Stories from my farm
The phone rang at 7.15 on Sunday morning. It was our neighbour from across the road. “Seven of your cattle are in our yard, plus a donkey,” she said. Our tribe (minus the sheep) had absconded. During the night they had pushed a gate open, walked across the road and up to our neighbours’ house. By the time I got there they had migrated to a paddock of lush grass. Very contented they were.
When they saw me they had the good grace to look sheepish – it was obvious that guilt was weighing heavily upon them. The neighbour arrived on his quad bike and was trying to round them up. I got out of the ute, went to the gate and called them. Neighbour looked a bit surprised that they came when called and then followed me back to the laneway. They headed off down the lane with me now in the rear. They knew that the gig was up and were surrendering gracefully.
I had left my wife at the road to make sure that they didn’t get any bright ideas and head off in another direction. Our road gate is directly opposite our neighbour’s lane so they went back into their own paddock with not an issue.
The road gate had been pushed off its hinges. Our bull, Cardigan (so named because he is a Belted Galloway with a white strip around his middle. It makes him look as though he is wearing a white cardigan), is running with the rest of the cattle at the moment and it would have been him who flattened the gate. My bullocks have been running in this paddock for 12 months and have never attempted an escape.
No doubt that it would have been Missy’s idea. Missy is our donkey and a right trouble maker. She would have encouraged Cardigan and then led the tribe on the quest for superior grass.
Back in the paddock the cattle were content and gathered together to no doubt discuss the adventure. Not Missy – she watched with great interest as I fastened the gate to make it escape proof. She studied everything that I did very carefully and when I left she was still there, staring at the gate. She is probably still there, studying the gate and planning the next escape bid.
*Steven French is a Tasmanian farmer, photographer and writer – and sort of retired. Steven lives at Whitemore in northern Tasmania, where his family have been farming since 1865. His grandchildren now make seven generations on the same property. Steven started his photographic career as a rural photographer working for mainly for Tasmanian Country and Stock and Land. During this time Steven’s photo captions keep getting bigger and bigger until he was writing more than photographing. He finished up being employed for several years solely as a journalist. In 1978 Steve and his wife opened Reflections Photographic Studio which went on to become the largest photographic studio in the state. Steven is a former runner-up for the Tasmanian Professional Print of the Year Award and took out the People’s Choice Award in the same year. In more recent times Steven has worked as a photo/journalist/editor for several glossy publications. During the early 2000’s he was publishing/editor of Tasmanian Life Magazin. In 2010 Steven photographed and wrote the book Hand Made in Tasmania which was on the state’s best seller list for several weeks. Steven work has been published widely throughout Australia and overseas. He has had several solo photographic exhibitions and been part of group exhibitions on the mainland. His work has also been hung at the prestigious Menzies Gallery in Melbourne. Currently Steven has a weekly spot on Chris Wisbey’s Weekends radio show and is editor of Australian Sheep Magazine.
