🌱 This week at Red Ants Farm
Thinking ahead to lambing — because it always comes faster than you'd like.
We're properly into the cold now here in Northland. Short days, mud where there wasn't mud, and stock that would very much like their tea a bit earlier, thank you. It's the quiet part of the year — but it's also the part where a bit of thinking ahead pays off, because lambing and calving start ramping up from August, and the ewes that do well then are the ones being looked after right now.
Funnily enough, working on the app and the animal records this week got me looking hard at my own flock's condition and who I need to keep an eye on going into lambing. It also got me thinking about feed — whether I've actually got enough to get them through to spring. That's really what this whole thing is for: the app should make you stop and think about the right stuff at the right time.
🐑 This week's topic
The winter jobs that quietly decide how lambing goes.
Mid-July feels like a lull, but it's actually the setup for the busiest part of the year. A few things worth getting sorted now, while you've got the time:
Condition score your ewes. The single biggest lever on lambing is ewe condition in the last six weeks before they lamb. Aim for a body condition score around 3 to 3.5 for most breeds. Thin ewes now are the ones you'll be bottle-feeding lambs for later. Run your hands along the backbone and short ribs — you're feeling for cover, not looking. Anything pinched and bony gets pulled out for preferential feeding now, not in a fortnight.
Sort your feed budget. Winter grass growth is slow and lambing demand is about to spike. Have a realistic look at what you've got — pasture cover, hay, silage, nuts — and whether it stretches to cover the pinch. It's far cheaper to buy supplement in July than to discover a shortfall in August with lambs on the ground.
Get your lambing kit together. Iodine for navels, a lambing rope or snare, lube, gloves, colostrum or a substitute, a working torch, and the vet's number somewhere you can actually find it at 2am. Assembling this in the warm now beats hunting for it in the rain during a hard birth.
Plan your lambing paddocks. Pick sheltered paddocks with decent cover, ideally close to the house so you can check them easily. Set them aside now so they've got feed on them when you need them.
None of this is glamorous. All of it is the difference between a smooth lambing and a stressful one.
📈 The block is growing
Just past 100 of us now.
A quick one that I'm quietly chuffed about: we've now passed 100 block owners signed up to My Block Hand, and better still, around 6 in 10 are back using it every week. That's a proper little community for something that started as one bloke's frustration with soggy notebooks. Thank you — genuinely — for being part of it. I'll keep a short update like this in each issue so you can watch it grow with us.
🛠️ What's new in My Block Hand
Every animal on your block now gets its own proper record — whatever the species.
This is a big one. My Block Hand now handles all your livestock the same clear way, from a single sheep to a paddock of horses. Tap into Animals and you'll drill down from species, to herds, to individual animals — and each animal now carries its own profile:
- A care diary — worming, vaccinations, dentistry, farrier visits — and it flows straight into your Jobs, Today's Brief and reminders, so nothing gets forgotten.
- Breeding history and a colour-coded milestone timeline — handy right now for anyone tracking who's in lamb, in calf, or in foal.
- Identity and passport details — tag numbers, microchip, colour, height, registration.
- A photo of each animal — so you can put a face to the record, which is handy when you're trying to remember which ewe is which, or just want a proper file on a favourite.
And it's not only for livestock — it works just as well for pets. Dogs, cats, the working dogs, the kids' pony — you can keep their vaccination dates, vet visits, microchip numbers and photos all in one place too.
It grew out of a lot of horse owners asking for a proper stable diary and breeding tracker — but it made sense to give every animal the same treatment, with sensible New Zealand defaults per species (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, alpacas) that you can edit to suit your block.
It's live on the website now. If you're on the phone app, it'll come through with the App Store and Play Store versions we're working towards.
🚀 What we're building next
More of the small daily habits — and the real app stores.
A batch of new bits is nearly ready: a rain gauge log, incubation and hatching tracking (candling and hatch-day land in your calendar automatically), a feed store to keep an eye on what you've bought and used, and household sharing — so a couple or family can run the same block from their own logins, no extra charge. Built for households, not seats.
And the big one: My Block Hand is on its way onto the actual iOS App Store and Google Play — real, downloadable apps rather than an "add to home screen" shortcut. Both are in the submission and review process now. I'll shout it here the moment you can download it.
📱 Android owners — could you help us over the line?
To get the app onto the Play Store, Google needs a handful of people testing it first. A huge thank you to the 11 of you who've already put your hand up — you're the reason this is close. We just need a few more to tick Google's box. If you've got an Android phone and ten minutes to spare, hit reply and I'll send you the link — you'll be among the first to run the real app, and you'll have genuinely helped get it out the door.
🐔 Seasonal reminder — keep an eye on the chooks
Winter is the wrong time to get relaxed about bird flu.
Good news first: New Zealand is still free of the H5N1 bird flu strain that's been causing havoc overseas, and the H7N6 outbreak we had down in Otago in late 2024 was stamped out. But it's a live risk — H5 has now been confirmed in wild birds in Western Australia, and winter is when wild birds move around and mix with backyard flocks.
You don't need to panic, but a few simple habits go a long way for anyone with poultry:
- Keep feed and water undercover where wild birds can't get at them — that's the main way it spreads.
- Quarantine any new birds for a couple of weeks before they join the flock, and be extra careful after shows or swaps.
- Watch for sudden deaths, or a lot of sick birds at once. If several birds go off or die unexpectedly, ring MPI's exotic pest and disease hotline on 0800 80 99 66.
- Keep a record of birds coming and going — which, handily, the app now does for you.
A little biosecurity now is a lot cheaper than the alternative.
💡 A practical tip
Tag your lambing paddocks in the app before the lambs arrive.
Set up your chosen lambing paddocks now and note which ewes are going where. When you're checking stock in the cold and dark in a few weeks, having "who's where and who's due" on your phone — instead of in your head — is worth its weight. Set it up while you've got a warm cuppa in hand.
💬 A community question
How are you scoring up for lambing this year?
Are your ewes coming into winter in good nick, or are you doing a bit of preferential feeding to get some condition back on? And for the newer block owners — is this your first lambing, and what are you nervous about? Hit reply and tell me. The honest answers shape what goes into the next few issues, and there's a fair chance someone else on a block is wondering the exact same thing.
⭐ From a fellow block owner
One of the things that's stuck with me lately came from a horse owner in one of the Facebook groups:
"I've got 10 horses across lots of small paddocks and a few larger ones, and I try to rest each one for 20 days. My Block Hand made setting all that up and monitoring it easy."
— Horse owner, 10 horses
That's exactly the kind of thing the new per-animal setup is built for. If My Block Hand has made something on your block easier — big or small — I'd genuinely love to hear it. Just hit reply.