Trish's brother in law John Van Rooy did a great job of pruning the pine trees in front of the house and they are growing better than ever, it is now time to thin them and we use that wood for our fire at home.

Our Lowline herd have lost a little condition after our long dry summer, the grass growth this autumn is not as good as usual for this time of year and we have had a fair bit of the farm locked up for winter feed.

Preparation is under way for the intake of our F1 Lowline/Jersey X calves from Whangarei in August We have shifted our calf shelters to a drier spot and closer to the hay barn. Hopefully this will be the last time we need to shift them. It is shaping up to be a good season as 50% of our calves are already sold. This is the last year we will be using Cherryvale Drummond, he is up for sale for $1,500.00. He has done well for us as a stud sire and he has guarded his territory well, especially against the Jersey Bull next door. The two of them have made quite a mess of the boundary fence.

The North Island Lowline Breeders Group meeting was held at our home again and we had an increase in the number of members turn up which was great. The focus for Lowline is now on the Kumeu Show as the principal event each year. We all intend to support this show fully so we need to plan ahead to maximise the effort.

With our drainage project finished, fencing dams and re-aligning fences is our next project. We also need to keep a careful eye on our winter feed especially after having to feed out so much hay over the dry summer.

This month we had our herd tested for TB and our status remains clear for the seventh year in a row. At the same time we were talked into using some oral drench instead of the usual pour on. This was a mission as most of the herd objected to the drench gun being shoved and pushed down their throats In the future we will stick to the pour on even though it leaves a mark in their thick woolly coats. Make a note to watch out for this if you drench with "pour on" prior to going into a show ring.

These days as we watch the weather on TV, we feel we are looking at the wrong weather map. Rain has been predicted all this week and it's the last week of May. The shortest day is not far off and the rain has been conspicuously absent.

Committed to the Promotion of the Australian Lowline Beef Breed