Thursday, 31 July 2014

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

Saturday, 5 April 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 !

Sunday, 12 January 2014

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...

Wednesday, 23 October 2013

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 !

Monday, 22 October 2012

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

Friday, 6 April 2012

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.