There’s more bullshit on the farm than normal.

We have a visiting bull for the next six weeks.

He’s a very handsome Angus bull, here to squire our small herd. If he’s here for six weeks that’s notionally at least three opportunities to impregnate the cows.

His owner said that he’s a good boy. And he has been. He’s been quite calm and easy going. I’ve been keeping a fence between him and me so far when we are handfeeding the breakfast apples, but we’ve walked past each other out in the paddock without incident. Not that I’m expecting trouble, but I’m just being careful. He’s such a bit unit. He can stand next to an olive tree and eat branches that are half a metre higher than the cows. Not a good thing, but not much I can do about it!

We have a big pile of dirt in the paddock, extra spillage from when we dug out new septic trenches. The bull likes to stand on the top and paw it over his back and head in a gigantic dust bath. I haven’t seen him roll in it, but he’ll spend and hour or two every morning rubbing his face and shoulders in dust. I tell him it looks good.

The other paddocks all have a border with neighbouring properties. Because of the rain we’ve had, everyone has jammed cows onto their place to eat the extra grass. I’m wary of putting the bull in a paddock next to another herd. While most of our fences are good, the critical ones between the neighbouring herds are suddenly looking a bit flimsy.

Last night the cattle in a neighbouring property started calling out, and he’s been a bit agitated. His nearest corner to them is quite close to the house, and he stood bellowing 20 metres from our bedroom window for a couple of hours. Still, the fact he hasn’t smashed his way through the fences and taken off reinforces the “good boy” reputation.
There’s a bit going on in cow world, apart from the bull.

We are still waiting for one more calf. Her previous owner thought she was due before Christmas. I think it will be before the end of February…any day soon. She’s a bit flighty, and not to be trusted up close, and we’ve been advised to get rid of her once she’s calved and bring in something quieter.

The other calves are doing well. We now have three, a few months apart. They hang around together. They will spend the day off exploring, settling down at rest time in the afternoon together under one tree.

I finished the fence along the river in the bottom olive orchard, (with two 3 metre corner-posts cut from the fallen gum tree). Previously, as soon as the water level dropped as summer
progressed, the cows crossed the river and kicked up their heels in a neighbor’s property. Now there’s a fence across that paddock, and they won’t be going on any unauthorized excursions anymore.

The next big construction job is finishing the cattle yards. They were partially built when we took over. What was done was well done, built to last, out of heavy steel set in concrete, with lots of gates and sectional dividers. But it doesn’t have a cattle crush/head-gate or a loading ramp. Both of those are needed by us fairly soon.

One neighbor has been agisting a herd for the local stock agent. He’s coming to collect them today, and came and asked about accessing the herd via our laneway, as he’s bringing in a big truck that won’t fit next door. I offered the use of our yards, as he was going to set up a temporary one. Using our yards will save him a lot of time, and I get to see them being used by someone who knows what he’s doing. He’s supplying a temporary cattle ramp to get them onto the truck, and it will be useful to measure the height for when we start that building project