STAND IN THE GAP: November – closing down the year

- by Kathleen Duffy -

The deciduous trees with their beautiful hues of brown, bronze and oranges have gone bare and they face the winter with the dropped swirling leaves meaning blocked drains etc. Storm Bert didn’t do much damage around our house, even the internet stayed working, so we are lucky enough. The weather forecast was correct for our area, but they were not so lucky in the West and South. Winter is here, short days, long nights, flus and colds, coughing and spluttering, children with runny noses. It is important older and vulnerable people can get anti-flu and Covid injections.

Farming

The cows were housed last weekend though, a full three weeks later than last year. They are happy to be inside with rubber mats dusted with sawdust and lime. They eat as much silage as they want, while they get 4kgs of meal when they milk on the robots.

They are free to move around the shed, but if they are not away at least 8 hours, the robot will kick them out. The robot works away day and night, it records yield and quality of every teat from every cow, and if they are showing any sign of mastitis etc. This week we put up solar panels on the cow shed, so hopefully we will see the benefit of this, but more about this again.

We used up most of our red clover bales as buffer feed over the last month so we opened the first silage pit. We will start drying off this week, mainly first calvers and early calvers. The in-calf heifers are still on the outlying land and have enough picking until next week. Dosing and vaccinations are par for the course this time of year, while some farmers are weighing and condition scoring to help make decisions on grouping animals into feed lots for convenience.

The fertiliser and slurry spreading finished early for 2024 in the month of September and we got all the tanks emptied. We are due a Bord Bia inspection soon.

In the Show Centre we are getting ready for our Annual Christmas Fair on Saturday, December 7. We have around 60 stalls while community groups, colleges and fundraisers also take part. And by the way the elves will be entertaining for the children.

Saint Kilian and Sister Kilian

This year saw the Relics of St Kilian and his companions from Wurzburg in Germany come home to Mullagh in October. It was a beautiful occasion, very well organised and brought back memories of my childhood growing up in Cross. For all Kilians and Cillians it was a lovely to see the connection with the name. I had two reasons to visit the Relics. Firstly, I was accompanied by the youngest Cillian, my one year old grandson and I also felt I needed to celebrate the memory of my grand-aunt Sr. Kilian Lynch, the only female I know named after St Kilian; a name she took after spending time in prayer in Mullagh Church. Sr Kilian was a Columban Nun having grown up on the family farm in Newcastle Moynalty and went to Hanyang China in the 1930s. She worked there through World War II and the Japanese invasion but was expelled when the Communists took over in 1951. Her and her fellow travellers had to escape to the Philippines, where they were administering their skills until 1957.

Then she was asked to go to Chunchon, Kanwondo, South Korea where she spent 27 years looking after the services of the hospital, clinics and school, not that far from the border with North Korea.

She was a missionary from 1926 until her death in 1992. Saint Kilian only lasted three years in Wurzburg, but Sister Kilian was like many young women from all around Cavan and Ireland who dedicated their whole lives to working with the poorest people in other counties.

I am sure most families remember these unselfish brave women in the month of November.

Remembering the dead

This is the month that we remember those gone before us, some were lucky enough to see family live till ripe old age, but unfortunately so many will spend a long time grieving for family members taken far too young. Remember to appreciate the good people we have before they pass on to the next world, the way they looked after people and the land. It is no harm to stop and think about life.