Rest? Time for that later

I’m not the sort to start a conversation with a rundown of the weather, especially if I’m talking to someone who lives in the same area as us.

However, the weather at our place has been amazing, the sun has shone for 13 out of 14 days, with a couple of nights bringing rain.

This is in stark contrast to some of the winters we have calved in since we moved to Northland.

The cows are calving nicely and so far there have been no metabolic or calving problems.

There has been no yelling in the shed, either.

Geoff and I even managed to draft some cows the other day without contemplating hiring a divorce lawyer and I believe it has everything to do with the sun shining.

We are feeding our calves once a day this season.

Now just stay calm, I can almost hear the ‘‘what?’’, ‘‘ohh poor wee things’’ and the ‘‘would you like to eat once a day?’’ comments.

Here’s the thing, firstly they get fed milk once a day, that doesn’t mean they only eat once a day.

The first lot of calves are only 10 days old and already chomping back the meal, and they have access to hay and clean water in their troughs, which they make good use of.

They are still in the sheds because no one has had the runs, and in the afternoons, while we are milking, they never make a sound about wanting to be fed and can be seen sleeping in the warmth of their pens.

Because it’s our first year feeding the calves this way, I felt a bit nervous and took note of some advice I found on a farming social media page.

My friend Sue contributed to the thread. She has fed her calves this way for eight years and swears by it, so any trepidation I had soon went away after we had a chat about it privately.

It cuts down Geoff’s workload in the afternoons, too, when I have to be off farm for a few days here and there during August.

It’s a busy time of the season and I have given some thought to how the four-day working week would go here at our place.

Then I thought, even if we could only work for four days a week, what would we do with the other three?

Life is a busy business to be involved in and the work-life balance thing possibly has more to do with not being happy in your job rather than needing more time off.