In mid October 2008, J made his venture into farming. He bought 2 young Friesian steers which had just been weaned. They were about 12 weeks old and he planned to keep them for 6 to 8 months to graze in our paddock and hopefully J would make some money with the project.
By Christmas, we saw that despite the spring drought in October to December, the calves were not keeping ahead of the grass and J bought 2 weaned Hereford - Friesian cross steers to keep the first 2 company. He was a proud farmer managing a herd of 4 steers.
It rained over the Christmas break and the grass greened up a bit in January but by mid-February a summer drought meant that we had to buy some hay to keep the herd going through March. It rained a bit in March and April to keep the grass green.
By Easter, the 4 steers were growing fast and were clearing all the green grass as it grew in our paddock. We had a decision to make, sell the older 2 or find pasture elsewhere to keep the herd together. One of our neighbours has a paddock of about 2 acres that he had let grow all spring and summer without any cattle or sheep grazing. We approached him and he let us have his paddock for free. All he wanted was the grass to be kept down.
We moved the herd in to their new paddock in early May. The paddock has a steep hill at about 45 degrees and J fretted that the hill was too steep and the calves would fall. I tried to reassure him that cattle had 4 legs and would be more stable than humans...
About a week after we moved the herd, I went over to check the herd and found one of the older steers lying flat on his side. From a distance I thought he was dead but as I got closer, he lifted his head. He was warm and sweating but unable to get up.
I went back to the house, phoned a vet and told J. The vet arrived about an hour later and diagnosed that the steer had a broken neck and it was paralysed below the break. The steer would have to be put down. J could not watch... he petted the calf goodbye and walked away before the vet injected the calve.
We had to get an excavator to come in about 2 days later and bury the calf in our paddock.
It was a shock for us all but especially J that we lost one of the herd. He had watched over his animals every day and even though they were a business to him, they were still pets.
The vet had never seen a calf or a cow with a broken neck before in his career. Noone else I have spoken to has ever seen that either...
(David T. - have you ever seen the like????)
We can only conclude that a dog spooked the calves while they were near the top of the hill and unfortunately the calve fell and rolled down the hill, breaking his neck.
The steers are still grazing in the steep paddock and are thriving. We are keeping a watch for dogs.
( The vet, a New Zealander asked me where I was from... it turns out that he had spent some time in Ballymena and had been to a wedding in Bushmills Distillery! A small world!!!!)
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