Cattle Work

Personal Liability and Occupation Health and Safety were certainly a big player in the other half of the job description. 

Think of hot sweaty days, hot red sand throughout the air, and really pissed off cows. Cattle yard work came to us as a bit of a surprise for both of us. My first introduction was to move these cows/bulls from one yard into another which when said like that didn’t seem so hard but once we were in surrounded by 7ft metal fences and nothing but air between a 1 tonne bull and us, adrenaline kicked in. Within a few minutes I was eyed off by a few cows but I didn’t think any of it until I see one of the aboriginal guys up in the tree yelling at me to move. Move to where? I had a very pissed off cow with horns running head down right towards me. I was in the middle of the yard and Michael was already occupying the safety tree. So I did the only thing I could; I ran 360 around that tree with that cow following! That cow was so determined to make contact I was shitting myself while the others laughed. These cows have thousands of acres to wander with no contact with humans until one week in the year. After that event I dusted myself off and continued on always eyeing off the safety tree. Soon I heard the “oh shit!” from Dave off in the back corner. Turning around, I seeing Dave jump that 7ft fence with a single bound with a very angry white Bull chasing after him. Later on, I again see Dave hanging onto that fence kicking away this cow that just wouldn’t let up until Dave fell off.  He was truly hanging on for his life as this heifer was head down horns up literally attacking Dave. We distracted that cow with a few tree branches which meant she now turned on us. Running and jumping time until she caught up with the mob.  This was the first of many more hours to come.

Examine Exhibit A - Look out!

The cows were purposely yarded up for drafting then sale. From one large pen into a smaller pen is the whole concept to eventually push them through the draft and separate the Cows from the Wieners.  The aboriginal guys we had certainly knew what they were doing plus the fact they had balls. Jumping in behind them to push them along...you wouldn’t see anyone sane to do that.  

Some of the cattle we had to deal with...

Things got pretty interesting when we had the last few bulls to push through as they seemed pretty engaged with each other. So like any cattle farmer, he decided to use the Landcruiser Ute to help things along. With a rope around its horns, a chain connected to that, then locked onto the Ute we manually pulled this Bull through the draft. These bulls were the size of large car with horns that were as thick as your arm and had an attitude like no other which made things fun when ear tagging and marking.  

Big as a car

Man oh man we had some fun. Most days we came back with our faces fully painted with red dirt, torn clothes in our attempt to jump the fences, and random bruises from the rough work which was worth the effort when we came home to our pool and cold beers.

Dave certainly learnt a whole lot more. Going out on Bore runs did require decent knowledge and concentration. These water pumps are out on rough roads hundreds of km from the homestead which needed daily attention. Dave had to deal with bogging sand, spring high tides, and generally the long distance between them all. Filling the generators, fixing and servicing them, repairing pipes are just some of the thing he had to do. Seeing Dave also driving the Tractors and graders around the homestead certainly made me sit up straight knowing that he enjoyed what he was doing and learning some decent skills.