Day 29 and 30- Stones Horses and Cows

Day 29 

A foggy day began here for myself as I awoke around 330 pm for my 4-8pm shift. The power washing is officially done!!!!! So there was minor clean up to be finished at the barn, including putting fences back together and some sweeping. There has been a labor strike and the pregnant ewes have been holding on. A ewe did go into labor during my shift. She seemed to be straining and was quite vocal but there was no progress and or sacks appearing. I lubed up and found a nasty lamb tangle. After some untangling I looped the first ram with decent horn buds and pulled him, his brother was looped second and both are doing well!

No sooner where these two rams on the ground I heard a ewe making noises from the pregnant pen. Mind you there have been no births in the past few days..  I raced over and a ewe had pushed a single almost half way out with no warning, no pre labor at all. It was time for action! I jumped into the pen and removed her lamb, breaking the sack around its nose.  I kept the sack around him.  I held her lamb low to the ground and walked backwards, she followed across the barn to a jug. I did not put her lamb in with her. I raced around the corner and grabbed a triplet who needed to be adopted,  ran some hot water to warm the lamb up and then rubbed her against her new brother vigorously. I transfers the sack still on her newly born brother onto her back and around her head and neck.  I ran back to the jug with both lambs and reached into the mom for more fluid to cover the triplet, once I felt she was decently covered with sack and fluid I presented the triplet first, and then her actual lamb. Normally when a ewe who is confirmed a single starts to have early labor we will adopt a triplet prior to her giving birth. This situation was very stressful and time sensitive as their was no pre labor. Mom has since accepted both lambs, and is allowing the triplet to nurse. It was touch and go for a while as she would think about accepting her and then smell her and sense she was not hers. We placed both lambs into a bucket together so that they would rub and smell the same. Overall it was a lot of madness in 15 minuets after having days of quiet, and that is just how it goes!

After my shift I took a hike with Myla up to the mountain behind the farm. Here are some pictures of our hike<3 

While hiking I found many beautiful stones, lava rocks ect. One in particular... Is so beautiful I had to include a picture of it. I feel that the spirits of Iceland blessed me with this beautiful stone. I am beyond grateful. 

Day 30 

Today Snaedis was our lovely tour guide and took us to the University Stables and the University Dairy. IT WAS AWESOME 

Pictured of the stables are above with some beautiful Icelandic horses. With smaller horses the stalls doors were quite low. I know for a fact if I placed my Percheron/ Thoroughbred mare in a stall like this she would jump out.  All horses were happy to receive some scratches and I really didn't want to leave. This grey gelding below placed his head on my shoulder and I was happy to hold him up while I scratched his chest. 

  

Most of the younger horses had gone back home for the summer but here is a picture of two yearlings who's forelocks made me smile. You can just see the mischief in their eyes haha. 

Snaedis has a horse named after her! This mare ( Snaedis) was just lovely, so calm and grounding to spend time with her. 

The Dairy

 This white cow is also named Snaedis!

After this we took a short drive to the Dairy. This place was really great. A free-stall barn with an automatic/robot milker and poop scraper! I spent a lot of time at the University of Maine doing dairy work with computers and running programs and such, so to see an robot working and relaying so much information back to the computer was amazing. Milk production, fat and protein, somatic cell count, individual teat flow and so much more. $$$ Today specifically there was an average of 2.7 milking a day. 

Here is a picture of the robot using lasers to locate and connect each teat cup. 

 Here is each quarter being tracked. One really cool thing about connecting each teat cup individually is that they can be taken off as soon as the quarter is done milking. The computer tracks the output from each quarter and removes the cup when flow is decreased. This means that over milking a quarter does not happen, in comparison to a unit that only works when connected to all quarters. This farm had a very low mastitis rate.

I was really interested in their computer program and was lucky enough to get a behind the scenes walk through of milk production over time, breaking it down into lactation ect. Here are some of the graphs we pulled up for the rolling herd average. One really cool piece of this program is that motion is tracked with the collars the cows have on. Increased motion usually correlates with a heat. In the US mostly ovulation sinking protocols are used and or visual signs are detected. Having this motion tracker as well is just a really cool way to be notified with out having to watch the cows 24 hours a day. OK I am done being a cow nerd now. 

Here are some pictures of the beautiful colors these Icelandic cows present. 

 Here is a day old calf <3 

And finally the poop scraper.. I know from experience that pushing cow crap down the grates is less than enjoyable. 

These cows were really happy. Well fed well bedded and happy to be milked when they wanted to. Icelandic law states that dairy cows have to spend at least 8 weeks on pasture. US.. take note.... Later this week the cows will be let out onto the fields and Im sure they will buck with happiness. Really great experience to see this barn in action! 

Thank you to our lovely dairy tour guide Aith pictured here with the young stock. 

After the dairy we took a detour on the way home to see a beautiful lake surrounded by trees( trees are rare) I spotted a beautiful owl and was able to get some shots of it. I thought of my Grammy as she loves her owls <3 

Tonight when we returned Melissa and I decided to hike up the mountain behind the farm. Here are some more pictures of Myla and the hike, because she is just so awesome. Here she is looking out over the house and farm<3 Helgi's fields look great! 

Im am headed to grab a nap before my 2am- 6 am shift! The days are winding down only two to go. I am so blessed to be here.