Anatomy of a Summer Muster

We have almost completed our first round of mustering breeders here – in layman’s terms, we gather in all of our cows (our ‘breeders’) and their calves (paddocks by paddock) to check them and treat them.

We usually do two rounds like this 4-6 weeks apart over Summer – this is mostly because we need to do two lots of vaccinations for the calves, with one of these 7-10 day blocks of work also incorporating branding (ear-tagging, marking and assessing).

This time round, we are just vaccinating and treating our cows for pests (like ticks and buffalo fly) as some of the calves are a bit young yet for branding (and some are still to arrive).

The days usually start like this – horses unloaded off the truck, everyone has a good drink of water before they mount their trusty steeds and head off to start gathering the cattle.

Instructions are given by the ‘Boss’ (that’d be my hubby, waving hands around second from right) to the crew. You can see our almost-18-year-old son on left and our almost-15-year-old daughter on right. This muster we also have some help from a lovely young man who used to be a neighbour and who went to Primary School with our kids. (He was a little tacker when he lived here – but is now 16 years old and taller than me!)

Everyone splits up and heads along their assigned route, collecting cows and calves as they go. In this case, there is a creek running along one side of the paddock so it needs careful checking, as it’s cooler than the open country and a good place for sneaky bovines to hide amongst the bottlebrush bushes!

Usually the cattle will all ‘meet’ at a central location (this is generally the result of the Boss’s good planning and good teamwork) and be ‘held’ by one or two stockmen as the remaining animals are rounded up.

It’s a tough job, but Adam and I (in the ute) had it all under control!

Hubs is working a young chestnut filly (remember Vedette ? She is a ‘big girl’ now!) … she gets short rides like this to become used to the idea of working in a paddock independently – young horses like to hang with their mates and can be a bit ‘sticky’ when you want to move away from other horses.

She is still a bit gangly and green, having only been broken in earlier this year, but has terrific potential. (Violet also rides her too, especially in the arena where she reinforces the basics with her.)

Everyone has a bit of a break once all the cattle are gathered – especially when there are baby calves. They usually grab a quick drink from their Mamas, and at this stage I gave the riders some cool water from a big water bottle too – the temperatures have been around 40C every day this week, so hydration has been key.

We check out some of the calves – affectionately known as ‘poddies’ – this one is a gorgeous young heifer probably around three weeks old.

Then it’s time to walk them towards the yards…

This mob of cows are actually first-calf heifers – which means (quite literally) they have not had calves before these or been in a breeder paddock – except as calves. It’s all a bit new and they aren’t really sure which direction we want to take them…

Luckily we have some pretty terrific ringers (and a few handy dogs too!)

The mob is nudged along this ridge…

(And the dogs are rewarded for a good move – or at least NOT a bad move and for coming when called! Violet is reassuring her dog Bindi in this pic.)

They thread the mob through the granite boulders and ironbark trees that dot these hills…

This is one of our smaller paddock, and close to the yards, so the mob then takes only 20 minutes to get to their destination.

The calves tend to fall back a bit and the ‘tail’ (back) of the mob often needs a bit of attention, to make sure no-one is left behind*.

Lots of conversation often happens at this point – topics range from the deep and meaningful to amusing yarns or outright shenanigans.

I am not sure which category this one falls under… tall tails, most likely, knowing these two!

Once they are in the yards, the calves are then separated from their mamas.

This little mob of poddies were really sweet – they are sired by a bull called ‘Memphis’ who we bred ourselves and think a great deal of (he was the top-priced bull at our 2018 sale). These calves are all the result of AI (artificial insemination) as we kept a number of semen ‘straws’ of Memphis for our own use.

The calves are beautiful in structure (sound and well-muscled) and in nature (pretty quiet naturally) – exactly what we are trying to achieve in our seedstock business.

It’s lovely to spend a few minutes in the yards with them, as they get used to having humans up in their space a bit.

We then run the cows and calves separately through a crush (a race, where the older cattle can walk single-file through an under-cover area). The cows get a squirt of anti-tick and fly treatment on their backs, and the calves get a quick needle under the skin of their neck (which vaccinates them against pulpy kidney disease, tetanus, black disease, malignant oedema and blackleg).

Within an hour or so they are back with their mamas and heading back to their paddock…

Our young cows are doing a sterling job as first-time mothers and the calves are looking great, despite the tough conditions.

It’s definitely a hot and dusty task, but with plenty of cool water, it’s very, very rewarding. And IF you have organized your day REALLY well, you should have a ute arrive as you finish, loaded with ice-cold watermelon and/or Zooper Doopers.

We have been doing this a few years now, so we get a gold star for organisation today!

So there you go… the Anatomy of a Summer Muster, by BB. All we need now is some RAIN and everything will be sweet. (If someone could order that for Christmas, we’d REALLY appreciate it!).

Cheers!

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* Sometimes baby calves need a bit of ‘help’ to get to their destination – some get lifted onto a horse, and OTHERS get the royal treatment (pictured) and chauffer-driven in air-conditioned comfort.