As we celebrate National Ag Day today I thought I would share with you what a typical day for me looks like as a farmer. I was prompted to do this as I recently had to convince someone that I was a full time farmer and actually work as a farmer, which annoyed me a little. Yes I am a girl but I don’t just sit and do the admin side of things. I am out there most days getting filthy dirty and working with my sheep.
Anna and her 12 month old Kelpie Holly
Each day for a farmer is different which is one of the things about why I love my job. I have chosen to write about what I did on a pretty typical day including dealing with the two kids and working in the sheep yards. We are lucky to have a roof over our yards so it is possible to work all day without getting too hot. There are even lights which means we can work at night if we have to. Anyway, here is a snapshot of a day in the life of a farmer.
Yesterday was 37 degrees (ouch!) so I woke at 5am (natural body clock alarm) and headed off for a 5km walk when the sun rose. It was the most beautiful part of the day. I returned home to scull a coffee and get the kids ready for school. I also did some watering so the garden didn’t suffer too badly in the heat. I was out the door a bit earlier to drop the kids to the bus in town (10 minute round trip) and then headed straight over to the sheep yards to fat and muscle scan close to 500 merino weaner lambs. I don’t do the actual scanning but I pushed the sheep into the race and up to the scanner which was quite physical!
We had done nearly 400 by lunch (15 thousand steps already on my smartwatch) so I came home to let the chooks out and make some chicken and salad rolls for the boys. My poor dog Holly had managed to get a grass seed in her ear. The photo below on the rightshows her walking wonky and off balance which is one of the signs that is something is wrong.
We couldn’t pull the grass seed out so I made a dash to our local friendly vet, who greeted me with a glass of water, and worked their magic to remove the grass seed without sedation (see the culprit below which Leisel is proudly holding). That was a 1 hour and 10 minute round trip but I was in air-conditioned comfort so I didn’t mind too much!! I am very grateful to our local vets. Nothing is ever too hard for them to organise for me and it is people like this that make working in my job easy. You need good people on your team!
When I returned back to the farm I moved a mob of sheep from the yards to their paddock after they had been weighed by Mr. Farmer. They were keen to get to the water trough and I didn’t blame them. It was hot!
Once we had packed up Jake (the scanner) I headed home to make a coffee and go get the kids from the bus stop. By then I had done 19 thousand steps and was feeling a bit hot. I decided to spend a couple of hours inside on the computer working on the sheep database that holds over 20 thousand animals. This is a MASSIVE task and something that I really need to be able to concentrate on and get right. All of this years drop have had a full pedigree taken (we know the lambs dad and mum) and it has taken me a couple of months to sort this data out. I am happy to say that it is ready for submission so we can start getting some breeding values back on each individual animal.
Using the latest in Ag technology to mother ewes and lambs using Smart Shepherd collars
I can’t sit still too long so I took the dogs for a walk and a swim and then fed them.
I coaxed the chooks back in to their pen and then watched as Mr. Farmer cooked dinner.
I racked up over 21,000 steps over the course of the day. After a big day like that I am pretty tired! When I finally finish work and dinner is done and dusted I catch up on some reading and then pass out in bed.
I reckon I have a pretty good job. It can certainly suck at times but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I hope you have enjoyed reading about my day! Happy National Agriculture Day.
#WeAreAusFarmers #AusAg #GrowForGood #AgDayAu #AgDay2019
