Cattle

When we initially moved in, we were approached by the neighbour who asked whether we wanted to maintain the arrangement the pervious owners had. Which was that cattle from the neighbouring properties used our paddock (along with 3 others) and therefore kept the grass down, therefore totalling a grazing area of about 9 acres.  This was a little difficult to say no to since there was no fence between our paddock and his, and he owned 1 of the 7 head herd.

To be honest we didn't mind the idea of a "community herd", so our response was it would be fine as long as we could add one or two of our own.

Our inital step was to register our property with the DPI (Department of Primary Industry). Although we're not commercially selling our stock you are still required to do this to keep a number of different species of animal. Largely so they can control the spread of diseases etc, but on a personal level you can not purchase animals (cattle in particular) without one.

This process was not particularly difficult. We filled out a few forms, that I down loaded off the net. We were then contacted by our local office and two weeks later our Droughtmaster x Brahman heffers arrived, two of them, approx 6- 8 months old.

Personally these breeds would not necessarily have been our first choice, but they came at a good price and this was consistant with the rest of the herd. These breeds are popular in the tropics due to thier resistance to ticks. Which up here can be a huge problem.

As for the future of our heffers, it has been discussed that we may look into putting one into calf, but they are both ultimately for the freezer.