One month has gone

It's amazing to realise how quick time goes when your having a fantastic time. Time really does fly when your having fun. 

I have been in New Zealand (NZ) for over a month and I am proud of where I am and what I have achieved and learnt so far. I'll go back to the start of my journey and try to explain what it is I have been doing in the easiest way possible.

When I officially started working for William and Janice my day consisted of:

- Feeding the calves at 8am

- Going to the Run-off to feed the expecting mums and draft (select and remove) any cows whose udders were bagging up (a sign of them being close to calving). 

- A break for lunch

- Afternoon milking at 3pm and finally

- Feeding the calves in the evening (normally around 5pm)

This was my usual routine for roughly two weeks. The work was physically tough as well as mentally. I was needing to learn Will and Jan's way of working whilst working in all sorts of different weather conditions. The most physically demanding part of my daily routine was going to the run off. 

When I first started working here we had 5 mobs (groups) of cattle to feed and check at the run off incase they needed drafting. Now that may not sound difficult but the paddocks in which the cattle were in were like, well there's no other way to describe it, but they were like mud baths!! I was having to move fences and walk through mud that was nearly up to my knees! It wasn't just difficult for me, but it was extremely difficult for the cattle themselves to walk through. Some of these poor mothers were even calving in these conditions and I was informed that it has apparently been the worst winter this area of NZ has had in over ten years.

There is now only one mob left at the run off to feed, therefore I haven't gone to the run off for nearly three weeks as I have been given jobs back on the farm to do and it only requires one person to go and feed them, whereas before we would easily need three or four people to do the feeding and drafting.

As I have previously told you, I cupped (milked) my first cows on my first full day of being in NZ, something I was very proud of doing as I hadn't milked cows since March 2014 but I was even more proud of myself as I had never milked with a rotary parlour before. 

When I spent the first two weeks in the milking shed in the afternoon, I would practice cupping the cows and would get used to them walking on the platform, walking off the platform, the speed in which the platform was moving and how quickly I would need to cup in order not to move far from one area so that I could see everything that was going on (this proved very entertaining on times as on two or three occasions at the start I ended up over a quarter of the way around the circumference of the platform). 

One of the first things I noticed when I saw the cows being milked, was an array of different coloured dots and strips on different cows, which I soon came to learn ment different things, it was just a case of me needing to remember what every single one ment.

Also when I first arrived William and Janice were only milking one herd as they hadn't reached half way with their calving. Now we only have roughly 200 cows left to calve and therefore the milking herd has been split into two. Herd one are the good cows that stand still on the platform and usually consisted of the older cows, or ladies as I like to call them. The second herd consists of the naughty cows, which are mainly the heifers (first time calvers) who kick and don't stand still whilst being milked. Their behaviour is totally understandable to start off with as they are experiencing new things which are completely strange for them.

August 24th turned out to be a very memorable day for me, and something I am very proud to have achieved so soon into my arrival in NZ. In the afternoon I managed to milk the first herd all on my own. Yes that's right....all on my own. That's cupping every single cow that walked on that platform. That's cupping 200 cows in 40 minutes all on my own. Of course there was someone there watching me making sure I didn't make any mistakes, but I did it, and it felt so good.

My daily routine has since changed and for the last fortnight I have been undertaking new things in my working day. I know have to:

- Start milking at 5.15am (first herd)

- Feed the calves

- Collect the new born calves and mothers from the springer herd.

- Dust and make a new break for the springer herd.

- Dust and make a new break for the colostrum herd.

- Dust either the 1st or 2nd herd paddocks ( sometimes even both)

- Wash the collecting yards (this is where the cows gather before being milked)

- Lunch break

- Afternoon milking at 2.45pm and finally 

- Feed calves in the evening (5pm)

In just over a month I have achieved and learnt so much. It's a great feeling and I am now doing things which I never expected to be doing so soon into my trip. It's also very scary to think how quick time is going and that my first month of being in this amazing country has already gone. That realisation makes me slightly sad, as time is just going too quick.

However we are starting to get things ready for the next stage, mating season. A new phase of my trip which I am excited to learn about.

H x