Apple Gully Farm: Meet the Team - the 2013 year book

click Apple Gully Farm to see this at its best.

It's time to get to know our production team, the four legged wonders who tirelessly turn grass into protein.

Meet the leader of our production team, this is B3 - the alpha female. She is the smartest in the herd, first to figure out if a gate is open and first to act in any situation. Rounding up the herdlette is just a matter of getting B3 to go in the right direction and the others will follow. B3 is a good mother and all her calves assume the dominant position in their year group, she must somehow instill ' a born to rule' attitude. So far her calves have all had her brown markings around their eyes - deemed positive for Herefords.
B3 is currently pregnant by AI to a bull who died 3 years ago!!

B10 was alpha female in the early days of our herd. The transition to number 2 was gradual, she is a sort of vice captain now. B10 considers life from all angles, she weighs options carefully before acting. She will stand at a gate - look left- look right- then enter. She will never be hit by a car if she has to cross a road. B10 is the mother of our snake bite calf, she stayed with him through the entire ordeal, lived in the shed with him and even let us milk her- consequently she is very calm around the human team. B10's pet hate is the cattle crush, she does not do narrow spaces gracefully. She too is pregnant by AI.

B2 is a bit of an enigma. She has challenged B3 several times for supremacy. Once in a 45 minute duel in and around the dam she was beaten and nearly drowned. She is only semi resigned to her subordinate position and has chosen the aloof and remote approach to life. If B3 was to ever falter, she would immediately step up. She never gets pregnant with the rest of the girls and has to be shipped off to a special bull or AI'd separately. True to form we had to call the AI specialist back for her this year.

What can be said about B6, just look at that face, there is not much going on between those eyes, in fact she is partially blind in one of them. Last through the gate, last to get any hay, last to realise something is happening - the slow learner of the group. Her pin bones always stick out and her ribs are always visible. BUT she has the most amazing maternal instinct, she has nursed and saved orphaned calves, she acts as nursery maid for each seasons batch of calves and her milk just never runs out. She is a dairy cow in disguise.

This little chatterbox is B10's off spring, BE10 is the survivor of the snake bite.
There are some benefits to being at deaths door- when the other yearlings went off to market we kept him back because he had been a slower grower, probably his early development was compromised by the effects of the snake bite. He's smaller and slow moving and if he was to be tested, he would be classified as 'developmentally delayed'. However he's a happy chappie who enjoys human company, especially if there is a molasses treat on offer. I suspect he may become a permanent member of the team.

F B2 is B2's calf, born a bull but along with the fate of most males on a farm soon became a steer. A farm is one place where females have the distinct advantage - they generally become breeders while the boys end up neutered and at the market. Being a calf of the contrary B2 meant he arrived out of sync with the rest of the herd so he'll spend the winter on the farm. Like his mother he is an independent creature, he chose to wean himself early, usually most steers remain permanent mummy's boys and will suckle forever if allowed.

Now it's time to meet the newest and very important member of the team - the little bull known as 'Lord Harry' who is only just a year old -- with long lashes like that he's bound to attract the females.
There is a plan to avoid the market outcome, but more about that later.
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Our production team is an amazing group of herbivores with the simple but sustaining power to turn grass into protein. Wish we humans were that smart.