Remember those tablillas I was touting two weeks ago?
So evidently not as effective for some calves as others.
Same calf as last time. Still wearing his fancy nose jewelry. And happily drinking milk.
Categoría: Cattle
Tablillas – or, fancy yellow nose accessories
Like always, we learn by doing. Last year when we weaned the Normandy calves from their mothers we separated everybody with permanent fences. And then listened to a godawful lot of noise. Evidently there’s a less stressful way to wean. Alejandro mentioned it this year when it became time to wean the Hereford’s calves and I promptly bought the required items.
Tablillas. Bright yellow pieces of plastic you hook in the nose of calves so that they can’t reach a teat. As one can imagine, it’s a bit challenging to put on. But once there? No problem. The tablilla doesn’t actually pinch the calf, so after a bit of initial irritation all is fine.
No noise. No fuss. Nothing. A much better mousetrap!
There’s always one
With trying to manage pasture in the olive orchard with animals comes the constant issue of making sure that none of the animals eat the olive trees. We’ve had varying levels of success with an array of management techniques, typically used in combination. More fence stakes, less fence stakes, different combinations of electric fence wire or electric fence tapes, powerful charges, smaller chargers, multiple charges, different groups or combination of groups of animals, moving more often, moving less often (this one was a disaster), vitamin supplements, different water access, and so on.
Our current grouping in the back is doing fairly well – we have Hereford cattle (cows, steers, and calves) eating through pasture in the Arbiquina with the Normandy bull keeping them company. And, just because I have one, a picture:
The second group is the yearling sheep (i.e. borregos in Spanish) which are munching away in the Picual.
Between the two groups, there’s always one animal who just doesn’t stay inside the fences. It’s because of them that I take an afternoon walk with Resi every day and go check fences in the back 40. Because there is always either a cow or a yearling sheep out. Always. Thankfully, it’s usually a sheep. Because the cows are a lot more work to get back inside the fencing. And, at least in the case of the sheep, they typically aren’t munching on an olive tree. There’s too many interesting weeds closer to their nose. But still, out is out.
And often their first response?
If I can’t see you, you can’t see me!
Spanish 
English