anaesthetic and wake up with about 30-35 hinds waiting for them in a paddock, it being the start of the Rut.
The only other busy day happens about a week before they go. The venison stags are de-antlered in a special crush and tagged and the hinds are tagged. This happens at between 15 months and 18 months old.
Deer won’t put any weight on in winter when day length shortens. The trick is to get them as heavy as possible during the summer and try to stop them losing weight during the winter.
 

MickyMook

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
County Down
Checking on the woolies
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And not so woolies
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And a future cow maker born yesterday
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Some of the grazing grass appears to have gotten slightly ahead of the cows…
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Thankfully the mower man is working away today. Rain forecast for tomorrow but at this point it needs cut, hopefully it’ll dry out again.
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And some much needed repair and maintenance of drain covers around the yard.
Before
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After
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Not what I needed the night before a two week holiday - flystike.

While walking around with BIL who will be looking after the place I noticed a wet patch on the back of one of my daughter's pets.

A quick dash to my dad's for my clippers (which I haven't used in 5 years) and back and an hour later I had auditioned for Specsavers.
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Update: no sign of maggots this morning so now it's BIL's problem - I'm off!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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