Spring has sprung, but wheres the grass?

 Hi everyone, I hope you have all made it through winter unscathed.  It started out pretty good for us and has ended up in mud soup !!  Although its been unusually warm for one of our winters, the last couple of months has been incredibly wet, so hence the mud soup.  The grass  had a wee burst as soon as it realised Spring had arrived, but has halted again now that it has decided to have another cold wet burst.  Oh well, that's what farming is all about isn't it, one eye on the weather forecast, gumboots covered in mud at the back door and hunkering down and doing what is necessary as fast as you can to keep dry.... but we love it don't we ??. 

We have been busy feeding out baelage to our guys over winter as a daily task.  But its been made quite comical due to our chickens. As part of our team of chickens we have 2 cheeky white ones.  We have nicknamed them Speckles and Whitey... I know, very uninspiring names, but one has a solid white body and the other one has white and speckles.... !! Anyway, they both seem to think that apart from just laying eggs for us, they should help feed out to the cows as well.  They just look hilarious. If Gregs feeding out, I am usually in my office and can look out my window and watch Greg walking along with the Baelage trolley with one or both of the chickens running as fast as their little legs will take them, with a waddle as well in there, right behind Greg, all the way to where he is feeding out and that can sometimes be quite away.  I just sit and giggle.  :O) they are full of such importance... x

Our babies have started to arrive which is always exciting.  Will it be a boy or a girl and what colour is he or she.  At Lumonte McMoos, we have had one boy and 3 girls so far.  All of them have new homes now so once they are old enough to be weaned I will be into the training routine again which I always enjoy.   One of our other McMoo breeders has had a dun girl and a red girl, so girls seem to be the flavour of the season so far.
We always love to get photos and news on how our wee ones have been getting along in their new home.  One of my special girls from last year Scarlett has just turned one and look at her now...her new mum has just sent me this photo.  (see above). 

I will leave you here and go out and shift the moos to new paddocks....they look like they want a change.  I wonder if Whitey and Speckles will help me with that ? most likely !

I hope the sun is shining at your place
until next time.
have fun 
cheers Lesley

Truely Majestic !!

I sat at our breakfast table this morning, and looked out our glass doors and just sat thinking how lucky we were to be able to sit and watch our gorgeous moos from our table. There they were in the morning sunlight, munching away, happily meandering from one spot to the next, every so often popping their head up to look back at me....with mouths full of grass ! Truely a majestic sight. I guess this is what stops people on the road side to just sit and stare. They really are an amazing animal. I recently had a truck driver stop me and say, "oh you are the people with the Highland cattle aren't you.... I bring my wife up to your place every so often to just look at them, esp when you have little teddy bear babies."

I have attached the photos of our new baby float. I call it the moo caravan..!! not sure if Greg is so keen on that name, but that's what it feels like when driving with them in it. Sitting in the drivers seat, you look into the rear vision mirror, and

guess who is looking back at you...yes, its the moos. It is hilarious. Honestly I am a bit worried that we will get so transfixed on looking at them, rather than the road !!

Talking about hilarious sights, I decided to do the harrowing of the front paddock with Gertie. Now Gertie isnt a cow or a goat or any four legged character, its our four wheeled old hack.. range rover. What a trouper she is. So I hawled on the harrow and off Cooper and I went..... well I tell you, I was

very pleased I was wearing a sports bra (I guess a few of you would rather not know that ).. but boy oh boy, Cooper and I had a rather bumpy ride. At one point, I stopped to check something, left my door open, then got back in and realised Cooper had decided enough was enough, and had left the building so to speak.

He just took off, no where to be seen. !! I did have to laugh and then carried on Solo !!

Well I had better rattle my daggs and get some dinner sorted... the sun is going down and things are cooling down... certainly a sign its Autumn and not summer anymore. until next time... Les x

The last day of March 2012

Well daylight saving is about to end. In come the cooler days and nights getting darker. Although in saying that, the weather certainly hasn't got colder... its just gorgeous out there. I am a lover of Spring and Autumn. They are my favourite seasons, so I am a happy chappy at the moment.

Its been a busy few months. We've done a lot of travelling delivering moos to new homes and still have a few more to do in the coming months. Although always sad to see our babies leave home, especially having got to know them so well with all the training, its also really lovely meeting the people who have bought them and to help them all (humans and moos).. in the settling in process. Very often we haven't personaly met the new owners, as we have got to know each other by email and phone, which of course with the internet and emails, makes it all very easy these days. But in saying that too, we have had quite a few new owners pop in and met the gang and got to know them with brushes and treats. Which of course they all lap up, to their hearts content... the moos that is, but of course the humans love it too.

Greg has been busy on a trailer project. We have the big bull float we use to transport the moos around most of the time...but decided for some trips it would be great to have a smaller float. So Greg has adapted our 'normal' trailer (an old army trailer) into a small float. Its really great as we can take the top off and it will then again be a normal trailer. He is just on the finishing touches and we have just received the signage to stick on the sides and back and at this stage, we are hoping to use it for our trip to the middle of the Island on Thursday. We are going to do a test run during the week to just make sure McPhee and Scarlett are happy with it!. They are the two who be in it for the maiden run. I'll post some photos of it once its all complete.

I shall sign off now as I feel its time for a celebratory glass of wine to celebrate the end of another gorgeous day..well any excuse I reckon, for a nice wee glass of wine at the end of a day.

I will make sure I write a lot sooner next time. My apologies for the big gap... x

cheers for now, Lesley

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.

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

Lesley

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.

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