Farmer Focus: Weather favours grass and blowfly strike
Daffyd Parry Jones © Richard Stanton The last two weeks of June was scheduled to be a busy time, and both daughters were home giving a helping hand.
The weather had been kind as we were able to get our silage in, a few fields of second cut and the shearing done.
During the same period, we turned in the bulls, separated the ewes and lambs, selected our old ewes, and a few finished lambs, to be taken to slaughter.
See also: Early shearing advised as blowfly strike season starts
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The weather during June was exceptionally favourable, with plenty of moisture to recover from the spring drought.
We had some very good growing conditions and, with good humidity, the clover has been bouncing out in abundance.
But it has also been one of the worst conditions for blowfly strike that I can remember. Continuous monitoring and dagging had been taking place in the week leading up to shearing.
Then, at the beginning of July, life took an unexpected turn. One daughter had travelled out to Crete on an “after-school-exams holiday”.
Two days into her stay, we had messages to say she was in immense pain. Her friends got her to a hospital where she was found to have a burst appendix.
She was well looked after in the capital city’s university hospital. My wife and I took the first available flight the following day, and were able to join her.
We have learned two things from this. The first is how far our communication technology has developed since we were her age.
We were in full contact with her and her friends at all times through her ordeal, and she could track our travelling location all the way from home, to her hospital bed.
The second lesson is to travel – as she did – with an in-date health card. The hospital staff needed to check all details before the initial examination.
Failure to produce the card could have resulted in serious delays in a serious situation.
This would not be our ideal holiday, under the circumstances, and travelling to a hot destination in the depth of summer. But for the days we’ve got left, we’ll make the most of it.
Our daughter is recovering well and was released from hospital two days later.