Cattle · Country life · Winter

The cattle move inside for winter…

The cattle, who have spent the spring, summer and autumn out in the paddocks, are now inside for winter.

Now, this movement is normally pretty challenging, but this year it went like a dream.

In the past the difficulty has been the Highland cattle – they are temperamental, stroppy, strong willed and normally want to go wherever you don’t want them.

But now we solely have Herefords – a few weeks ago our last two Highlands went to slaughter, ending up at the London butcher The Proud Sow.

This year we have worked hard to make a number of changes to the cattle sheds, predominantly to make our lives easier when we come to feed and water them.

With all the changes in place, we decided to move the beasts in on Sunday afternoon.

Armed with only a bucket of feed we opened the paddock gates and surprisingly they were reluctant to leave.

The move begins…

But, with encouragement and the bucket of feed, they gradually, and rather elegantly, trotted across the yard and into the straw-laden sheds.

Ready to move inside for winter…

They had spent the previous week out in showers, hail and snow so I’m sure they were grateful to be indoors – or so I’d like to think!

After the move inside they always had a moment of excitement – racing around the shed, excited by the fresh straw.

Happy in their winter home…

Then there is the usual tussle between the bull and all the other beasts as he reiterates his dominance in their new environment.

Pretty soon they had all settled down and were tucking into this year’s hay.

We grow our own hay on the farm so the cattle are grass fed throughout the year, and are bribed with feed when a move is needed.

They are now fully settled in and enjoying the peace and calm of life under cover.

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