Thought I should write an update before I forget what has happened in the past few days. Firstly, I should mention that most of the cow / bull jobs here are done by women. There is a lady that works here full time, driving tractors, forklifts etc. Rolling hay stacks. Anything that needs to be done, she will do it. Not sure if I can call her a lady since her manner is quite rude. I am sure there is no offence intended but she just comes across that way. I choose to ignore her communication "skills". She has probably lived and worked in the area for her whole life. I help her out every morning with unpacking the haystacks that she brings over to the paddocks. I follow her on my quad and cut off the strings from the haystacks. Some yards have big bulls in them and they are quite intimidating when they look at me and won't move away. So I try to be as quick as possible and avoid making eye contact with them and get out of the yard just in case. I am sure they are fine but it is slightly scary when a herd of bulls that weigh a tonne each are all standing around you.
I've got three horses to feed now each morning and afternoon. They are beautiful and gracious.
For the last five days we've been running an artificial insemination (A.I.) program. That means injecting the cows hormones twice per day. After they get their shots, they also get stickers on their bums.The stickers are covered with grey layer that rubs off easily (same as the lottery ticket). The stickers are used to see whether they have jumped on each other. Once a cow gets jumped by another and the cow let's another one do it, it means they are ready to be inseminated. We record the approximate time when this happens and then after x amount of hours we can start the A.I. The AI gets done twice and then we must wait for six days until the vet comes to get the embryos out. The AI procedure itself is not very pleasant. The farmer lady sticks her hand up the cow's bum and I have to assist her by making sure the tube stays clean when she pushes it into her vagina. I have to open up the cows vagina to do that. That's pretty much it. I mainly fill in the paperwork for her while she does that or guide the cows back to the yards. We have around 10-15 cows that are part of the program. The goal is to get 60 embryos which will be frozen and exported to Indonesia.
I also witnessed dehorning of a bull. The horns were tiny and they just chopped them off. Poor thing. I felt so sorry for him. There's quite a lot of blood spraying from the head afterwards and their beautiful while coat gets all red. They add some chocolate powder looking antiseptic on the bleeding areas.
The bull also had 3-4 stitches in his eyelid that needed to be removed. Some hardcore stuff!
Oh, one more thing. They asked me if I wanted to go to a cattle show to Sydney in April next year and help them out. I think I should do that. It could be a great experience to see how all that works!
Temperatures are getting higher now. It was 34 degrees yesterday and 36 degrees today. Strangely, I do not feel that hot at all! I quite enjoy it :)
PS. almost forgot to mention that I saw a calf being born. Had to use binoculars, it was too far to see with naked eye. I have a few photos of the newborn but will have to upload them later.
I've got three horses to feed now each morning and afternoon. They are beautiful and gracious.
For the last five days we've been running an artificial insemination (A.I.) program. That means injecting the cows hormones twice per day. After they get their shots, they also get stickers on their bums.The stickers are covered with grey layer that rubs off easily (same as the lottery ticket). The stickers are used to see whether they have jumped on each other. Once a cow gets jumped by another and the cow let's another one do it, it means they are ready to be inseminated. We record the approximate time when this happens and then after x amount of hours we can start the A.I. The AI gets done twice and then we must wait for six days until the vet comes to get the embryos out. The AI procedure itself is not very pleasant. The farmer lady sticks her hand up the cow's bum and I have to assist her by making sure the tube stays clean when she pushes it into her vagina. I have to open up the cows vagina to do that. That's pretty much it. I mainly fill in the paperwork for her while she does that or guide the cows back to the yards. We have around 10-15 cows that are part of the program. The goal is to get 60 embryos which will be frozen and exported to Indonesia.
I also witnessed dehorning of a bull. The horns were tiny and they just chopped them off. Poor thing. I felt so sorry for him. There's quite a lot of blood spraying from the head afterwards and their beautiful while coat gets all red. They add some chocolate powder looking antiseptic on the bleeding areas.
The bull also had 3-4 stitches in his eyelid that needed to be removed. Some hardcore stuff!
Oh, one more thing. They asked me if I wanted to go to a cattle show to Sydney in April next year and help them out. I think I should do that. It could be a great experience to see how all that works!
Temperatures are getting higher now. It was 34 degrees yesterday and 36 degrees today. Strangely, I do not feel that hot at all! I quite enjoy it :)
PS. almost forgot to mention that I saw a calf being born. Had to use binoculars, it was too far to see with naked eye. I have a few photos of the newborn but will have to upload them later.
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