Trials & tribulations of a herd and its boss

Being seen as the boss of all the animals is an extremely important part of looking after a herd of cattle. If the herd gets an inkling that I'm not in charge they would run riot. The two animals I am most likely to come to loggerheads with are the bull Bernard & matriarch Kitty.

Although Bernard, as the lone bull, is used to getting his own way and knows just how big he is (having broken our crush once by bending 1 inch thick metal bars), Kitty has had to defend her title repeatedly. She has to be the most ferocious when it comes to a challenge as her technical fighting ability is of extreme importance in order to be queen of the fields. A cow further down the pecking order is more likely to pick a fight when Kitty is under the weather but she cannot lose face in front of any of the other members of the herd without jeopardising her position.

Losing face in other arenas is also a serious taboo. Bernard has pride of place at the feed troughs, with Kitty a close second. When it comes to moving the cattle between distant fields, none of them particularly like going in the trailer but both have to be unflappable. It is generally easier for us to move Bernard first then leave Kitty till last, as if she doesn't want to move not a lot is going to make her!

As you work down the pecking order there are more subtle changes. Younger cows move up the ranks by challenging their elders. Because we have both horned White Parks and non-horned Red Polls the complexeties get even more confusing. Of the Red Polls it is only really Ruby who presents a challange to any of the White Parks. As the matriarch of the Reds she has to be able to stand up to most of the horned cattle, even Kitty, putting her in the top three for the overall leadership.

When a new Heffer is born they are intigrated into the herd at the same level as their mother. When they are young, the calves compete between themselves to establish a place in the herd that is above their mother's position. Bull calves also fight for practice in later life. All of which means I must avoid being between them at the wrong time to ensure I don't lose control (or the seat of my trousers!).

Jim D-H

Introducing Alys...

This is Alys. She is a White Park/Short Horn cross (both breeds are on the RBST watchlist). We tend to keep only pure bred cattle to breed from, rather than crossed breeds, however we have kept her as a breeding cow because her birthday is the same as Mum's (mildly eccentric I know).

She is a friendly cow, loving nothing more than a good feed and a scratch just above her tail. Part of the reason a lot of our cows are so friendly is the time I spent with them when they were growing up. They now all come to call and are so friendly that if you don't know them you might be quite intimidated when they barge past one another to get some attention from you!

The photo was taken at around 9.30 on a Spring morning and what you can not see is her first calf off to the left of the shot. It was born sometime during the night and as with the White Parks cattle in general it seemed to be an easy private birth (they don't tend to like people around during birth so will find a more secluded part of the field and usually birth at night).

To find out more about White Park cattle, visit the White Park Cattle Society's site.

Jim D-H