Ever since I read the comment "starving sheep don't get bloat" I blame myself if it happens. In every case the sheep who have succumbed to bloat were getting supplemental feed as well as gorging on new grass. And they were getting the extra feed because things were tough, so it’s a bit of a balancing act, with serious consequences if you get it wrong.

So far we've had five sheep bloat, and failed to save every one of them.

So I was horrified to when my brother-in-law noticed a cow on the ground, flanks heaving. "Is she giving birth?"

No. Calves aren't due this year. Not until January. And no, it wasn't a cow, it was one of the 18-month black steers. I have two, identical steers. Big boys, bigger than their mothers, they are healthy eaters. Not too bright, they often find themselves on the wrong side of a fence having missed the gate, complaining about being left out.

I walked over to him. His stomach was wildly inflated, and he was groaning. If this was a sheep it would be dead already, but it turns out cattle have a bit more in them.

It's not surprising. We've had rain, seems a lot but actually just normal amounts for this time of year. The paddocks have taken off. Its still tight though…my neighbor has similar paddocks to me. His cows don't get any supplemental feed, and they are skin and bone. I've been feeding mine some pellets every day and they are, not fat, but looking ok.

But this chap had found himself something and loaded up, and now the mass fermenting in his stomach was blowing him up and likely to kill him.

It was Saturday, early evening, and the likelihood of a vet getting here in time to help was low. I was thinking of two options. The first is to force a short tube down his throat, (think vacuum cleaner extension tube), then feed a hose down that. Eventually the hose gets to his stomach and with luck the air leaks out.

If its too late for that, you literally puncture him, on the side, with a sharp knife, then get it sutured up afterwards. There's a risk of infection and other problems. It’s a last resort.

Our cattle aren't wild, but they aren't readily handled. One or two will accommodate an ear scratch, but the rest shy away. The steers will take an apple from me, but move off if I approach them.

Even in his distress, as soon as I knelt down to feel his side he lurched to his feet and staggered off a few metres. There's no way I was going to get a tube down his throat until he literally collapsed, and that would be because his heart or lungs, or both, had stopped and I would be too late.

With the horror rising I was thinking I would have to get a knife.

One last thought…I called my farming mentor Rex. Rex works hard, harder than me, and even still apologized that he couldn't come and help me, but he interrogated me on the situation, and suggested we first try drenching him with 100ml of oil. The oil can break up the foam that was causing the air blockage. He was definite that it wouldn't sort itself out….if I didn't fix things quickly the steer would die.

As a hobby farm, we don't have all the infrastructure we should have. I still haven't had the money to buy a cattle crush. We have a half built race, but its too wide. But that's what we had.

Quickly we assembled a junkload of star pickets, an unused car roof rack, ockie-straps and a trucking strap. I walked behind him and Sylvia pushed him in from the side, and we walked him into the cattle yards.

And amazingly, we slapped together a workable temporary race, using the car rack as the top gate. Once he was in I slid the star pickets behind him so he couldn't go back, then looped the trucking strap round his head. It all seemed so simple! I pulled him in hard against the fence then gave the strap to Sylvia. She hung on, as if my life depended on it, and held him in place, and I manhandled his giant head and squirted the oil down his throat. Placid as he is, he was pretty unhappy about that, and as soon as we relaxed he bounced like a grasshopper, all 600kg of him, flew up in the air and smashed down on the car rack, bending in into ruination, then scampered off, his gigantic sides billowing.

Ho hum. A jet black steer runs off into the night. No moon. If he drops I'll never find him, I thought, and then I'll spend the next day burying a 600kg corpse.

But it worked. An hour later I found him by torchlight, along the fence near the other cows, complaining as usual that they were on the wrong side of the fence. He was visibly deflated, and two hours later (very late on Saturday night) he looked almost normal.

I could tell him from the other steer by the oil smeared all over his face.

I was relieved to see someone asking about bloat solutions on the community facebook page a couple of days later. It's not just me.

But I've cut back on the supplemental feed.