Thursday, June 14, 2007

14 Jun 07 - Day 5 (Redgate Farmstay)

We checked out at 12 noon exactly and walked around the resort before having lunch at the café. Ate seafood basket and after eating, we left for Redgate Farmstay closed to 2pm.

Reached there about 2.30pm and saw a big golden retriever named Soc at the reception office. He was very friendly and active, couldn't stop running about. We then went to our cottage and the kids wanted to go to the fenced up area behind out cottage to touch and feed the animals. So I went with the kids while sis and BIL unpacked the things. We saw a goat with two horns first in another fenced up area, then we saw some baby kangaroos also known as joeys, they were so cute and allowed us to stroke them on the back. From far, there were two lamas, something that looked camels, one black and one white. They came galloping towards us and for a while, I was quite scared coz they were slightly taller than me and they didn’t stop till they were right in front of us. The white one kept following us especially me coz the kids were busy with the joeys. The white lama nudged and nibbled my sleeve and jeans. Ry then ran back to the cottage to get the animal feed that they had bought from the reception office during the check-in. We started feeding the animals and a lamb came over as well. Then BIL and sis came to join us and we fed the animals till 3+pm coz a man would be coming to bring us to see cows in a neighboring farm.

The White Alpaca (Jet)

The Black Alpaca (Raincloud)

A Joey

The man named Frank explained the operation but I couldn't remember much now. Only remember the cows were impregnated artificially, there were about 450 producing cows; one batch consists of 150 cows and the other consists of 300 cows; two batches were impregnated at different time of the year; each batch had to be impregnated within a month; the boy calves were no use to them coz they couldn't produce and their meat were not good enough for the Australian market so they were sold to Arab; beware when the cows held their tails up coz it would mean they are going to either pee or shit. Frank led us to the place where the cows were lined up with 20 in each row, two rows per milking, and showed us how they used a sucking machine to milk the cows. He said that some of the milk produced were shipped twice weekly to Singapore where QAF imports them, processed and packaged them to be sold under the brand name Magnolia. We were then showed the place where the calves were kept. Frank said that after a calf was born, the cow would wonder off and only start to bond with the calf after 2-3 days. The farmer would separate the calves before the bonding begins.

Got to touch the calves and because they were not fed yet so they kept sucking the hands that tried to touch them. Then Frank brought us back to the place where they milk the cows and let us have a try at milking the cow with our hands. I got to get a go and only succeeded at the second try. Left the place and headed back to the cottage to have a quick wash up before heading out to see if we could make it for the sunset horse ride. The place was not opened coz they were having some competition the next day. So we headed for MR Town to get dinner. Bought milo, bananas from Coles, a supermarket like our NTUC and then bought burgers, roasted chicken and fried chicken at a fast food restaurant called Chooks, like KFC back to the cottage to eat.

At the cow farm, cows getting ready to be milk

Frank, the guide, explain the milk production

Me having a go at milking the cow

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