It's Snowing.....

Well, the polar blast that the weather office has been promising has arrived... and boy has it ever. We have never seen snow like this before...and it's getting worse.

I look back on my photos only taken the other day in the sun, and pine for it. As lovely and gorgeous as the snow is, man you are over it after 24 hours. And your heart goes out to our hairy moos out there who are truly over it now too ...but they look amazing out there and I can only be thankful we have Highlands who can cope with these weather extremes. Even our wee 3week, bottle feed girl, Miss Molly is out there playing soccer with the 3 dogs and Greg.... and then comes and stands at my kitchen door licking the snow flakes that drop on her nose. Very cute.

As much as I would love to chat, the snow is falling faster and thicker, so I had better get out and feed out to the guys down here and then attempt to get to the moos on lease land up the road. Thankfully our ute is 4WD, so I should make it !!!??

Have fun and keep warm and safe.

talk soon

Lesley

Congratulations Bonnycoft McMoos

Exciting news, Bonnycroft McMoos little 4month old heifer, Skye has won the Supreme Champion Lifestyle award at the Levin Show 22 January.

We went up to the show to help Laura and Graham out with the 3 animals they were showing. As we hadn't been to the Levin show before we thought it would be nice to see where it was and who attended etc and catch up with everyone we hadn't seen for awhile. The show was running a separate Dexter Show, a Purebred Beef Show and also the Lifestyle Show. It was run differently to other shows we had been to, as the 3 shows were intermingled. This did work out well as it meant that if you had animals in different age groups, then you weren't running into the ring, doing your thing, then running out and tying that animal up, grabbing the next and running back out with that one. You had a gap in between to give yourself time to readjust yourself and your next animal.

The judge for the day was Marty Crayfer. Although I hadn't come across him before, he has high regard in the judging and beef world plus travels the world judging Beef animals. He was great as he explained why he put animals where and gave advise. He also seemed to judge the whole picture, as in their horns, behaviour, on top of muscle, balance, walk, feet etc and has a very good understanding on Highlands and what their characteristics should be. This is what we often struggle with in the competitions, as a big majority of the judges, judge our highlands on what a general beef breed should be. Where a lot of characteristics are the same, some are not, plus you do have the extra details such as hair and horns and the Highlands of course being a smaller breed.

Now back to the show: there were some amazing animals in the ring, (including a recent Meat & Wool cup winner), beautiful Mums with calf at foot, lovely yearling girls .. so we were blown away, when Marty announced young Skye as the Supreme Champion. It takes a very confident judge to give such a young animal the Supreme prize. So congratulations Skye, and the Bonnycroft McMoos team, exciting stuff. The other young boy, MacDougal McMoo also took the judges eye. He thought he was a beautiful young boy, and explained to the crowd that he had lovely muscle structure and balance and looked to have a really neat character. Both Skye and MacDougal are the first off spring that Bonnycroft have had with their stud bull Fergus McMoo, so they should be very proud of their achievements this far.

Another exciting event has also happened for Aimee and Trent from GlenMor McMoos. Their 4th child was born on 26th January, and its a wee girl. Her name is Sophie Lee Guy and is doing everything a baby should do. So congratulations to the Aimee, Trent, Damien, Charlee and Toby on the arrival of Sophie.

Well thats me today, better go sort dinner. Until next time, enjoy and have fun...

Lesley

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL

WOW, its 2011 already. Baby Moos time... exciting. I hope you all had a great Xmas and are enjoying the start of the new year. I do apologise to all my readers on the lack of Blogs entered over 2010. I will try and do a lot better this year, I promise.

At the moment, we are busy preparing for winter, buying in baelage. This year we have decided to buy the small baelage squares that are equivalent to 2 bales of hay, but the same size as 1 bale of hay. We like to stick with Baelage rather than hay, as it has so much more nutrients in it for the moos, as the hay is really only a tummy filler. We are fortunate that a farmer down the road has started doing them this size instead of the huge big ones. So we are doing trips every couple of weekends, to pick up a trailer load at a time...so hopefully by the time April arrives we will be all sorted. We are feeling a few nerves as to what sort of winter we will have after the horrid wet one of last year where it seemed we were continuously swimming in mud, but cross fingers it will be a lot kinder.

On the moo side of things, we have had our first baby arrive for the year, to Janny T and MacKay. She had a wee dun Boy. We have called him Benson McMoo and he is quite a character. For Janny's first baby, she is extremely relaxed. We have a few more due in Feb/March so looking forward to seeing them arrive safe and sound.

There has been some very exciting news recently with Glen Mor Fold. Their girl Polly had TRIPLETS.....and whats more they were all girls ( full bloods). Now I am not sure if there have been Highland Triplets in NZ before, let alone anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately one of the wee girls did pass away a few days later.... she was going down hill, the vet was called but she didn't make it thru the night. A real shame, but not too surprising really... So very exciting and maybe one for the record books. At the moment, Aimee and Trent (Glen Mor)are awaiting the birth of their 4th child... due on the 24th... so they will certainly have their hands full this year.

Back in October, we made our way up to Whangarei to go to Amanda and Grahams wedding, (Georgia Highlands.) I had the lovely job of being Bridesmaid. Greg was kept busy with being MC for the day. The day dawned just gorgeous and went thru exactly as that, all day. Everything went as planned and was so much fun. Amanda looked stunning and Graham was a treat in his Highland Kilt. Amanda and Graham planned the wedding with a Scottish theme, as Graham is a "Douglas" .... so we had kilts flying, jigs jigging, moos mooing and bag pipes, piping... !!! What more could you want. It was really great to meet some new McMoo highland owners and hear their stories about their babies they adore. So a big congratulations to Mr and Mrs Douglas on their nuptials...!!! and thanks for the great weekend.

We are off to help out Bonnycroft Highlands, Laura and Graham, at the Levin show this weekend. We haven't entered ourselves but decided to go along and be helpers where required. We always love to chat with other highland owners and see how their moos are going and meet new owners and new babies. Always a busy day, but very satisfying to sit down with a cold beer or wine at the end, to review it all.

Well the weather forecast is telling us we are getting rain today ... but so far there has only been the odd spit.... its hot and muggy and our ground is very thirsty...so I hope that weather man is correct and we can get some much needed rain.

I will leave you now to go and put the moos back in their paddock that have been munching at the long grass down the driveway. So until next time, ENJOY and remember to Slip, Slop, Slap..... !!

Lesley x

I have just realised ...................

Hello everyone again.... after I just finished the blog I have just done, I had a flick thru the blogs I have written and realised one big piece of news that I never wrote about.

This is MCMOOS huge Virtual show win....!!!

The virtual show was held last year and it covers the world stage basically. Everyone sends in photos, front, back and side of the animal they want to enter and they all get judged by a well known Highland judge. This time it was Glen Blume from the united states. There were 162 enteries from around the world and guess what.... Janny T McMoo WON !! and McGee McMoo came 2ND. Oh the excitement... we were absolutely thrilled of course and more than anything, shows that we are breeding these beauties right.

Another wet day - 25 June 2010

Well its been awhile since I have sat down and written in the blog. Time has just flown by with so much going on. Here we are now, in the middle of the year... here comes Xmas...eekk. Winter has arrived and it seems like we have had it for awhile with all the continuous rainy days we have had down or up here, depending on where you live.

However on the moo side of things its been as busy as ever. Sales have been going strong and it really is the highlight of breeding these fluffy wee animals, just seeing the joy they bring to people, particularly new highland owners. I keep meaning to start a link referring to comments made from new Highland owners, as they are just so precious. That will be my new job for the beginning of this half of the year !!

We have recently had 6 moos delivered happily to the South Island, 1 starter pack to one family and another starter pack to another. The feed back from both has been very exciting and rewarding.. one new owner commented that this was the first time she has ever cuddled a cow, she was so thrilled and excited by it all. When you have been breeding them for awhile, you forget these points, that its just not the normal thing for people to have experienced.

Our McMoos team from the Waikato area, Glen Mor Highlands-Trent and Aimee have recently been at the Mystery Creek Fieldays, for 4 days. For those of you that don't know of it, it is absolutely huge. People from all over the island come to it and usually every year. The photos that were coming back to us here were like watching a cattle race of people going down the lanes 5-6 people deep. The 4 days were extremely busy and fortunately Amanda from Georgia Highlands, came down and helped them on the Thursday, which happened to be the busiest day and already many McMoo animals have been sold. Certainly a great one to put in your diaries for next June. Greg and I will be there this time, the first time we have visited, so very much looking forward to it.

Its also been the wonderful time of all the new babies arriving. We have a few more to go in the next month or so, but we really do hang out for the new arrivals. Even now, all these years down the track, we still wait like anxious parents when we see that mum is loosing up in the rear end and bagging up in the udders, waiting anxiously and betting with each other on what day the baby will be born. I just cant explain the wonderful feeling of seeing the new born calf arrive...then its down to sussing out its gender and then choosing the name....oh I love this bit.

Have a look on our "new babies" page of our gallery and also our "for sale" pages to see some of our new babies that have arrived over the last few months.

Well I think its time to put the fire on and settle in for another wet cold night...Moos have their baelage and look very happy with themselves..... one in particular-Katrine.... she is standing at the baelage trough feeding her face as normal, and baby Hogan is underneath at his very own feed trough, the udder, happy for once that mum is standing still for awhile, as he knows when shes in the trough there she stays!!!.

Keep warm and dry till next time... Lesley

MASTERTON SHOW - FEBURARY 2010

Well another successful show under the belt, as they say.

McMoos have done well again, particularly with Maggie Mcmoo and her bulf calf Rowno, receiving the Champion Lifestyle Animal of the show. Pete, her owner, was beaming with this success. Then his boy calf, Finnan Mor McMoo once again received the reserve champion male of the lifestyle show....wow, a huge achievement for a calf. This is the 2nd time young Finnan has recieved this. So a boy to watch in shows to come. He is for sale, so if anyone is interested in a very friendly boy who has all the attributes of a great highland bull, let us know.

Then we had young Janny T McMoo in a large yearling heifer class and got placed 3rd, so that was great. And Mr McGee McMoo, not in such a good mood this day, too hot and boring having been pulled out of a paddock from all his girlfriends !!, but still came away with Champion Male Lifestyle.

Always great time to catch up with everyone. It was a much quieter day around the Show grounds, as for the first time they put the beef breeds on the Sunday, instead of the usual Saturday. But still a lovely family show and always nice to get under the trees after show for a nice cool drink.

Out on the farm, we have 2 big girls, Santana and Piper very close producing their babies. They are both as huge as house, particularly Santana, who looks almost comical, looking at her head on... ! We have all our fingers and toes crossed for heifers as it has been a rather strong male flavour in the air this season....hmmm something in the water maybe months ago.

The paddocks are really starting to dry up now as we haven't had a lot of rain in the last couple of months. We are hoping for a bit this weekend. But we certainly can't complain when you look at the Northland folks struggling with no water almost, and extremely dried up paddocks. A very hard part of farming.

Well till next time....enjoy and keep safe. Lesley

Conal McMoo Stars in the Rodney Times

We have a couple of famous fellas amoungst us !!!

Yes its Conal and Shane..... Aren't they looking hansome....

This article was written after their big win at the Puhoi show....