Back to work this week. It was a nice break having a week off for the conference and some vacationing in Queenstown. This week started out with a workshop put on by Dairy NZ which is a checkoff association like we have in the US. The workshop was called StockSense and was put on to help farm staff get ready for the calving season. The things that were discussed were a lot of the basics like what to look for when a cow is ready to calve and when to help her out, how to move cows and calves around on the farm, and other practical things to do with calving season. Overall it was a great refresher course for me since I haven't helped with calving for four years. I feel a lot more confident and prepared for the very busy time that is fast approaching on the farm.
On Tuesday this week we did some more "yard" work. This time we were drenching the heifers to protect them from lice and other external parasites. We also gave them an injection for internal parasites. I started out doing the injections and about 100 heifers into it I had gotten myself with the needle twice in the same finger so I switched over to doing the external drench after that, which I was much better at administering, I hate needles! But I learned something new and we had great weather to do it in.
On Tuesday this week we did some more "yard" work. This time we were drenching the heifers to protect them from lice and other external parasites. We also gave them an injection for internal parasites. I started out doing the injections and about 100 heifers into it I had gotten myself with the needle twice in the same finger so I switched over to doing the external drench after that, which I was much better at administering, I hate needles! But I learned something new and we had great weather to do it in.
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