Bye Bye one of our female cows :)

Today my Dad is going through to Dingwall to sell our year old female cow. She is lovely, very gentle and soft natured. She is a big build and is black and white couloured. We are putting her down in dingwall today so she can get sold. She was ment to get sold a few months back but had a little bit of trouble rounding her up she still did not want to leave her mum, alot of farmers from here wanted her for breeding but as she was not wanting to leave her mum so soon we decied to slowly take her away and aim for this date.

So each week we have been spliting her up further away from her mum. The first couple of times was hard and she made such a noise but she is fine now and is doing great by herself, really has come along well. She would make a great mother herself and think she will produce some really healthy calvs. Hopefully we will get a good sale for her :).

For a link to the dingwall market website click below.
http://www.dingwallmart.co.uk/index.htm

Got the jeep back:)

Finally after months i have my vaxuhall 4by4 jeep back! So happy thought i would never get it back! Very greatfull for a close family friend to fix teh fuel tank though at a very low price. I use the jeep just to learn how to drive for my 17th. Its great for off roding and we also use it to get to the cattle easy for feeding. I shall update with pictures soon :).

Yesterday we took four cows of the common grazing and will be due to have their first calf March/April next year.
 
The other day we also bought our first chevoit tup. he is just one year old. We are also due to pick up anotehr replacment tup next weeked.

Today we doesed the all the sheep woth Mineral drench. It is a liquid for pre tupping to make sure they are healthy fgor lambing season and also gave them a worm drench was given at the same time.

Some good Winter clothings and also other bits that you may need.

Thought i would do a quick post on some things that we have been buying getting ready for winter. Things like jackets,water proof trousers and also very strong boots, wellys are very good yeah but if you are out in say snow for hours on end running about after cattle wellys can sometimes not be the best things. You also need a good torch for winter time, as you will know yourself it gets very dark very early and when your out checking on the cattle a small torch is not good for keeping an eye out on whats going on about around you and where the other cattle are. I would recommend Tresspass for jackets,trousers and boots. It may be expensive but you are paying for great quality and will keep you warm. I always look under ski&snowboarding as they are well quite obviously made for very cold temputares. Some links below to things on there site.
Clothing:
http://www.trespass.co.uk/section/womens-clothing-2/womens-outerwear-4/ski-and-snowboard-jackets-17

http://www.trespass.co.uk/section/womens-clothing-2/womens-outerwear-4/waterproof-trousers-22

http://www.trespass.co.uk/section/footwear-5/womens-footwear-14/womens-snow-boots-263

Torch:
http://search.diy.com/search#w=torch&asug=Torch

Ready for winter.

This is the hay bales that we have been keeping all summer and getting them all ready to give to the sheep and cows over the winter. They are now fully ready and will be getting some hay out soon, as the tough winter is just round the corner, Luckily this year the small electric wire fence around the bales has worked and no sheep or cows have manged to get there way to the bails and rip the bags open and munch away. As i mentioned before in a recent post all our sheep and cows are weathered outside all year round so they are very used to the tough winters but for food they shall get these hay bales  and also mineral blocks. Hopefully we wont have a terrible winter this year, but then again typical Skye weather i wont be shocked if it is dreadful!

A short video i took while standing at the top of the hill with part of the Skeabost river in it and also round our field that we are fencing for winter.

Fencing of the grazing fields for winter.

This is where the cattle and sheep will be going for winter grazing. It is a big space for them with plenty of  choices for them to pick at along with there hay and mineral blocks to keep them going through winter. It is a lovely quiet space and got to be the best place down at the croft. The skeabost river runs next to it and also across the river is where the held the skeabost gravel sprint for the Skye rally club here is a link to the Skye rally club. http://www.skyerallyclub.co.uk/ and a link to information about the Skeabost river http://www.isleofskyeguide.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Skeabost.html.
 The skeabost river is a place where you can catch some of the best salmon on the isle of ske, Lovley when you can see them jumping up the waterfalls, you can see them do this from about may to mid september some days you can be there for hours and only see one or two sometimes be there for five minutes and see up to about thirty. Some pictures below that i took while me and my dad did some fencing.
 This top picture is right at the top of the hill.

 First river gate.

 All this dead bracken will be getting cut away soon as it can be possioness to the cows and sheep if they eat to much of it.

Dad working away after we had walked about 20 mins down from the top of the hill and padded through the river.

 Skeabost river

Our two best Mummy cows!

These two good looking cows, are our best adults cows so far, they always give a very healthy calf and look after them well, and are the most friendly out of the bunch, nothing bothers them at all.

Introduction about my blog.

Hello. My blog is going to be about our croft on the Isle of Skye. I will be giving information on what is going on and hopefully some useful things that will help others who are intrested in croft work.

 My Father and Grandfather and Auntie are all owning the cattle and sheep we have at the moment, But i like to pull my weight around the croft and enjoy it quite a bit will be hopefully owning my own cow sometime soon!!Our croft is in Pennies about ten minutes out of Portree.


 We have seventeen cows. Three bulling heifers. Two heifers that are eighteen months old that are hopefully going to there bull this year. We have three calf's left that where born in June this year that were to young to sell this year but maybe sell them in April at the next sale in Portree or keep them for breeding but sold nine calf's that were old enough at the last sale, That is the cows that we have at the moment.


In the sheep department we have forty one breeding ewes, seven Grimmers, nine hogs and two tups/rams.


Everything is wintered out side. We get a contractor  to cut the bake and wrap the silage that is around eighty bales, this is all done late August early September.  


 The cattle are a suckler herd. We keep our own good heifer calfs for breed. The cattle are on the common grazing for summer months and parks the rest of the time for grazing and feeding. The sheep are held in parks or the croft all year round.


 A few people think "oh farming that's easy and easy money". That is not the case, it is very hard working and have to be whiling to go out at anytime if problems. For a while there the cows kept knocking there way through the fence and out on the road and even at two, three in the morning you would have to get up and go get them and that can take hours to get them all sorted, they are very strong animals even at young calf's and they are not dumb that other people think.


 We do have a collie dog called Molly that loves getting out there and working,but sadly she is getting very old and can not work as much as she used to, even though she does try. She is a lovely collie but does look a bit mad. She can not go out and help move the cows as she doesn't get along with them to well,as she feels cause they are so big she needs to snap at them but course that does not go done well to the cows and puts her in danger so unfortunately it is just us running about move them. The sheep she gets along great with and gets the moved still quite quick. Will need to be looking for a new sheepdog very soon as my Grandad and Father know in a few years they will not be able to be running about as much as they are and getting rid of the croft is not even a question, they both could never do without it all they been used to and enjoy it very much.


 Well that's a just of what goes on but there is allot more but not going to ramble on. I will hopefully be able to keep this up to date with pictures videos and information of whats going on such as the breeding progress, what happens at the sales, feeding, ejections and will probably be a few times of the cows escaping again and deary knows what pictures i will get there as once they were at the High School. Will also be writing about Molly and her jobs and if we get a new puppy and its training.

Thanks :)