now that's a vat!

 It's taken more than four months and a trip half way around the world (via truck and boat and truck).... but at LAST - our shiny new 15000L stainless steel milk vat has arrived...

 it just needed to be ummm.... 'finessed' into a very tight spot....

some palfinger work....

a helping hand...

careful alignment...

 itty-bitty trolleys...

 some leg work...

 some shoving....

now it has to be hooked up and operational by this afternoons milking

get going boys you've only got a couple of hours to get everything done!

(this big beastie vat has arrived at exaclty the right time - 

we were hitting capacity on the the little 4000L stand-by vat 

which will be carted away today)

this is the last very big piece of the new dairy puzzle slotted into place today.... 

mmmm satifying

...

finding rhythm...

We've been milking for just over 3 weeks now - and life (and the herd) is settling into a routine.... it's a new rhythm that we are all adjusting to.... and our kidlins (sassy-boy in particular) are enjoying the challenge of learning new farming skills....

Now that the dairy is 'doing its thing' - I thought I'd show what a typical afternoon milking looks like - here on the farm...

 bringing in the girls...(that's my 87-yr-old mother-in-law in hot pursuit..... she's FORMIDABLE!!!!!)

 

cows with newborn calves are treated gently.... 
we leave calves on cows for the first crucial days... then they are taken to a calf paddock (it's very interesting watching dairy cows reactions to calves... they are quite different to beefy cows - who are especially maternal.... after a very short while, most dairy cows 'forget' they have had calves....)

 chip off the old block.... (couldn't resist adding this piccie!)

girls waiting for milking to start.... every herd has 'leaders' and 'followers' - lead cows are very important animals - they are the first to do anything -  like go through gates or to enter the dairy .... a good lead cow is a valuable girlie and they are often the best milkers (and above are a couple of current leaders).... a good lead cow will march all the way to the far bales, pop her head into the feed, and swing her body around square to the pit - and it's almost as if she's telling the others - 'this is how its done girls... follow me'....

 putting on the machines ....

(just prior to putting on the machines, each teat is hand tested - this helps the cows release the milk, and helps FP and his brother check the health of the cows...)

 mmmmmmm milk!

sass and the iodine spray 

(after the machines are automatically removed - the cow's teats are given short spray - this helps to keep the nasties away)

 

gates open - and they're off...

(sometimes they need a bit of 'encouragement' to leave the yummy food behind!)

 EJ takes the girls off to the night paddocks...
(in case you can't tell - the Very Big Girls are HUGE - their pelvis' are over my head - that's a LOT of cow for a little girlie to herd....

not everything on a farm is super-super-sweet and candy-floss-flowers.... every day there are animals that need attention - this Very Big Girl is suffering the after affects of milk fever (a common but potentially deadly condition that cows may develop around calving time - essentially 'milk fever' is a blood/calcium deficiency...  left untreated a cow rapidly deteriorates, is unable to rise,  and may die of heart failure... yes its mighty serious) FP and our sis-in-law (aunty J) are encouraging this sweet girlie into the dairy - milking her is essential to her long term well-being

oh and these big black pipes you see everyone carting around? - I think I should tell you - they are not used to beat the cows - (eeegads!) - no... these are bits of hollow ag pipe - they make a noise when hit on the ground - they are also used to tap the cows to help them know where they are meant to go

 after the girls have been milked there's the very big job of cleaning -
sass with the small hose starts the wash down... 

every other day the truck rattles down the drive to collect the milk - and every pick-up the milk is tested on board the truck for protein, butterfat, and a range of possible nasties....(that's what is happening behind those little open 'doors' to the right of the truck driver) and the farmer is paid accordingly... the higher the butterfat and protein and lower the nasties - the more the milk is worth.... and these Very Big girls are Very Very good butterfat/protein girls!)

waiting for a feed (we feed the calves twice each day - with pure milk - just as nature intended) this is just some of the bunch - we are experiencing a calf explosion on the farm right now!

 buckets for the calves...

 off to feed the calves... (its getting dark)

they look all sweet here - but trust me, these little boys and girls are feisty! EJ can only just hold onto the bucket!

ahhhh and the following morning this action is repeated... and then again in the afternoon, and the next morning, and afternoon, and morning and afternoon, and.....


well you get the picture!

...

yes...

I stumbled over this vid via farmama..... and as it eloquently and easily sums up many of my farming fears and the glistening rays of hope I just had to share it...



(yes it goes for about 40 something minutes - but every single second of it is precious.... watch it if find eating is important to you.... oh and I think this video is due to be removed in a couple of weeks time - so watch it while you can)

d-day....

AT LAST!!!!

Today was D-Day (Dairy Day! where we cranked up the shiny new dairy and milked the first cows.....)

Here are the first milking girls.....

...  a few hours after their HUGE journey (12 hrs overnight on the truck... just like the dry girls, but these are milkers - look at those heavy udders.....)

walking up to the new dairy (sweet quiet girls.....)

I've usually found that if you just let cattle figure things out and don't hassle or hurry them, they'll quietly go where you want them to.... (you'll notice that I have the dual job of taking pics and moving the cows!)

gathering in the yard ..... oooh nervous (this place doesn't smell right! this place doesn't look right! this place isn't for us!)

 it takes some gentle persuading to convince the girls that this is all ok....

 

 once the first brave girl makes the move the others follow
(it does take quite a bit of concerted effort to get that first girl moving though!) ....

 Sass and EJ grab a peek at the pit before it's action stations...

here is the very first new Very Big Girl to be milked in the new 'Alanbar' dairy ....

 lining up the girls.....

poor things - to give you an idea of what their day has been like:- not only did they have the looong truck journey through the night, they landed on a strange new farm with strange new people -  they then had a strange new building with strange new smells and sounds and gadgets..... new headlock thingies that don't work like the usual ones.... oh and in this dairy the girls have to turn a full 90 degrees to the pit (which I think they found the strangest thing of all! we had to gently encourage them to turn, turn, turn.... I'm sure I could hear them mooing to each other  'oooo it's all so strange and new and strange! what do these people want from us!') bless 'em even though it must have seemed very weird  - they were all gentle giants.... and coped extremely well

(I spy with my little eye - two little kidlets in the wash room....yes I braved the pit for this shot!)

time for the kidlets to earn their keep - uncle simon shows sass how this milking stuff is done (yes sass is too young to be working in the pit - but he was so excited that he was allowed to enter for the final flourish - here he is giving the last of the just-milked cows her teat spray (its iodine - this helps to stop the moos developing all sorts of nastiness)  

 ahhh all over.... and feeling a LOT better I'm sure....

(my job was to help the girls know where to go after they leave the dairy.... )

 

into the night paddock

.... tomorrow will be easier 

The Very Big girls will have a better understanding of where to go, where to stand, what's going to happen, (and so to will Uncle Simon and FP!). In a couple of days time the heifers (about 30 of them) will return from Denny's dairy, where they have been milked while this beastie building has been made ready - and then they too will have to learn this new dairy.... oh and every day new calves are being born, so more big and Very Big girls will be joining this first small milking mob every day...

Time to breathe a small sigh of relief.
The biggest hurdles have now been cleared.... 

WELL DONE VERY BIG GIRLS!
(well done FP - its been a very long journey for you too)

....

girls girls girls (wet wet wet) moo moo moo

It's raining

A LOT - and it's very very wet here at the moment

Too wet in fact to get the double truck into Phil's farm to unload our truckload of new big girls.... who arrived this morning after a looong 13 hr  road journey from Wodonga - on the NSW/ Vic border. Luckily Phil married the neighbour's daughter eh? (yes I mean me!!!). So Phil and I stood vigil on the highway - waiting for Matt (and hoping Matt that could get in and out of the yards at Sams Creek....)

 (waiting waiting... note we have separate vehicles...)

waiting waiting...

They're here!!

(I must say I got stupidly excited when I finally spied the truck - I spent most of last night worrying that the big girls were travelling ok....) 

here's tricky bit number one - reverse the double truck off the road and up to the rickety Sams Creek yards... (btw - the road is the Princes Highway, it's a 100km zone, this is a blind hill and he's going to need the whole highway to get this sucker lined up... oh and it's a might tight space and seriously muddy !)

corrr but I like it when someone knows what they are doing!... 

don't worry sweet girls - not much longer now!

and the latest load of big girlies have landed!
(not exactly where phil would like - but hey... any port in a storm)

tricky bit number two - try getting the double truck back out of here (without a load there's a whole lot less grip)....  it took a bit of effort - but Matt managed it

(that's our little house in the background... can you see it?)

All the girls are currently having a sit down in the paddock at Sams Creek (it was a very very long way in the truck) - They will have to spend a few days here at Sams Creek farm - because the creek is too high to cross them to Phil's farm!

(when the rain clears I'll go take some more piccies... they are sweet sweet girls - I noticed when I started talking to them as they arrived, that they were very interested in meeting me...  which is no surprise - they have been hand-raised and then milked and managed by a woman... and I can tell they like the sound of a girl's voice, not those gruff males!)

...

details details....

why do the final parts of a job take the longest?
all the internal large scale dairy works are good to go...

 (here's FP inspecting the pit
that should give you all an idea just how whacking HUGE this dairy is!)

the machines are go! the vac pump is go!
the feeding system is go! the wash-up system is go!
the standby vat is go! the filter system is go! 

but.....

the external plumbing is not...

FP and Simon are working long hours trying to get all the tedious jobs complete (build a cooling tower, lay new water pipes everywhere, build a new exclusion trap, clean up the enormous mess) - in between trial runs for the milk tanker (oops driver can't get truck turned around with that external vat in the road..... soooooo FP will have to do some hasty road/fence works - hacking off part of his mums house yard to allow the truck to turn)

oh and today when I was over taking a few more pics of (non) progress (these final jobs are not as obvious or impressive as large bits of steel or machinery installations).... the big grain truck arrived to unload 32 tonne of cow feed (a pelletised complete feed that is dished out to milking girls....mmmmm yum)

and got stuck in the mud....

enter FP and his trusty red tractor..... as he had to pull the truck into the spot to unload...

and no doubt he will have to pull the unladen double truck the heck out of there after all that expensive food is deposited in the silo...

FP WAS thinking that the milking girls MAY be travelling up in a couple of days time, but thankfully Matt (the mighty cow-truck man) will only be transporting the second load of dry cows this weekend (approximately 50 more cows .... or as close to that as he can transport in safety and comfort his double truck)

and we now hope to transport the milkers (about 40 girls) the following weekend


gosh its all very stressful! I just want to see the project finished and have some (trickle) of money coming in.....


....

counting down the days....

all the final chores to get the dairy operational are taking their own sweet time....

but this week at last ALL of the milking machinery is installed and we've had a test run (not with cows mind you!)

(here's what a brand spanking new 20-a-side swing-over dairy pit looks like - soooo pristine! look at all that stainless steel!.... oh and the blue thing you see dangling down - that's an individual pulley for the feed system....)


and the last piece of the puzzle began to slot into place this week - as I can announce the arrival of

THE HERD!

Here's the first load of BIG girls just off the truck from their looooooooooooong journey up from Victoria...

(aren't they beautiful? and you can't see in this piccie - but they are BIG, BIG girls - and just about the most beautiful Holstein-Friesians you will ever lay eyes on. This is the first load of girlies - 48 'dry' cows.. ie cows that are not presently lactating)

After MONTHS of careful negotiations we finally managed to secure a spectacular herd of glorious girls. They have all been lovingly hand-reared and tenderly milked and managed by a very special lady (Anne) in Wodonga. She has decided, like many dairy farmers currently, to leave the industry*....  but that meant selling all her special babies (and despite what many folk may think - most farmers, REAL farmers that is, care deeply about each and every animal under their protection). Understandably then, it's no small thing to sell off all your animals.....

Since just before Christmas, FP has travelled to Anne's Wodonga farm twice... and Anne even visited our place - just to be sure that her lovely girls were going to a 'good' family I suspect!.... but then we had to go through preg-testing, vet checks, Johne-status clearance (dairy herds in Victoria may be Johne's declared - our area is predominantly Johne's-free... so it is financial suicide to purchase any animal from a farm that has had a case of Johne's)..... oh and THEN, just as we were ready to bring up this first load of girlies, a couple of the milking girls contracted a virus (back to more vet checks, and more to-and-fro than you can imagine!)


it has been sooooo stressful

when at last we knew they were on the road, FP stood vigil by the yards all night (dozing a little in the ute) ready for their arrival..... they turned up at 7am, every one of them bright eyed and bushy tailed (FP was not so bright by then!)

We have another 70 girls still in Wodonga - We will be bringing them up in convoy of 2 trucks (the double truck and semi-trailer). As some of these are lactating (eg currently being milked) this next trip will be tricky. Fingers crossed we get the green light for the dairy in the next 10 days - then we can call up the cows!


and then

boy oh boy will it be busy here!





**don't get me started with how I feel about the major supermarkets and their war on farms and farming - coles and woolies are super-bastards and my disgust at coles' position on discount milk cannot be fully expressed in this arena at this time. Expect to see a WHOLE lot more about this issue pretty much everywhere you look in the next wee while.