I still had Moz and the Rookie Buckling to deal with, and little as I wanted to do it, I knew it was essential to remove them before winter if we were going to have some peace and a manageable herd. Mating and kidding were not on my agenda for the coming year.
Everyone was running together in the far paddock over the back, and I had absolutely no idea how I was going to achieve the first step of splitting the females off from the males, without having to bring them all down to the shed, yard them – and then what? Moz is a handful at close quarters and the wild Rookie buckling – well, getting him into a yard to start with would be a mission, let alone anything else. The one thing I definitely did NOT want was to have a mishap and lose either of those boys back into the bush.
Without any great plan in mind, I decided one afternoon to slip up there quickly and see how things were. The paddock is probably my largest, the main gate is at the top end, and about a third of the way down it drops off quite steeply to the road, so you can’t see the whole paddock from the top. There was still quite a high growth of feed on the ground, too.
I went through the gate and over to my right I could just see the backs of a couple of does about 50 yards away with their heads down, grazing near the brow of the hill. I called out quietly. They heard me and came – and what’s more the 4 kids and the 2 new youngsters appeared over the edge of the hill, following them. Glory Be! There were no bucks in sight! That in itself was a miracle, because those guys usually stick close to their women.
I got the females through the gate and realised I was missing Dawn. Hmmm. Pushing my luck a second time, I went back into the paddock.
Some instinct led me to the left this time, towards the bush boundary, and as I moved down the hill I saw her further down near the fence. I couldn’t believe it : she was on her own and still no boys in sight! She looked up and – always ready to come, bless her – she started up the paddock towards me.
I held my breath, watching out of the corner of my eye for the males to put in an appearance, but miraculously they didn’t. So we sneaked up the hill together and a few minutes later, as she followed me through the gate to join the others, I sent up a heartfelt prayer of thanks.
Against all the odds, I’d accomplished an almost impossible task alone, with an absolute minimum of effort. That was a miracle!
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Tags: kidding, management, mating, pushing my luck, small farming
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