Aiyana

Out in front first lap

This mare's earning her right to a post mention, running a nice maidener's 3rd in a 2100m at Tauherenikau yesterday.
Now 5yo, she had a couple of starts at 3yo for 4th's both times, but since then and the current campaign, had chips removed from her fetlocks.
Touch wood, there's been no recurrence this time, but thought in the camp was she might have been harbouring associated trauma memories, and to his credit, then trainer, Peter McKenzie, suggested a change in work regime might be the next consideration to work a mental change, dropping her off at Kevin Myer's Sandhaven facility for me.
Fingers crossed, it might be working.
Peter's magnanimity on this issue keeps him at No1 in my book.

Pursuant to my Nth American Indian naming theme, Aiyana means endless blossom, or always in flower.
She's a daughter of His Royal Highness, which is why I sought training with Peter in the first instance, out of Pompeii Rose, which makes her a half-sister of the Rayner trained stakes horse Valhalla, also bred here at Waione.
Pompeii Rose descends through Prairie Rose and Waione Girl, the family of our good gallopers Chief Joseph, Always Summer, Never Winter, stallion Siege Perilous, back to 22 family matron, Eulogy.

NewPlymouth 11/11

Ram Circling

MNCC 495/09 getting down to business

Its a bit early for my flock mating but last couple of days have availed of the opportunity to run an outside ram with the recorded ewes, MNCC 495/09, on a four farm circuit down this end of the North Island, on his way back to owner/breeder Edward in Cambridge.
495/09 was adjudged top choice by the NZOSR sire reference group at our 26th AGM last month. Out of a bit over 1000 rams referenced he came in 9th for over-all production index. His Ramguard FE resistance credential from a flock with an established reputation for this trait was an added attraction.
He's covered ewes at Steve's, Waipukurau, Simon's, Halcombe, here, then today on to Murray and Wayne's at Mangakino.  Flock owners share the transport with halfway rendezvous, and the ram's taking the tour in his stride.

I copped the stormy spell of weather with my time allotment and only got a handful of ewes covered, Simon thought it through much better with teaser synchronisation for a 40 odd ewe cover.
Ram circling's an attractive alternative to access to the genes by AI, all part of gene-sharing by a co-operative group, improving genetic links between flocks for the reference purpose, and conferring kudos on the breeder of the ram, and his flock.

OK Boss, where to next?

The $345,000 Burger?

Anyone with an eye on the long, long term future for animal farming will be interested in the following link:

http://www.gizmag.com/lab-grown-meat/20625/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=4b3a3308c2-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

This article outlines one area of progress to date, probably current state of the art in the creation of artificial meat.

Jon Morgan on Lambing Losses

The Dompost's farming editor, Jon Morgan, has to be one of the better ag journo's around, in his Thursday piece always coming up with something interesting, dealt out in easy style, and striking the right note of levity.
The Nov 3 article on lambing losses delivered a timely and inspirational message, simply that in this day and age lamb losses aren't a good look to our urban critics, and the way to meet this challenge is to demonstrate what we're doing, as sheep breeders, to improve on this situation.
To quote Lincoln's DNA specialist, Jon Hickford: "The way to counter that (criticism) is to have aspirational goals. Even if our farmers aren't meeting them yet, they can say, this is what we're aiming for, this is what we see as important, what motivates us".
Far better than saying losses are just an act of God and we can't do anything.
Well said..., and congratulations to those breeders outlined working on the problem, whose methods are further dealt with in the article.
These include recording birth weights, mothering ability, lambing ease, rearing success, and a couple of them testing for the cold tolerance gene.
Of course, I have to chip in here, that this is the sort of stuff that's driven Coopworth selection and culling for the 40 years since our Society fathers designed the first set of breed rules and regulations.
The very first flock book contained the sensible qualification for an SE ram, that his dam had to have reared 6 lambs in 3 years, and further, to retain her place in the flock, a ewe had to have reared a set of twins by her 4-tooth lambing, plus the long-standing requirement that ewes needing lambing assistance or showing poor mothering, had to be culled.
We had/still have, a dot system to denote lambs not surviving in the lambing string, viz 222:1. etc, and at the time of the introduction of Sheeplan recording we had quite a time convincing its designers of the worth of inclusion.
The sheep-breeding world's since moved on to breeding values for reproduction and survival, but I think there's still a place for checking that lambs born actually make it to weaning, the phenotypic ideal can get lost in the genetic qualification, and so far as the above repro and surv indices are concerned, I prefer to use them additively.
While the close to 160% live lambs in the Waione recorded flock this year isnt anything to skite about in the greater scheme of things, I take some pleasure it was achieved after only a minimal loss from total lambs born, and only a couple of points away from the survival leading flock in the Morgan article, a target we can all aspire to better.
All the more important for me as well, I like the commercial flock here to run as natural and unmolested as possible year round, lambing time included.
The Coopworth Genetics rule-book, with its unforgiving focus on superior performance, leads naturally to thriving and survival, not losses.

The Price of Milk

Controversy over the price of milk continues to simmer.
True to form, the socialists in our nation continue their pretention to privilege, in this instance that because we're an agricultural nation, milk should be delivered to society at below market price, sweeping under the carpet of debate, the fact other more delectable food groups and consumer products have risen over time to a much greater extent, eg. bread, fuel, booze, smokes, and pretty much anything else.
Yesterday it was announced, as a result of the public enquiry into milk pricing, that the dairy farmers co-op, Fonterra, have made public their pricing mechanism, simply that its based on what could have been made if all the milk had been sold as milk powder on the international market.
Its supposed to be internet etiquette not to slag people and stick to the debate, so I'll refrain from saying what total dicks I think Green politician Sue Kedgely and that union bloke Ritchie are for stirring this scrum along and for still being on Russia's side.
From one side of their mouth they'll argue what really amounts to not being able to stand farmers co-op'ing themselves into a position where they can set prices, when in actual fact dairy producers, like all farmers, are still price takers not setters, of the international value of their produce, while expecting to be able to organise themselves to both screw the price of consumer products down, and still somewhere along the line, crank the cost of their own wages up.
Tom Scott joined the fray yesterday with a cartoon inferring Saudi commonfolk would be up in arms if they had to pay international price for fuel, and that the Saudi princes should find out how Fonterra do it to NZ with milk products.
But he's way off beam too, they probably are paying the international price, its just that governments round the world inflate the fuel price with add-on taxes so that Proles like him and Kedgeley get their grievances soothed, just like booze and ciggies are tax-added to death.
They need to go overseas a bit and see what the rest of the world's like, then come back, stay inside the Kiwi tent, and appreciate that the current NZ co-op generated dairy farmer good fortune cant eventually get anywhere else other than into the NZ economy where we all get to share in it.
Another irony is, those of Green ilk would slag dairy products as being bad for one's health, but now complain when the rise in cost of it might suppress consumption.
They also assume an entitlement in an industry they never had a hand in shaping, or were paid for if they did, and which the environmental lobby continues to condemn.

Time for a Tui ad...
Yeah right.

Farewell Old Friend

Khan with apprentice Woody

One of the things you look forward to starting out shepherding is building a team of dogs, little knowing the life cycle of a dog is no more than the family cat.
The time from when a dog "arrives" at a place he's working well, does everything you want, and knows it, is then something very precious, the appreciation is mutual and the relationship gets special.
The day they're no longer with you always arrives with a bit of sadness.
I got Khan as a fully broken 4yo from Duncan up the river a bit, and well trained he was too, never more than a cigarette paper from your heels, but always busting to get out and run.
His forte however, was backing..., through a gate, in the crush, up the woolshed ramp, and well into the shed.
He earned his place of rest in the lawn, the "Arlington" in view of the kitchen window, with his own rock headstone beside the other all-time bests, Blak, Judge, and Booze.
I'm reminded of an earlier passing, Joe, my first heading dog, had gotten so non-compus at 15 he had to be put down. I turned up at the house for morning smoko I suppose looking for some comfort, and my now ex missus asked what I was blubbing for, after all he was only a dog.
All I could respond was every morning for the last 15 years he was excited to see me, and that's more than I can say for the 5 you've been here.
Bit like that joke about who's man's best friend, your missus or your dog.
Shut them in the boot of the car for an hour, then see who's most pleased to see you.
Anyway Khan, farewell from all of us, and I hope there's a good spring, plenty of sheep to dream about chasing, cool vehicles to ride in, and a boss like me for you..., wherever dogs go.

A Week's a Long Time in....... the News

After slagging the Dompost over that disgracefully contrived "expose`" of farmer's unfair dodging of tax-paying, (which incidentally failed to give account to the fact substantial GST was generated and hauled in from the annual agricultural turnover, and that's as it should be in any shift in emphasis from direct to indirect taxation, plus...,
as with any business, farms would have been fully paid forward, and over-paid at that, with PAYE based on the previous normal year's result, so that beneficiary depicted on the front page echoing the "unfair" put in her mouth by the reporter, would have cruised through her year on a loan from the business community)...
Anyway, where was I....
I now find myself, hardly a week later, acknowledging DomPost for the way it depicted the wool industry in this weekend's "Your Weekend" liftout, in a lead article why wool lost its cool, and the international fight to get it back, worth a read, and pleasing to see the reporter got the basics right.
Jeremy Moon's comments and story were interesting, Icebreaker's up for near $160m of sales, and good on him for that.
I can verify personally his Merino wool product is fantastic.
I've had the heavier long-sleeve skivvy for a few years now, zip-up neck, thumb-holes for the odd extreme cold day pull-down, dosen't pong, only ever washed it a couple of times, great on the bike or up Ruapehu.
Just recently, as result of spotting a product release newsbit (in the Dompost!!), I bought one of those Apollo Beast T-shirts, and I'm rapt..., more subtly warming than the heavier one described above, and so light you hardly know its there.
They're not cheap at $90 a throw, but I've gone and ordered 2 more, I'm going to work in them on the farm, and I'm sure it will be a year round affair, knowing as I do now you cant beat natural fibres in any weather and any season.
Annual 14,000km motorcycle tours around USA from cold West Coast to mid-west desert and plains, convinced me real quick, synthetic garments are dead meat, they pong in 24 hours flat, soil faster, and dont wick moisture.
Life's full of circles, I'll be like, I remember as a kid, the old man working year round in his old black sleeveless jackie-how, only I'll be in the latest rendition of the national, sustainable, product.
Can't say I'm totally enamoured with the Council of NZ Wool Interests, but they're just about the only show in town currently, and I have to say their promotion efforts are worthy.
I hope my enthusiastic belief and support in/of our own wool product is a help. Too often you'll see wool producers getting round in synthetic jackets and cloaks.
I've always had a Swan-Dri jacket all my farming career, actually only two ever, never had to wash them, wore them till they fell off.
Now I've got a Bushmate, made by that outfit up Auckland way, http://www.welovewool.co.nz/
Moon's comment that Merino can't handle the whole market gamut, and that maybe breeders should look at a dual purpose sheep growing a fine enough fleece to handle socks and jackets has a heap of merit.
I went into the local Farmlands one day a few years ago and the manager was in a state of amazement, a busload of Canadian tourists had just emptied the whole rack of Swannie jackets, probably wasnt the only town they'd done such a raid in.
And, as I've mentioned in previous posts here and on-the-road blog, I'll never wear synthetic socks again, currently all cotton, but maybe one day soon, high-tech shrink-proof wool.