Mustering in the Morning
Oooh-eeey! What a couple of mad, crazy days chasing cows by quakbike, horseback and truck over miles and miles of Australian Outback. Friday we did all the mustering, first by quad/motorbike and then in the afternoon we switched to horseback… I can’t believe they used to muster the cows only using horses out here. There’s so much distance to cover and sweet jesus the saddle sore; I don’t just mean a bit of an achy butt, I mean actual sores on your posterior. Ooof. (Don’t worry no photo attached) Mustering on quakdbike was much faster although it did get a wee bit hairy at times – not because of mad cows but because of all the lumps bumps, thick sand, dry creeks, prickle bushes and low hanging branches, which were all doing their very best to try and bump me off the bike. I will admit to at times feeling so unbelievably lost, with everything looking so similar it is very difficult to work out where you are.
Following a gruelling days’ work what else do you do other than take a quick shower and head out to Tennis at McKinlay?! (the nearest town which takes about 40 mins to get to in the car) Tennis mostly involved drinking lots of beer and talking to random truckies at the famous Walkabout Creek Hotel (aka Crocodile Dundee’s hangout). We left around midnight – so managed to get a solid 6 or so hours of kip in before starting day 2 of mustering …
Dragged myself out of bed bleary eyed and sore. The body is definitely feeling the strain of yesterday… I better be losing some weight! We then headed down to the paddocks where the cattle from yesterday were held overnight. The 150 plus cattle then needed sorting out – this was done based on the gender and also the quality of cows. Good = thick chested, pretty faced with good legs and a nice temperament (not too different from human criteria eh?!) Bad = bandy legs, long skinny faces, fowl temperament and shallow chests. Sorting involved first drawing some cattle (on foot) into a holding pen and then pushing them into circle with different pens coming off. The person in the middle then needed to whizz around the place opening up the correct gate. Sometimes got a little scary, especially with those moody cows, although generally (Luke assures me) the cows may puff at you a bit but will normally turn and walk away rather than charge at you…. Not something I particularly want to test! Apparently you can spot a ‘dangerous’ cow by their posture. Head high, ears forward and up pacing and or/shaking… In those instances it seems to be best to (Try) and stay calm and present yourself as non-threatening. If that doesn’t work and you have to make a run for it the best thing to do is run off to the side, as the cow cannot turn as fast as you can and will then generally back off. I had a one run at me a bit, scary stuff. All I can say is that this whole experience will not have put me off eating beef – instead I think that I will enjoy my medium rare slab of steak even more!
Once the cattle were sorted they then needed to be pregnancy tested, chipped/tagged and have their teeth checked. Pregnancy testing involves a very long glove (to the armpit), some veterinary lube a strong stomach and long arms! Yup you go in up the butt, past all their poop and then you can feel down onto the cervix and feel whether there is a calf in there. And man do cows have hot butts!! On a cold morning sticking your arm up there would be way better than a pocket hand warmer! All I can say is THANK GOD humans can just pee on a stick! Once the first batch were all tested and tagged we moved them into a double decker cattle truck for them to be taken about 1.5 hours away to be sold.
It was a pretty intense day, hard work and nerve wracking. I started to get the hang of it late afternoon, but it took some stern internal talking to myself to pluck up the courage to carry on at times. MY body aches horribly, more than yesterday but I think that’s most likely due to all my nervous energy today…. Feel like I have been running on adrenaline all day! Who needs roller coasters and bungee jumping when you have lots of agitated cattle!
Anyway I must be off now as have a 6.30 start tomorrow – have to be up earlier to make sure that we get the last of the cattle tested etc before the next truck arrives to take them off to sale.
All I can say for now is that I am thoroughly shattered and am a teeny bit chuffed with myself, but mostly I just want my bed and new muscles. I could also murder a chicken korma .. although on second thoughts maybe I’d rather have a beef madras...
Following a gruelling days’ work what else do you do other than take a quick shower and head out to Tennis at McKinlay?! (the nearest town which takes about 40 mins to get to in the car) Tennis mostly involved drinking lots of beer and talking to random truckies at the famous Walkabout Creek Hotel (aka Crocodile Dundee’s hangout). We left around midnight – so managed to get a solid 6 or so hours of kip in before starting day 2 of mustering …
Dragged myself out of bed bleary eyed and sore. The body is definitely feeling the strain of yesterday… I better be losing some weight! We then headed down to the paddocks where the cattle from yesterday were held overnight. The 150 plus cattle then needed sorting out – this was done based on the gender and also the quality of cows. Good = thick chested, pretty faced with good legs and a nice temperament (not too different from human criteria eh?!) Bad = bandy legs, long skinny faces, fowl temperament and shallow chests. Sorting involved first drawing some cattle (on foot) into a holding pen and then pushing them into circle with different pens coming off. The person in the middle then needed to whizz around the place opening up the correct gate. Sometimes got a little scary, especially with those moody cows, although generally (Luke assures me) the cows may puff at you a bit but will normally turn and walk away rather than charge at you…. Not something I particularly want to test! Apparently you can spot a ‘dangerous’ cow by their posture. Head high, ears forward and up pacing and or/shaking… In those instances it seems to be best to (Try) and stay calm and present yourself as non-threatening. If that doesn’t work and you have to make a run for it the best thing to do is run off to the side, as the cow cannot turn as fast as you can and will then generally back off. I had a one run at me a bit, scary stuff. All I can say is that this whole experience will not have put me off eating beef – instead I think that I will enjoy my medium rare slab of steak even more!
Once the cattle were sorted they then needed to be pregnancy tested, chipped/tagged and have their teeth checked. Pregnancy testing involves a very long glove (to the armpit), some veterinary lube a strong stomach and long arms! Yup you go in up the butt, past all their poop and then you can feel down onto the cervix and feel whether there is a calf in there. And man do cows have hot butts!! On a cold morning sticking your arm up there would be way better than a pocket hand warmer! All I can say is THANK GOD humans can just pee on a stick! Once the first batch were all tested and tagged we moved them into a double decker cattle truck for them to be taken about 1.5 hours away to be sold.
It was a pretty intense day, hard work and nerve wracking. I started to get the hang of it late afternoon, but it took some stern internal talking to myself to pluck up the courage to carry on at times. MY body aches horribly, more than yesterday but I think that’s most likely due to all my nervous energy today…. Feel like I have been running on adrenaline all day! Who needs roller coasters and bungee jumping when you have lots of agitated cattle!
Anyway I must be off now as have a 6.30 start tomorrow – have to be up earlier to make sure that we get the last of the cattle tested etc before the next truck arrives to take them off to sale.
All I can say for now is that I am thoroughly shattered and am a teeny bit chuffed with myself, but mostly I just want my bed and new muscles. I could also murder a chicken korma .. although on second thoughts maybe I’d rather have a beef madras...
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