Farewells...

Last week was full of sad moments. I was happy to be back home and see WBP, but my trip was marred by receiving a call on my birthday to say that my horse, Rawdon, had dropped dead of a heart attack, aged 18. 

He had been away at a riding camp for the past eight weeks and from reports had been having a great time. During one of the treks he just dropped to his knees and within a minute was dead. I guess it was not a horribly bad way to go, but he was still fairly young and it was a terrible shock.

We also said goodbye to the last of our boer goats. We sold the remainder of our herd in order to focus on our other rare breeds, which have been more rewarding and less time consuming.

NZ Lifestyle Block Magazine...

Peter and Willoughby have made an appearance in a 2 page article in this month's NZ Lifestyle Block magazine. The article can be found below...

Our herd doubles...

Just before Christmas we doubled our Boer goat herd, with an additional 6 Does. They came from a lovely couple who had bred boer goats for years and had won several breed shows with their goats. They however wanted to spend more time with their family, and so were looking for a good home for their last few goats and someone had mentioned us. And we were delighted to have them.

We had got some large wooden cable drums from a friend, for them to play on...

And we have kitted  out every paddock with a new shelter in the corner, which can accommodate up to 25 small animals of most varieties...

Pig Hilton Mark 2...

After 2 years of breeding Wessex Saddlebacks, we were in need of a larger pig sty. Pig 'Hilton' mark one was a rectangular ark made of plywood, open at one end - functional but not pretty. I did some research into traditional pig stys, ones that would look at home on an English-styled farm. There were several which caught my attention...

Above: A Traditional Welsh Pig Sty

I like the look of the old traditional pig stys, but they are impractical, non-transportable, and designed for non free-range pigs.

Having seen some of the shelters on the market...

And some old stone huts...

...I struck upon the idea of making a stone-look sty out of wood. So, my grandfather and I set about building Pig Hilton mark 2 - out of completely recycled materials. 

We had some timber from previous projects lying around, and we pulled the plywood lining off the inside of the current barn (knowing that it is going to be demolished to make way for the driveway next year). One of our neighbours gave us a whole lot of spare roofing iron, and so we were set to start building.

Above: Old Timber which we used to create the floor (below)

The floor size was 7'x10'. 

Above: Putting the framing for the walls up

Below: Starting to make the trusses for the roof

The finished roof framing

Below: Cutting the roofing iron

Putting on the roof...

All the way through my grandfather taught me heaps of helpful hints and tips that I will be able to apply to any other buildings in the future.

Almost completed project - structurally finished with gate latched back against wall. Now we just need to find some stone coloured paint and set about adding the finishing touches.

Below: The old pig sty, with the brook swollen with water due to all the rain we have had.

I'll post an update once we've painted it. Now I've learnt how to build a gabled animal shelter, my next project is going to be a potting shed for the middle of the potager garden.

Our Hairy Coos Have Arrived...

Our Highland Cattle arrived after work today. Light was fading quickly on a mid-winter's day, but still managed to get a few pics. Now we just have to think of nine Scottish names. Any suggestions...

The Willowbrook Highland Cattle Fold...

We have finally settled on the type of cattle we are going to breed at Willowbrook. It was a close competition between Highland Cattle and Belted Galloways, but in the end the large horns and the extra long shaggy coats of the Highlands tipped them into pole position. This will bring to a close our stocking of the rare breeds farm, as we will then be at full capacity and will have only rare breeds on site, having sold on our Herefords.

Highland cattle or kyloe are a Scottish breed of beef cattle with long horns and long wavy coats. The can be coloured black, brindled (red and brown tiger striping), red, yellow or dun (a warm nut-brown). We are getting three pregnant dun coloured cows, and shall get a bull next year to run with them. If we get a yellow bull we should end up with a mixture of duns and yellows. The yellow colour is more of a warm caramel - see below...

The breed was developed in the Scottish Highlands and Western Isles. The breed was developed from two sets of stock,one originally black, and the other reddish. Breeding stock have been exported to the rest of the world, and once an 'extremely rare' breed, they are now only considered 'rare'.

Highlands are known as a hardy breed due to the rugged nature of their native Scottish Highlands, with high rainfall and strong winds.Highland cattle have been successfully established in many temperate countries and indeed in countries where winters are substantially colder than Scotland's such as central Europe and Canada. Their hair provides protection during the cold winters and their skill in browsing for food enables them to survive in steep mountain areas. They both graze and browse and eat plants which many other cattle avoid. The meat tends to be leaner than most beef because Highlands get most of their insulation from their thick shaggy hair rather than subcutaneous fat. The coat makes them a good breed for cold northern climates and they are able to thrive in outdoor conditions that would defeat most other breeds of domestic beef cattle. As such, Highland cattle are able to produce beef at a reasonable gross margin from inhospitable land that would otherwise normally be incapable of rendering a profit agriculturally.Whilst the UK domestic and worldwide popularity of Highland cattle has made trade in pedigree beasts occasionally the most lucrative - mainly on account of their handsome appearance - they are at their best agriculturally when used to produce beef in a cold climate from poor pasture and forage.

Whilst the beef produced by pure-bred Highland cattle is exceptionally tender and of high flavour, modern butchery and shopping trends tend to demand a carcass and a cut of meat of a different character. In order to address this market, Highland beef producers commonly run commercial Highland suckler cows with a 'terminal' sire such as a Shorthorn or Limousin bull. This allows the hardy Highland cow, grazed upon the rough hillsides of her natural environment, to produce across-bred beef calf featuring the tender beef of its mother on a more modern carcass of high commercial value at slaughter, thus rendering a gross margin from her grazing that would have been impossible from other breeds in that environment. There is also a healthy demand from fellow producers of outdoor-reared beef who farm on more forgiving terrain, for Highland cross-bred bulling heifers: most often Highland cows crossed with the Shorthorn bull, for use as suckler cows. These cross-bred beef suckler cows inherit the hardiness,thrift and mothering capabilities of their Highland dams and the improved carcass configuration or their sires. Such cross-bred sucklers, further crossed with a modern beef bull such as a Limousin or Charolaisto produce the finest quality beef are one of the mainstays of Scottish commercial beef production. It is this ability to pass on thrift and gross margin down the beef-breeding cascade that has secured this breed's place as a modern commercial beef breed.

The Highland cattle registry ("herd book") was established in 1885. Although groups of cattle are generally called herds, a group of Highlands is known as a fold. They were also known as kyloes.

There are many international societies for Highland cattle. The British Highland Cattle Society, whose patron is Her Majesty, The Queen, is a registered charity. There are at least two Highland Societies in New Zealand. We shall join the New Zealand Highland Cattle Society.

The hairy calves are adorable...

Below: A prize Highland at Dumfries House...

I designed the Willowbrook Highland Cattle Logo using our highland tartan as the backdrop...

Diamond and Jubilee...

One of our Dorset Horn ewes has given birth early, to twins - a boy and a girl, which we have named Diamond and Jubilee respectively...

It seemed the appropriate thing to do given the circumstances.

Long Live The Queen.

White Wash Only...

It has been a reliably wet festive period in Hamilton. It is almost a dead cert that it will rain on Christmas day (which it did). However, it had bucketed down for 2 weeks before Christmas, and then by the afternoon of, it was bright and sunny. We journeyed out to the farm to find that the goats had been water-blasted brilliant white and were now dry after baking in the afternoon sun...

Peter looking as if he were showing Chestnut at the Royal A&P Show

The Circle of Life....

Whilst we are still coming to terms with the loss of our little boy Spencer, a ray of hope has pierced the gloom: Bramble gave birth to 2 live baby goats - the first for the Willowbrook Stud. This was unexpected, for although we knew she was pregnant, from the dates we were given she was not due for another month. Both the kids are girls, and are unrelated to our ram, Bracken, as Bramble was pregnant by another ram when we purchased her, so we now have 3 does for Bracken to cover next year.

We have registered with the NZ Boer Goat Breeders Association and are planning to register our goats and the rest of our animals with the NZ Rare Breeds Conservation Society

The boys were quite jealous of all the attention Bramble and her little kids were getting...

We also had a big planting weekend this weekend gone, planting nearly 2000 trees. I shall post some photos once I have finished drawing the overall park design and layout maps, so that visitors can see which photos belong to which part of the park.