Sunday, September 17, 2006

Consolidating recent gains

Eaglehawk Normette A08, 13 1/2 months old and 310 kgs, is now starting to look like the WJ Wizard daughter that she is. On arrival 9 weeks ago she and Looey were in wretched condition so I embarked on a remediation program, building up over a period of several weeks until I was feeding them about 1.5% of their body weight equivalent in Rumevite Grow & Show pellets daily. Over the last 40 days, Normie & Looey have each gained about 50kg so I now consider their condition to be satisfactory and have begun a consolidation program aiming at a more modest rate of weight gain in preparation for joining. They will receive the same size ration but only once per day instead of twice.

Flor will be included in this program too and I am confident that she will respond very well. She missed out on the remediation because she was not in such need of it. Instead, after a short welcoming period she was put with the main mob in the top paddock, just holding her own, while Normie & Looey were being coddled and gaining 1 kg/day or so. Now, Flor has some catching up to do but there is no hurry. It seems a bit unfair but for me it was important to see how she would cope with the tough conditions; unpalatable old dry grass with little or no nutritional value helped along by dry lick blocks. She did very well, comparatively.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Looey starting to show her promise

After nearly 8 weeks of supplementary feeding with Rumevite Grow & Show pellets, Eaglehawk WC6061 A132 (nicknamed "Looey", WC = loo, right?) has gained over 50kg and is starting to look like the sort of female I'll be happy to breed from. I expect her to have no trouble in reaching a critical joining weight of 325 kg before Christmas when she'll be 15 months old.

The rightmost heifer, Eaglehawk CN5662 A45, (nicknamed "Flor") is recovering from a ringworm infection that was in the very early stage when she arrived. So far the infection has spread to 3 other animals, all heifers.

The bony rump in the background belongs to Eaglehawk Normette A08 (nicknamed "Normie"). She's coming along nicely having gained 50 kg since arrival but, being a very framey heifer, I reckon she'll need another 40 or 50kg before she looks as though she is properly fleshed out. It just shows what a huge deficit she was carrying when she arrived.