IN very unusual circumstances, we find ourselves as one of luckiest areas of the state as far as rainfall and seasonal conditions go.
I am thinking of my friends and other farmers in the Western District (where lack of stock drinking water is becoming a big problem) and in the northeast and the central districts, hoping for a big rain for them soon.
We had just under 60mm and while it’s slowed sowing on the irrigation, it was very gratefully received, and we should still be finished by early next week.
The grass has also responded well to ideal timing of the rain and warm weather.
We are not at full production yet but there are around 22,000 litres a day going to the Noumi factory, a couple of thousand going to the milk enhancement centre and about 2000 litres going to calf feeding daily.
We are treating far too many cows for mastitis at the moment, which we are slowly getting under control, but we have lost a lot of milk and money.
I have also been trying to invest in myself lately.
You can’t lead people and/or a business if you’re not in good shape mentally and physically.
About six months ago, I made a conscious decision to get out and about, more particularly with regards to education and information seeking.
Five young kids combined with what else we are doing with community and farm has been a big gig and a long haul.
The hardest thing is being on call 24/7; that’s what cooks your brain over time.
My brother rang me and said: “Hey I am doing this CSIRO total wellbeing diet and you’re fat, so you should do it too”.
I am at week eight, I think (see the aforementioned cooked brain), and I am down 10kg and my body and brain are already working better.
I have a long journey ahead of me, feel free to help me be accountable.
I am trying to feed myself like an elite dairy cow and I’m trying to move more.
I’m back in the pool wallowing like a beached whale, but I did my first kilometre swim on the weekend. I’m playing table tennis and golf and one of my goals is to be able to outrun my 10-year-old twins so I can catch them for tickling purposes any time I want.
The purpose of this is not to talk about me, it’s more about offering encouragement to others who may have a burden, to whatever it is, consider laying it down and letting it go.
Middle aged men in particular are bad – and farmers are even worse.
Let’s admit it, we are crap at asking for help and tend to carry our burdens with us.
I just thought to myself ‘you idiot’.
If this was a farm issue you would just try 100 different things until something worked, so I asked a couple of people for help.
So far it’s working but given my history and complete lack of discipline, any chance of long-term success must be considered low.
But I am revelling in the moment.
For now, though, I had better go back to the factory where we are trialling the automatic lid capper part of the bottling machine for the first time today and I need to go and pretend to know what I am doing if it doesn’t go as planned.
Which it will, because the glass is definitely half full at the moment.
