Long spring coming

Below are more photos I took on 7th November to give you an idea of how fast the pasture grows here when it is reasonably well fed, even in these cool conditions we continue to have. With the moisture and happiness of the kikuyu, and the outlook for a wettish summer, it is very likely we will be quite green here until February. Our average break to the season is March, so it looks like it will be green all summer. Well, the probability is that it will be. As soon as funding allows, I would like to bring in a few thousand trade sheep ASAP to utilise the growth and turn it into much needed cashflow.

I have added more descriptions with each photo below.

6th Nov 2021. Bravo paddock. This is a waterlogged paddock so has grown slower than other paddocks, but compare the growth here to what it was a few weeks ago in the previous blog.

6th Nov 2021. Bravo paddock just before I let the weaners in. See those two copper blocks? They are not just to keep algae out of the troughs. Because our molybdenum levels are too high, copper utilisation or uptake is decreased by the pastures and the sheep, so this is one way we are increasing the copper levels in the livestock. We clean the troughs just before sheep enter the paddock and place a fresh copper block in the clean water.

6th Nov 2021. Bravo paddock. The weaners are entering for 7-days of grazing. We are a few thousand sheep short to graze the pastures properly.

6th Nov 2021. Bravo paddock. Weaners just entered the paddock.

6th Nov 2021. Foxtrot paddock. Compare growth to the previous blog entry. Need more sheep. The mob coming to this paddock is in a paddock like this one and won't be in here for another week.

6th Nov 2021. Foxtrot paddock looking across to the back of the farm.

6th Nov 2021. A recently grazed paddock with a gap in the ryegrass to show you how happy the kikuyu is. When smothered by ryegrass, it has much longer leaves trying to reach the sunlight.

This is what kikuyu looks like when it is flowering. Those white filaments with the yellow pollen sacks on top is it flowering. Grazing triggers it to flower.