Em Nau Farm BLOG

Em Nau Continues to Grow

The farm has had an explosion of inhabitants over the past few months.  We started out back in August with Frank and Shirley (see previous blog “Shirley and Frank Arrive“).  Shortly after they went from our poddy pen to a larger paddock we were lucky enough to be given another couple of calves who we originally called Esme and Bob (continuing the ‘A Country Practice’ theme) but shortly after they arrive we discovered that Esme was a bull so “she” became Cookie.  Unfortunately, like Laverne, the lack of colostrum at birth hampered both Cookie’s and Bob’s development and Bob went blind. 

H, at around the same time, was able to pick up a little jersey/brown swiss heifer at the sales (who we called Football) and when Football was dropped off they took Bob away to be humanely dispatched.  With Bob gone Cookie started to deteriorate and we lost him in mid October.

Following our preferences that each of our poddy calves have a friend to grow up with H went to the sales the following Monday and acquired two little jersey heifers to keep Football company.  Our new arrivals were annointed with the names of Veronica (she has a V on her forehead) and Betty (the “blonder” of the two).  All three calves have grown and developed at a steady rate and look like they will be ready to move into the large paddock in the not too distant future.

On top of this Latte is ready to calve (any day now) so we will have our first Em Nau calf born.

On the Goat front we now have sixteen (three wethers, one buck, and twelve does).  We will be busy over the next few weeks building a new larger goat pen and a buck pen.  We have endless enjoyment watching the antics that they all get up to when they play or go for their walk outside the pen.  The newest arrivals are Scarlett, Sienna (#2) as we already have a Siena, Sarina, two little wethers who are destined for the freezer when they get older, Delilah, Dixie, and our new resident buck Julius.

On the chook front we have had a little bit of an issue with wild dogs.  We lost quite a few roosters and hens to the dogs about 6 weeks ago.  We now have to keep the chooks penned up 24/7 so that the dogs don’t come sniffing about.  On the positive side we have hatched a few chicks to make up for the loss so we, in the end, should come out about even.

Another new inhabitant we had visit (although it was just a day trip) was “Sneaky” the carpet snake, who took up residence in the rafters between the Goat shelter and the poddy calf pen.  He was very much at home there curled up enjoying the heat of the tin roof but his visit was cut short when B took him down to the creek to take up residence in an old log.  Though we enjoyed his visit we hope he enjoys his new life far from the chook pen.

STOP PRESS

Latte had her calf, a little heifer, on 01 November 2012.  We are going to name her "Ruby"