Welcome to Jono aka Dog-Walloper from New Zealand

We have the pleasure of hosting Jono from New Zealand whose handle is Dog-Walloper ...

Of course , given the recent walloping our pour dogs have had over the past year,
-Meg fell asleep under the jeep and was rung over - broken pelvis and in a confined space for 6 weeks,
-Podge hit by a car , broken shoulder and confined (as confined as you can with a jack russell) for 6 weeks and
-culminating with Rodge geting the fatal wallop ...

We were wondering what this Dog-Walloper would be about - and contrary to the assumption of the term it is a rural NZ term for mustering :

There are a variety of vivid terms to describe musterers, including dog driver, hill man, dog-walloper and mutton puncher.

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/rural-language/page-6

Jono is perhaps used to mustering on a much larger scale than Allowdale - but it is hugely interesting to exchange knwloedge and life experiences with farmers from all over the world, there is always something to share , always something to learn and always new things to try  -

True pleasure of the global farming community !

Welcome Jono - I hope you enjoy your stay.

Anne & Liam
Allowdale Herefords

Allowdale Herefords - Heifers 2016

Allowdale Herefords - Bulls 2016

Photo/ Video marketing / YouTube Allowdale Herefords - Heifers 2015

The last few days have been spent editing photos for updating the web site wwww..allowdale.com and in particular last 2 days were spent taking individual videos of the heifers that we are marketing. 

The heifers were brought from Buttevant to Kanturk in order to be washed and brushed for video shoot.
They behaved very well and each animal has their own video clip on youtube and on the web site.

See playlist : Allowdale Herefords - Heifers 2015

Photo/ Video marketing / YouTube (2014)

The last few days have been spent editing photos for updating the web site wwww..allowdale.com and in particular last 2 days were spent taking individual videos of the heifers that we are marketing. The heifers were brought from Buttevant to Kanturk in order to be washed and brushed for video shoot. They behaved very well and each animal has their own video clip on you tube and on the web site. Uploading to youtube has proven to be much longer and more time consuming that one would expect. Next year we have to do this quicker, better, faster !

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCTEwzrcy5OQ-SPfobkpOTDE9xF30awHsAllowdale Herefords - Heifers 2014

Great Start to the Bull Selling Season (2014)

Demand is high and the phone is ringing and prospective buyers are visiting. Herefords are more in demand and more popular than in previous years ! nice start to the season !

2014 water water water

Ended the year with underground springs flooding and started the year having to create underground drainage for the yard. Lucky to have passed the board bia quality assurance the week before...

Winter 2013 - Fodder Crisis

For those that did not follow the Irish news - This past winter is still taking a bite out of 'profit' as the animals that are usually out on grass in February did not get out of the sheds until June. In the south of Ireland - you do not usually have such elongated winters. It just rained and rained therefore the grass growth fell 6 weeks behind and the land was saturated with water - Animals on saturated land produce muddy animals and destroy the land. We are very much looking forward to a more profitable 2014 as 2013 will be long remembered as the non-profitable year !

2012 What a year that was !

It's December 2012 already .... and there are 246 animals in the Irish Herd (excluding Canada and the US). What a year - fantastic new embryo calves from the Canadian Embryos purchased Very pleased with the embryo purchases - nothing on the ground from US yet

First Embryo Born in Canada!!!!!

We are delighted to report that this week saw the birth of the first embryo we exported to Canada.

Byron and Caroline Templeton of XTC Herefords in Alberta Canada e-mailed with the news of the Ballyaville Secunda - Bowmont Storm Calf had hit the ground with no problems born outside.

We hope to receive a picture of the bouncing baby boy very soon and will post it as soon as it arrives.

This is the first of six embryo's we exported to Canada last year 2011.

Daddy Pounds Visit

At the end of March Anne's father Derek (AKA Daddy Pounds), came to visit us here at Allowdale he was certainly on a working holiday and had little time to relax.

Derek erected an amazing electric fence in a 15 acre field of rented land with the gardener, he helped me catch and tie bulls as well as the day to day feeding, power washing, picking stones

and herding cattle. He enjoyed a fabulous trip to Galway with friends and celebrated his birthday in style on the farm.

My daughter Phoebe really took to Derek and he even taught her about the aerodynamics of aircraft wings and how they fly. We had some funny moments and some stressful ones Derek's presence is certainly missed now he has returned to Canada.

I found Daddy Pounds not only great to work with but a pleasure to be around, I enjoyed his life stories and cant wait to have him visit again.

New Year Brings New Life to Allowdale

The new year at Allowdale has been fantastic I've been washing our newly halter broken bulls, (Cutler, Yaraman, Valour, Jack Demsey, and Best Trump) I was expecting them to behave pretty badly but they were complete gentlemen. The boss even gave me a chance to start clipping them which i actually turned out to be quite good at.

We had a Heifer calf born on New Years day Pashmina to Allowadale Pheadra by BHG she is beautiful.

The boss left for the Denver Stock Show on Tuesday and everything was relatively quiet until 0830hrs this morning when I noticed Trena looking sick to calve.........at 1045 baby number two of 2012 was born a handsome bull calf......

The boss is back Monday so I'm hoping Sparkle will calve before then just so I have more great news to welcome Anne and Liam home with..........

First bull washes

Ok it's been ages since my last blog and a lot has happened! Liam has been very patient in showing me how to wash the bulls and I had my first three done before Christmas. Allowdale Elvis and Allowdale Valiant are looking amazing (see pics), while the washing has seemed to come quite naturally to me the leading part was quite terrifying to begin with. These boys are on the heavier side of 650kg and their power and strength is unbelievable I am but a mere fly to them! Liam said I'm getting better now though, well his exact words were "least you didn't scream like a girl this time" I think there is still much more to learn!!

Haybarn modifications 1/2 done

Bottom of the haybarn is complete and the heifers are all in place.
Waiting for the final 3 locking barriers to arrive this week to finish the top of the haybarn in order to move the last 10 animals off the field in !
Rain rain and more rain this week -
time for the animals to be inside and not 'poaching' the land.
Roofing the section of the haybarn between the Bull house and the calving shed as the water is unmanageable and spoiling the straw beds as well as the feed (costly).

This week will be busy with gates, roofing and new vented sheeting on the way ....

Bull House and Haybarn mods

So having leveled the 'upper' ie roadside part of the haybarn and filled in with concrete ...
Now created a new problem where all the water is coming into the shed !

We are likely to have to roof between haybarn and main calving shed as well as fence off the area .

Mods to "lower" part of haybarn pretty well completed today.
Darak to power wash and clean for animals to be brought in tomorrow.

Rambo update

Rambo calf number 3 is on the way.......................more news to follow!!!

Rambo and Twister Calfs Born!!!!!!

It's been nine long months of waiting (not counting the run up to embryo implantation) for the embryo's brought from Grant Hirshe in Alberta, Canada to be born. Liam and Anne Philpott have been looking forward to their arrival with great excitement and on the 22nd October a handsome Bull calf called Allowdale Tornado by Adams Twister 416T out of Cooperobin 254R was born. Then 5 days later his full brother Allowdale Twister was also born.
After the two Twister calfs were happily running round their pens the anticipation began for the long awaited Rambo calfs and thanks be to god we didn't have to wait long a week later the first Rambo calf was born a Bull called Allowdale Rambo by GH Rambo 279R out of Performance Passion 126S and what a fabulous calf he is too.
On Monday Border Buttercup V81 started her super-ovulation programme and we are all super excited for her flushing on the 22nd November.
Today marked the birth of the second Rambo calf and at last we had a beautiful Heifer by GH Rambo 279R out of Cooperobin 254R aptly named "Miss Rambo".

We are now waiting for the last Rambo calf to be born and for Border Buttercup's flushing exciting times ahead to which i will endeavor to keep blogging about on a regular basis.........

2009 catchup

2009 we were busy renovating sheep sheds and converting for cattle...
Not much blogging time
Convertions photos are on www.flickr.com/photos/allowdale
To follow all the shed convertions and yard modifications

It's been a long while

So started this 2 building sites ago and not only has there been more building work but we have built a web site www.allowdale.com as well.

2007 we started the revamp of the 'new' shed and converted it from sheep use to cattle - by digging out half the shed and building a tank to collect slurry. We built a bull house for the senior bull - Border General.

2008 we built an additional set of sheds to house the sheep - this shed was called the Murphy-Barry shed after the architects !

getting the hang of blogging

More than 1 year later
Bull House finished...
Now the General needs a new home and owner as Boxer is the Bull 'en residence'