Thursday February 13, 2014

Day 50..

Machinery operations - in the workshop this morning we had to change the tyres of the Massy 3050. The width of the tractor tyres can be altered to suit the job - for example ploughing in furrow work and planting potatoes in row work. On this tractor there are two ways to alter the front wheel width - by moving the front axle - sliding it in or out depending on whether you need to shorten or lengthen the width, or by taking off the wheel and turning it the other way round and replacing it again - this will move the rim to either the inside or the outside to give a shorter or wider width. Always follow the guidelines in the machinery handbook and measure from a central point between both tyres for a measurement before and after. The back wheels on this tractor were swapped over, as they could not be turned round - these back wheels are the driven wheels therefor it cannot be turned round as the tread would then be going in the wrong direction. We followed workshop safety throughout, and used the right tools for the right job such as axle stands, 4 tonne jack, ratchet and socket set, blocks of wood at all four wheels and a torque wrench to ensure that the front and rear wheel nuts were tightened to exactly the manufacturers recommendations.   

This afternoon we started off by watching a dvd about lambing survival - as lambing time is imminent. 4 million lambs die each year so good shepherd husbandry is essential. The main losses are caused by still births, hypothermia and infectious diseases. Successful lambing starts by ensuring the ewe is fit and healthy and fed well in the 4 to 6 weeks leading up to lambing, with concentrated feed steadily increased as this will ensure that the placenta reaches the optimum size at 90 days. A lambs normal temperature should be between 39 and 40 Degrees Celsius, it is at the point of below 37 degrees that action must be taken to ensure the lamb survives its first few hours / days. We then looked at the signs of calving in a dairy cow. Calving can take place at any time of the year and the cow will start showing signs of calving 1 - 2 weeks before by 'bagging up' (udder development), then a few days before she is due, the cows pelvic ligaments will start to relax - for an easier calving and the vulva will swell up to six times its normal size ready for birthing. A normal calving presentation should be two feet first with the nose just behind the feet in a 'driving' position - anything other than this should be investigated as the cow made need manual input to correct the position before she can give birth.