Letts Farm

It's time to get nice earrings

2012-02-19T11:50:00.000-08:00

Heidi - born February 15

Pippi (Longstocking)- born February 15

Pocahontas - born February 16

Cara prepares the new earrings while John explains the procedure.

Little Johnny - born February 17

Posted by Lars

New calves

2012-02-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

We've got two new calves. Valentine was born on February 14 and Larissa on the 15th. Good luck!

Valentine

Obstetricians Cara and John helping with baby Larissa.

Posted by Lars.

2012-02-13T12:33:00.000-08:00

This years second calf - a black bull - had unfortunately lived only a few hours. Probably a twisted stomach. Rest in peace little JP.

Posted by Lars

Breakfast!

2012-02-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

One of the best parts of working at such a great, wholesome family farm is all the fresh milk ;)

Posted by Cara

Pump shed

2012-02-09T13:42:00.000-08:00

Work on the sheds have just began and the shed with the pump in it is nearly finished. New roof, new door, needs some work inside like removing all the stuff and give it a new destiny. Any idea?

Cara and John

And Ann gave us a taste of her great shortbread. Delicious. Unfortunately most of the folk is on a special diet ;-).

Posted by Lars

1st calf born in 2012

2012-02-08T13:22:00.000-08:00

WeLcOmE.

Jenna is the name of the first newborn calf this year on Letts Farm. Proud parents are Jennas Mum and Beavis.
While the farmers having a tea she delivered her third calf. All are in good health. Jenna has drunk more than six an a half pint of milk from its mum. Good luck!

Posted by Lars.

Go west.

2012-02-05T13:38:00.000-08:00

Wwoofers Cara and Lars on tour. Glad to have Johns Van and a lot of food we started last Friday to enjoy the west of Ireland. Galway, Burren, Cliffs of Moher, Connemara. We drunk many beers, gone very wet and ate the cheapest fish and chips. Nice trip. Thank you John.

Posted by Lars

Puppies on the beach

2012-02-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

What a joy. Sarah and Cara on tour with the remaining three puppies to our local beach.

Posted by Lars

Aidan with the new puppies!

2012-02-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

Lass is the proud mum of 6 little pups!

Dehorning

2012-01-30T14:14:00.000-08:00

Time to dehorning three calfs. John does a professional work.

Posted by Lars

Timber, Timber, Timber

2012-01-27T14:03:00.000-08:00

Many days work for many warm hours.

Sarah and her John preparing the tools.

Posted by Lars

What life is REALLY like on the farm :D

2011-10-08T18:23:00.000-07:00

:D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTrG7mpb61U

Nicole's super slideshow of her time in Ireland

2011-08-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eisrhykGAn8

Sarah and Nicole

2011-08-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

Hi fellow bloggers! Nicole and I are two farmhands from the United States, and we've been here for about three weeks now. Looks like its time for an update :)

We arrived in mid July to some very cold and rainy weather, then the next week was all blue skies. While we've been here there were two calf births, one of which we were able to assist John in the delivery! Our days are filled with milking in the mornings and evenings and varied tasks throughout the day (including many tea breaks and delicious meals). We've been weeding, power washing, pulling potatoes, gardening, and catching escaped chickens to name a few. It is easy to fall in love with the beautiful landscape and the ever welcoming Lett family! Oh and the cows :)

Here are some photos:

Nicole and american Sarah (me) milking

Nicole and german Sarah milking

Nicole and I ready to spray the fields

Donaghmore beach, just a short bike ride away from the farm!

Okay well thats for all now! If there's one thing I've learned, honey and fresh milk together is AMAZING

~peace~

October!!!!.......is it that time already?

2010-09-30T16:37:00.000-07:00

Zohan of the Dairy Herd! 'Smooth and Silky'

Here we have Maggie trimming the cows tails. We reckon she is the Zohan of the dairy herd. She says they like 'smooth and silky'.......Diisco! Diisco! (If you haven't seen the movie 'Don't Mess With the Zohan' this will all mean nothing to you :D )

Last Newborn Calf 'Aggie'

Maggie and Agathe with our latest addition to the herd. This is a freisan heifer calf which will be kept for breeding. We called the calf 'Aggie'. The proud mum is standing behind the girls and the dad is in the photo below.

Routine Parasite Control

During the year we have to inject the cattle so as to control parasites such as lung worm and stomach worm. If we did not do this the animals would be coughing and scouring (have diarrhoea) a lot and would eventually get pneumonia. It has been ok this year because the weather has been so dry but in wet warm weather a lot of worms hatch out on the grass and the animals pick them up as they graze.
We control the worm as best we can using natural methods such as moving the animals to fresh grass constantly. This interrupts the life cycle of the parasites.
In the picture is Agathe about to inject a calf. Another vet in the making!

Annual International Ploughing Championship

One of the big events on the Irish Farm Calendar is the annual Ploughing Championship. It is held in Athy, Co Kildare which is South West of Dublin. Ther are loads of trade stands and a lot of animal Breed competitions as well as pony and horse trials.
Above we have Sarah, Maggie and Agathe checking out this huge combine harvester.

What's been happening over the last month

2010-09-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

FISHING TRIP

It was my bithhday last month and my daughters treated me to a fishing trip. It was my first time sea fishing and I must say I enjoyed it tremendously.
The fishing boat was a chartered boat called 'The Puffin'. It is based in a small seaside village called Courtown, which is just about 7 km form our farm. Check out http://www.courtownangling.com/ . Our skipper for the day was Bill, he is a great guy. We left the harbour at 9am and returned at 4pm. We caught a load of mackrel. Some of the fish we threw back because they are protected or just not nice to eat!

So now time for a few pictures just to prove that all the big ones did not get away :)

The gang before we set out, James B, James T, Sarah, Rebecca, Garret and last but not least Rachel.

James showing off his catch just before we let him back in the water (the fish that is:) ). Actually it was caught on Garret's fishing rod but James landed it...so technically it was Garret's catch :). Garrett is an award winning chef, so later on he made a beautiful meal for us, made with some of the mackrel that we caught. We made a smoker and smoked tha rest of the mackrel.

This fish is apparently a Tope... it looks like a shark to me!!

And since it was my birthday, a picture of me and my eldest daughter Rebecca..she gets her good looks from her mother :).

Time to go home . LAND AHOY!!!!

DAY TRIPPIN' TO HUNTINGTON CASTLE

Huntington castle is one of the places I really enjoy visiting. The atmosphere is so nice. It is as if time has stood still here for the last 400 years. Just check out this to get a flavour of what awaits http://www.igp-web.com/carlow/Huntington_Castle.htm . The old castle is really original and the gardens are beautiful. What I love about it is that the same family have owned the place for the last 400 years!! The tour guide, Harry, is one of the family. He is a great guy and has a great sense of humour.
We try to bring all of our volunteers to visit Huntington Castle amongst other places.

The castle from the front.

Sarah and France giving a Royal wave from the back of the castle.

Side view of the castle.

This is a nice view from half way up Mt Leinster.

A tiny flower that grows on the mountain.

I guess by now you realise that I love this part of the country and the beauty that is all around me, from the old castles to the mountains to the tiniest flowers. Yes my friends this is a beautiful place and I hope you will take the time to experience it !

SECOND CUT SILAGE 2010

The Second Cut Silage team Anais, Maud, James and Maggie. That is the harvest finished for this year. Thank you guys!

Time to relax.

2010-07-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

Having enjoyed some of our garden's produce, Sarah and four of our wonderful helpers and now of course four of our greatest friends, Elise, Sarah, Lucile. Isi and last but not least Rhonda.

Elise and Jake chillin'

2010-07-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

Elise just has a special way with our cat Jake. He is totally chilled out!

Feeling unwell? We have the remedy!

2010-07-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

Veterinary skills you pick up on a dairy farm :). France about to receive a large injection from Dr Sarah :D

Feeding a new born calf

2010-07-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

Joy feeding a newborn calf. We feed newborn calves on the bottle for about a week and then we move them over to a group feeder of about 6 calves. Unfortunately we do not get to leave them with their mother for very long. Such is the lot of the dairy cow. Beef cows get to suckler their calves for a long time.

New polytunnel

2010-07-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

Lass helping Sindy to erect our last polytunnel. We are using electric cable ducting as the supports. It is still experimental but I think it will last.

Staying close to nature.

2010-07-19T17:21:00.000-07:00

Even after a hard days work these girls will not leave the animals!:) Relaxing with the heifers Eve, Ruth and Joy from France.

Relaxing in a tradition local pub

2010-07-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

More of our fantastic wwoofer friends relaxing in "French's" pub in our local town Gorey.
Traditional music every Thursday but get there early because the place is packed. On the left is Eve from the US, daughter Sarah, Ruth from Dublin and last but not least Sindy from France. Drink up girls it's almost closing time! :)

Shift your ass Mr Calf!!

2010-07-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

Two different approaches! Mr Calf has to be moved from one shed to another. Gaelle from France is adopting the softly softly approach and leading the calf along by letting him suck her fingers....on the other hand or should I say the other end Tomoko is pushing him along with great determination. These girls never quit on any job. The show must go on!

Yet again another approach! Sarah in front and Mareike behind. This time they have brought some technology into play, namely the rope halter :) . .......almost there! This Freisan heifer calf will be kept as a cow

Keeping the herd healthy

2010-07-19T15:48:00.000-07:00

In this picture we have our two determined wwofers, Mareike from Germany and Tomoko from Japan.
What are they doing you might ask, well each year we give all the cows and heifers 2 trace element boluses. What are trace element boluses? They are shaped like a large bullet about the size of your thumb. They contain slow release trace elements like copper and zinc. The cow needs these elements to stay healthy. Given the fact that we have had 3 very bad summers that have been stressful on man and beast we decided to make sure that the cows are not deficient in anything that they need to stay healthy and of course happy. The grass over the last 3 years has not been the best of quality and neither has the silage that the cows have had to eat over the winter. We have had to supplement the cows diet with locally grown rolled barley. The barley gives the cow energy and so helps her keep warm and comfortable. During the winter we provided trace elements and minerals by sprinkling them on the cows' feed when they are in the sheds. In the summer however the cows are in the fields on grass so we use the slow release bolus to give them all the trace they need.
Next question of course is how do we give the bolus to the cow. Well in the picture you can see Mareike loading the bolus gun with a bolus. Tomoko would hold the cow (Smurfette in this case) by the nose and Mareike would gently place the gun in the cow's mouth just past the base of her tongue and release the bolus. 98% of the time the cow swallows the bolus, sometimnes they spit it out.
Another job well done!!
A big thank you to Mareike and Tomoko for all the help they gave us on the farm.

Silage 2010

2010-07-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

We finally finished our silage harvest late one evening. We are soaking wet and covered in mud from putting the tyres on the silage pit. In the picture we have part of the Silage team 2010. We have Sarah from Germany at the top, France from France in the middle and me. WELL DONE GIRLS!!

2010-06-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

Sarah working hard

Rachel, Lass and the Elderflowers we used to make Elderflower cordial (yum)

there's jake the cat in the background : )

early the next morning

Lass helping with the silage : )

2010-06-07T13:36:00.001-07:00

Some sunny weather!

2010-05-28T04:12:00.000-07:00

Some sunny weather has finally arrived! Here you can see an escapee calf taking on a young apple tree :-)

Lass

2010-01-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

What is happening on the farm?

2009-12-11T17:20:00.000-08:00

Howdy folks!
Well it has been almost a month since my last update! The time is just flying. Here we are with Christmas just around the corner. Got the tree a few days ago.....still have to put it up though!

So what is happening on the farm? Let me see....I know we have been very busy doing something for the last month but I am damned if I can remember what it was :). The cows and cattle are still housed of course and we are feeding and bedding them everyday. We have been dosing the cows for flukes and worms as they are dried off. We cannot deliver milk for human consumption after dosing the milking cows. We are milking the remainder of the cows just once a day now so it is a little easier and we are getting more repair work done around the farm. We hope to extend a couple of the sheds and lay more concrete in January. Another job we have to do is to castrate the late calves......not a job I like...ouch!!!. We are pregnancy scanning the late calving cows tomorrow..hopefully. Dairy farmers in general are complaining that there are a lot of cows that have not held in calf. They are putting it down to the stress from the bad weather all year. We will know after tomorrow haw we have fared.

The price that we are getting for the milk has improved a little. It is now 25 cent per litre an improvement from 21 cent but still a long way from production cost of 27 cent......when will we get tired of working for nothing...crazy dairy farmers.....we love what we do but some profit would be nice :).

I'll sign off now. Best of luck my friends!

I have noticed over the last 2 weeks we have a load of wild pheasants feeding at the cattle troughs. They are seeking refuge from the hunters because we do not allow pheasant or fox hunting on our farm....mind you we are partial to shooting the odd rabbit for ourselves! Curried rabbit sure is nice, mmmnnnnn!

We are still waiting on our new border collie pup. Scout has grown like crazy. Jake and her are great chums! Scout almost choked herself the other day, she robbed a spool of threat and was playing with it when she got tangled up in it. I must post a few photos.

Weather here at the moment is nice and bright and crisp. Just the way we like it!

Another new addition to the farm!

2009-11-15T15:39:00.001-08:00

Howdy folks!

Well you will never guess what happened this morning while I was feeding the cows their silage. I heard a little kitten screaming in a pile of tyres nearby. I managed to rescue her and brought her into the farmhouse where she was immediately smothered with loads of tender loving care from my daughters and our good friends and current helpers Tracey and Eve. Luckily the little kitten was still in good shape so all we had to do was feed it and dry it off (it was pouring rain all last night) I do not know how she survived the night. I reckon that during the night someone let the unwanted kitten out at our entrance in the hope that we would look after her. We will certainly keep her along with our other 2 cats Millie and Jake!!! We are calling the kitten "Scout".

We still are waiting for the arrival of our new collie pup "Lass". she still has 6 weeks to go before she can be weaned off her mother "Pol".

I have uploaded 3 pics (due to popular demand, Mareike! ), 1 of Scout and 1 of Lass (puppy on the right)as well as 1 of Pol and all her pups. The 2 beautiful ladies holding the pups are Tracey and Eve from the U.S.

2009-11-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

Winter drawing near!

2009-10-31T08:06:00.000-07:00

Well we have been busy on the farm lately getting the sheds ready to house the cows, heifers, bulls and calves for the winter. Almost all the animals are indoors now. They seem to be settling down to their new diet of silage and rolled barley.

We are still looking for a collie bitch pup. Unfortunately we have not been able to find one yet.

Weather is not too bad now. We are hoping for a mild dry winter.

See ya later folks

Lassie RIP

2009-10-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Lassie with our German WWOOFer friend Rhonda

Bad news my friends!! Poor old Lassie was killed last week. She went out in the line of duty. She was 17 years old and was a great old friend. We all miss her. It will be difficult to find another border collie like her. Just thought I would let all her friends know.

2009-10-22T15:04:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
this is one of our "baby bear" pumpkins.
a little too small to carve but very tasty.

2009-10-17T17:37:00.001-07:00