A long time between posts – life is always busy on the farm! With home schooling, running our business, work on the farm, building projects, community commitments – there is never a dull moment here.
After all the wonderful rain earlier in the year, our country grew so much grass it was quite amazing. The Flinders grass (native) which normally grows about 30-40cm high grew up to 50-60cm this year – George & I had never seen it so strong and lush. The Mitchell grass (native) also responded to the moisture with incredibly thick growth. We could see we were going to have trouble at lambing time - with baby lambs being lost and unable to find their mothers due to the density of grass.
We made the decision to offer some of our country for short term adjistment to some fellow producers (with chemical free practices) who had drought stricken cattle further west of here. Our country needed animals to use the abundance of grass and they needed grass urgently to keep their animals alive. It was a pitiful sight to see these poor weak animals arriving – some barely able to stand. We can only begin to imagine the heartbreak the owners have been going through – waiting for decent rain for several years. It was a pleasure to see their cattle looking remarkably more content after just a week of good food.
Since then, our country has been without rain for about 6 months. Although there is still plenty of grass in our paddocks, it has dried off considerably and the ratio of green grass (high in protein) to dried grass (hay) is diminishing. With that situation, we can end up with plenty of food for the animals, but a protein drought, due to less green grass in amongst the dried grass. We started praying for 24mm or more of rain to green up the grass and fix the protein situation. Such are the challenges with 100% grass fed animals.
And guess what…..in the past two days we have had about 32mm of gentle soaking rain! What an answer to prayer! Our country is bathed in sunshine today - perfect conditions to see that green grass peeking through.
We have had a lot of enquiry from people in other areas of Qld and interstate who are wanting to purchase our 100% grass fed, chemical free meat. At this stage we are concentrating on S.E. Qld but don’t rule out expanding into other areas in the future. Anyone outside our normal delivery area is welcome to get in touch with us.
We are lamb marking this week – all the sheep with lambs are mustered in and drafted (sorted), the lambs are marked and then returned to their paddocks with their mothers. Every individual lamb has to be manually picked up (about 15kg) and marked. Mustering on a motorbike at dawn on these icy cold mornings is character building! Sometimes, it is so cold that we can barely make our mouths move to speak on the two-way radio. But we love it – sheep and cattle work can be a lot of fun.
Don’t forget we are giving away a 20kg pack of our delicious 100% grass fed, chemical free lamb this month. Send in your thoughts about grass fed meat to be in the draw for this great prize. Thanks to those who have done so already - its great to see the ways that grass fed, chemical free meat is helping you and your families.
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