Saturday October 23rd.
Angela and Tony live in a modern home on a farm of two and a half thousand acres. The farm has about 9,000 sheep and 30 cattle and some 80 acres of wheat. This was sown in Summerhill where the home farm was established in the 1850s. Tony showed me a stone monument and plaque which the extended Kealy Family erected Stone monument in honour of their pioneer forefathers who came from Kilkenny in 1854. I got the opportunity to feed some sheep and lambs with oats. It was noticeable that the grass was taller than in Ireland considering the amount of sheep grazing on it. It is let grow longer as it has to last the summer when there is no growth. The grass has never been greener or better but soon the summer's sun will burn and dry it. The purpose of feeding oats was to get the lambs used to eating them now. When the weather gets hotter the dry grass is not enough to sustain the lambs who, unlike the sheep, do not have enough body fat to see them through the non-grass growing season. They will need other feed and Tony feeds them some oats five or six times to get them hooked. I got to drive the yute (like a pick-up truck) with a grain spreader attached, which was quite a thrill.
Angela and Tony live in a modern home on a farm of two and a half thousand acres. The farm has about 9,000 sheep and 30 cattle and some 80 acres of wheat. This was sown in Summerhill where the home farm was established in the 1850s. Tony showed me a stone monument and plaque which the extended Kealy Family erected Stone monument in honour of their pioneer forefathers who came from Kilkenny in 1854. I got the opportunity to feed some sheep and lambs with oats. It was noticeable that the grass was taller than in Ireland considering the amount of sheep grazing on it. It is let grow longer as it has to last the summer when there is no growth. The grass has never been greener or better but soon the summer's sun will burn and dry it. The purpose of feeding oats was to get the lambs used to eating them now. When the weather gets hotter the dry grass is not enough to sustain the lambs who, unlike the sheep, do not have enough body fat to see them through the non-grass growing season. They will need other feed and Tony feeds them some oats five or six times to get them hooked. I got to drive the yute (like a pick-up truck) with a grain spreader attached, which was quite a thrill.
We also rounded up sheep from a neighbouring farm who broke into one of Tony’s 'paddocks'. They don't use the word 'field' here. The sheer scale of everything was mind boggling.
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