Riding out with ‘teenagers’…

Hello, my poor neglected readers!  So sorry to let my hectic work and social life take over my online action… what do you feel like today?  How bout some real ‘ranch’ business?  Maybe a little droving, Oz-style?

The series of images below were taken a few days ago shows about half a day’s work for us – taking our young commercial weaners (i.e. females (heifers) who are not registered Brangus and desexed males (steers)) for their very first ‘big kid’ walk without their mamas.  All have been seperated from their mothers for around a week, have been innoculated and fed hay and generally gotten used to humans walking in amongst them.

Taking them for their first walk is always a little nerve-wracking – some people ‘tail out’ their weaners which means they get little practice runs for a few days before a bigger walk to their paddock.  For a number of reasons we don’t – we simply make sure we handle them carefully for one big walk.

Here we are leaving the yards…

From left, my husband (Mr Incredible to long-term blog readers), my brother ‘Pig’ (to his many mates) and our jackaroo Callum (or Scooter to his fan club – you will have to ask him about that!).

This was a pretty big mob – around 250 head of young cattle.  You will notice they are a mixture of red and black (our stud cattle colours) along with some more odd colours and ‘brindles’ which are kinda stripey.  Colour doesn’t matter so much in a commercial mob like this.

Cal doing a great job holding the front ones steady as we head to the creek (which runs right by the main yards).

Down that first hill there is always some skipping going on… most are keen for a fresh drink though so don’t get too carried away!

As they wait to go through the gate at the other side of the creek…

And then, beautifully together like a proper mob, up the creek bank.

Oh look – the rider at the back of the mob got all artistic! (Yes, that would be me.)  What you cannot see is a fence to the left, seperating many of the black weaners from their mothers… only one cow came to investigate, and soon headed back to her mob.  Cows are quite happy to have big strapping calves like this weaned – most are in calf again and busy gestating their new babies.  They need a break!

When we get to a trough, plenty of little heads dive in for a drink…

Work dogs also get a little thirsty, but apparently have no manners and soon assert their authority…

Guys, it’s not a spa!

It’s important that a mob learns how to move smoothly but in a controlled manner for those working them.  These young ones were still getting the hang of  ‘walking ALONG the fence’ rather than peering over it.

A little patience though and they soon worked it out.  Cattle generally take the ‘path of least resistance’ and I think often behave a little like streams of water.

Although they DO trickle UPhill slightly better than H2O when handled correctly!

This is a lovely, calm sight for a cattle handler – walking out nicely, no running, no giving the bird to the riders.

The problem of a too-high bottom wire in a gully was cleverly solved by my brother…

With a temporary ‘dog wire’ to block anyone thinking of sneaking onto the wrong side of the fence.  He did a terrific job and was let off as soon as the mob passed.  Clever dog!

Pushing the mob uphill into the afternoon sun…

I love this shot – of course my husband was complaining that my readers will get sick of him and that he is MUCH too often the subject of my photos.  Seriously? No-one has complained yet, darling.

And look, Millie is making sure she is in shot – she has her own fan club to keep happy y’know.

The weather this day was absolutely perfect – a clear winter day with huge blue skies.  (Weaning often brings out the joker in Mother Nature – they dear thing has managed to drop rain on our weaners as soon as they are in the yards EVERY time this year! They almost needed mudboots!).

As we head into the heavily timbered section of our property, we need to keep on our toes.  There are lots of places to ‘hide’ or sneak out from the mob in this paddock.

Especially when there are little running streams beside the road for thirsty travellers…

But with some good manpower, good dogs and terrific young cattle, we are soon back on the road again (literally).

We managed to get right through the 5 km of timber with no problems, before I had to leave the boys to the final part of the walk and dash off home in the ute to pick up kids from the school bus.

And while my muscles always feel the action of these kind of days, I am very much aware of how great my ‘office’ is.  Especially when the ‘teenagers’ we are working with behave like proper little ladies and gentlemen!

Now… have you any questions about this part of our operation?  I will do my best to answer them in Comments.

🙂