Christophers Comment

Posted by on 1 June 2011 | 2 Comments

CHRISTOPHER’S COMMENT JUNE 2011

Since my last column we have had a lovely visit from the Australian based Gardners who stayed with us for nearly a week as part of their five week visit back to these shores. Their visit coincided with Janet’s 1^st May birthday so it was a very special occasion to have all of our family together on that day. These sorts of get togethers get harder and harder to have as the families disperse and as the kids get older and get involved in more activities its suddenly not so easy to get everyone together. This visit  was also the first time that Ellen and Amy and their families had seen and held little Henry Montfort so that was a special time for them as well.

The following weekend was HMG’s christening in Wellington  so Charlotte who had stayed at the farm after the birthday party flew down with us to attend. The little man behaved perfectly and after a very pleasant weekend in Wellington we flew back, unfortunately via Auckland and a road shuttle back to Hamilton as Air New Zealand had decided to cancel the direct flight….

On the farm it has been a truly amazing autumn. I am trying to decide if it is a normal autumn like we used to have before a string of droughts or is it really one out of the box. The jury is still out on that. Mild temperatures, nice warm rain and so much grass that Hugh has a smile on his face every time he looks around the farm. This is how we like it; I suppose it will balance itself out at some stage.

We have a full complement of stock on into winter. 1200 ewes, 330 ewe hoggets and  420 dairy grazers mostly rising one years olds but a few carry over cows as well. Still 25 export lambs to sell this month. This month we also scan our ewes and hoggets so we know what our potential percentage could be and the feed requirements to achieve it.

This month Janet and I embark on a Fortieth Wedding Anniversary adventure which I will be able to tell you about when I write my next comment.

Only one family birthday in May.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANET

P.S. My apologies to the three people who left comments last month – I accidentally

deleted them. Don’t let that put you off leaving one this month.