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| The class of 2019 |
It's a whitewash! A clean sweep! Any other sporting cliche you choose - the girls have 'trounced' the boys 4-0!
Apple Vale Elstar was due to give birth on my birthday, 24th August, but she wanted her cria to have it's own birthday, and besides, it was 26 degrees, so she held on for another 12 days, and on 5th September gave birth to Bryony (Apple Vale Longworth Bryony).
Sired by Apple Vale Fortune, she has produced an almost identical sister to Apple Vale Kerry Pippin. Born at 9.15 a.m, she was quick to get to her feet, the placenta was delivered within the hour, and she was searching for milk quickly, and she searched...and searched...and searched. After about four hours, I had a feel of her teats, and managed to express some milk/colostrum, spread it onto the other teats and onto Bryony's lips, but after seven hours she was clearly not spending long enough at the milk bar to be getting much, but visiting frequently, so we decided to give her plasma, to be sure that she had some immunity to infection. Since then, she has gone from strength to strength, feeding properly that same evening, and gaining weight at a good daily rate. Her fleece is beautiful, and she is full of energy. From Elstar's sire, Van Diemen Qjori of Patou, we know that there is a grey gene in there, and Kerry Pippin has a partial Rose Grey saddle, so we tried to 'get it out' again -currently, we can just see it in Bryony's ears.
