safe

That blasted bull just had to go

/ dairymilkmaid / Leave a comment

It was with a sense of triumph that Clarkie and I closed the gates behind the tall bull today.

As you may have gathered, I’m a bit of a softie and almost always feel a pang of regret selling one of our animals but Tall Bull is going to market and will not be missed. This Friesian monster towers over cows and our other bulls, gallops like a racehorse and leaps fences like a showjumper. He’s also (pardon the pun) a bully. We were awestruck when we saw him toss a Jersey bull over a fence onto the road with a toss of his massive, triangular head.

Recently, he’s just begun moving around the farm at will, too. He’s too cocky to be called safe, too big to sire easy birthing progeny and too uncontrollable to have near people, infrastructure or calves.

The decision to send him away was easy. Getting him on the truck played on my mind a little more. It started off badly. We offered him companions on his walk across the farm to the yards but he rejected them, opting to leap a fence and take on a rival. Thankfully, his speed ended up playing into our hands – he was easy to separate from everyone else because all were left far behind.

A regal presence, certainly, but not a fitting king for our farm. So long, Tall Bull!

My lucky girl

/ dairymilkmaid / 2 Comments

Farm life can be fun and safe for children but tragedy strikes too often

Farms are extremely dangerous places for children. FarmSafe warns farming families of the horrible record of child deaths on Australian farms and makes some very sensible recommendations.

Some more conservative organisations recommend children are confined to safe play areas. That’s not reality for many farming families, including ours. We all work together because we need to and because it’s fun. On our farm, we are really careful Zoe understands there are some no-go zones and to observe some critical rules (not to get too close to the cows is one example).

One of Zoe’s favourite jobs around the farm is rounding up the cows for milking. It’s a great chance to run around, be an important helper and show how responsible she is. Zoe’s very proud and very lucky. So am I.