Dark Peak Wedding Present

20th August - we have weaned all the calves off the milk so now they are all together in one pen and on 1kg Calf Weaning Pellets per calf /day (basically half a 25kg bag poured into a long trough). Grinah is the biggest while Barrow is an average size but still friendlier. The smallest of the lot is no 42 who wouldn't drink her milk from the day we bought her and so after a week of getting milk everywhere we weaned her early. She always manages to push into the middle of the trough though and so we're hopeful that she might catch up.

26th July 2010 - Not a lot to report. We have chosen Grinah and Barrow as names. Grinah is the light brown one who is slightly bigger but not as friendly. Barrow is the dark brown friendly one. We are recording how much calf ration they eat morning and night and when they are eating 2kg per day (between them) we can wean them off milk. At the moment they vary between 1 to 1.5kg/day.

14th July 2010 - Names so far   Grinah and Barrow, Abbey and Lady, Kinder and Bleaklow, Floozy Suzi and Flirty Gerty, Heather and Sunshine. Then I thought of Whisky and Sloe Gin

Disbudding done....

8th July 2010 - Both calves are doing well. Drinking their milk twice a day and eating a bit of hay and solid food. This week the task is to disbud them (ie remove their horn buds) - not pleasant but does mean they won't grow horns with which to use on each other and us!

5th July 2010 - Its a year since we were given the wedding present by our DPFR friends of funds to buy ourselves a new bull. But as we already have a perfectly good one (Adam) we planned to get him a couple more girlfriends (heifers) instead. Last year we missed the boat mainly due to organising the wedding - by August all the calves had gone.

Today we have purchased two heifer Limousin calves. Three weeks old and need names.....

Suggestions coming in are Grinah and Barrow, Abbey and Lady, Kinder and Bleaklow.