A regular feature of the Victorian Highland Breeders Group’s annual agenda is a field day or days held at one or more breeders’ properties. These events are meant to be both social and educational. This year two folds in South-West Victoria hosted the event – Cambus Glen in Framlingham and Russllyn Highlands in Laang – over the weekend of 25-26 March. For most attendees this would have been the first time they had visited these folds – so in addition to a very interesting programme, attendees were able to view the cattle, a favourite passtime of Highland enthusiasts.
A total of 25 Victorian Breeders and enthusiasts and 2 honorary members from SA attended the sessions held on Saturday at Cambus Glen and Sunday at Russllyn Highlands. The programme covered an array of topics from the perennial favourite, cattle structure through cattle handling and health.
Saturday
Saturday kicked off with a trip to the yards where Glen Hastie of Bairnsley Highlands discussed structure and the influence of sire selection with a few live models. Glen has a keen eye, and after 28 years in the business there’s little that escapes his notice. Topics discussed included horn shape, feet, temperament, head shape and its effect on overall proportions, udders, and Glen’s favourite subject, pelvic set-up. With so many topics covered, we all learned something and left armed with tools and confidence to assess our own animals more critically. We have included an abridged video of this discussion below (yes, it was quite a bit longer) – it’s well worth a watch.
This was followed by Bree Francis’ first presentation of the weekend on the “Natural Cowmanship” approach that she has developed. Saturday’s topic was: how to work cattle through the yards safely and without stress. Highland cattle are popular with novices and additionally often have little to no pressure or flight zones, which can make moving them a challenge. With the assistance of six very not flighty heifers, Bree demonstrated how to make use of various tools – body, voice and a length of polypipe to communicate with the youngsters how we want them to move away from us and to direct their movement. This was a valuable training exercise for both the heifers and attendees.
The afternoon session saw Hugo Howse of Cambus Glen Highlands give a short presentation on regenerative farming and the grazing management philosophy employed at Cambus Glen, along with some tips on the practicalities of setting up a flexible cell grazing system. This was followed by a quick tour of the property to see rotational grazing in action and move the steers on to their next cell, then down to the river where some major weed control measures are underway, and of course it allowed attendees to have a sticky beak at the cattle.
Sunday
Sunday was again divided into 3 sessions. In the first and third sessions Bree began to weave her magic with three weaners – two heifers who had had some handling and a totally unhandled steer. We were taken through the three phases of Bree’s “Natural Cowmanship” approach to taming and training. Bree demonstrated how using our own body language and reading the body language of the animals we can break the predator/prey barrier and create rapport and trust. It was quite extraordinary to observe the three nervous and flighty animals settle in the yard despite the audience, and by the end of session three the previously unhandled steer was allowing himself to be brushed. Bree also demonstrated the basics of halter breaking – introduction of ropes and halters, haltering and utilising pressure and release for halter training.
Session two saw vet Will give a presentation on calf scours – causes, prevention and treatment. Among calves that survive birth, scours and pneumonia are the leading cause of death, so it is imperative that, as breeders, we are aware of how to prevent calves from developing diarrhoea in the first place, how to identify scouring calves and administer emergency treatment. This was a really useful talk, and hopefully everyone went home and stocked up their medicine cabinets with the basic necessities required for dealing with sick calves promptly.
Thanks
Thanks to everyone who attended, and made the weekend such a success; to Glen and Bree for again stepping up and sharing some of their knowledge; to Will for his presentation, and to the hosts and their respective families who all pitched in and helped.
