Monday 8 April 2013

Latest Pics Of The Aberdeen Angus Calves On Our Smallholding In Ireland.


Brr... It's been rough again last night.  We get some terrible gales living on the Western seaboard of the Atlantic Ocean.  The 4 Aberdeen "Calveens" (West Cork phrase) don't seem to be taking any harm though.  These are their most recent pictures of them tucking into the straw.  They also have 2 scoops of 'calf nut's' a day to give them any minerals they are lacking.  They are five weeks old now and they have weaned themselves off the milk.

Went for my daily walk to see the 'big' cattle today.  There seems to be a lot of Gorse ("Furze") in flower at the moment.  The people long a go used to use it for stock proof fencing and grew fields of it for firewood.  The Gorse flower smell reminds me of coconut or sun tan lotion.  The grass also seems to have a yellow tinge from the wind burn and salt in the rain.  I won't knock the rain too much though.  Rainwater contains lots of nitrogen and makes the grass and flowers grow.  I don't buy 'bag manure' granulated fertilizer.  So I am almost organic.  Anybody heard of any organic granulated fertilizer for pasture and hay?  How much is it? Why is everything 'organic' that's for sale, so expensive?

"April showers brings May flowers."

2 comments:

  1. Thats why i could never go organic. Things like feed and fertilzer are always so expensive. On a simple scale I don't think I could charge much more for organic eggs than I could for my normal eggs!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Kev, I used to tend allotments in England and I gradually moved to organic principles. It's pointless growing vegetables that taste of man madechemicals and have been sprayed with cancer causing weedkillers.

    I champion the organic movement for it's animal welfare and refusal to use man made chemicals. I try to use organic principles on my smallholding (no fertilizer and only a few dosing chemicals for fluke and stomach worms)here in Ireland. However I don't think I could ever be a profitable farmer if I went organic. It's just too expensive. I think 'free range, chemical free, natural and home grown' are more realistic words than organic.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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