Haast Cattle Sale

On Thursday, 22-11 Graham and I took a break from the farming, and headed over to the West Coast for a cattle sale at Haast.

We left after a full day of work on Wednesday, and spent the night on the shores of lake Wanaka. If anyone ever heads down to New Zealand, the recommendation is to avoid Queenstown, and stay here instead. There's a great organic cafe/store (SoulFood), am amazing views of snow capped peaks, and a great friendly vibe.

The next day we drove through Mt Aspiring National Park. It was too misty to see the high peaks, but large hills, punctuated by thundering waterfalls and covered in coastal rain forest zoomed out of the mist as we followed ? Pass along the Haast river to the Tasman Sea. The copious rain has washed glacier sediment into a broad, marshy plain along the sea, and this area raises quality beef cattle.

The dress was blue jeans and gumboots, the food was fried whitebait patties (a New Zealand specialty), and the cattle were a nice mix of Herefords, Simmental, Angus, and various crosses. We walked around the narrow board walkways on top of the pens for thirty minutes, checking out the wares, and then PGG Wrightson started the auction of the thirty odd pens at around 12:30. An hour or so later, it was all over, and Graham had brought sixty heifers from various lots.

Then a five hour drive back to Marama farm, after arranging for a truck for the cattle the next day.

Monday on Marama Farm

For all you lazy people, headed to bed on Sunday night, I just finished a long day on the farm this Monday. Don't know if it will inspire you to quite your desk job, but thought a typical day might be of interest.

6:30 AM - Alarm goes off. I hit snooze
7:00 AM - out of bed. Getting ready by putting on the dirtiest clothes. Once clothes are clean, I'm really reluctant to get them dirty again . . .
7:30 AM - Muesli for breakfast. And some of the pumpkin bread I made last night. The farmer swears by muesli, but what I really want is some toast. No one in NZ seems to have a working toaster . . .
8:00 AM - Graham Clarke (the owner of my current WWOOF farm) comes in from shifting some sheep, and lets me know that a tailing crew is here, and they're out in the north sheep yards.
8:30 AM - Arrive at the sheep yards, a bunch of seemingly randomly placed runs and small yards that actually work quite well to get ~1,000 sheep and lambs sorted and moving. I introduce myself to the 5 person crew, and jump in.

Tailing Apparatus

Tailing in case anyone ever asks . . .

Sort the lambs from the ewes using a drafting gate (I'm not allowed on this part, I mostly just try to keep out of the way). When 200 lambs are stuffed into a 15 foot square pen, bleating horribly, we're ready to start. I've got a plastic jug of seaweed juice on my back with a long nozzle I shove down the lamb's throats and give them a squirt. It's an organic farm, so no antibiotics/worming agents in this mixture. Another girl holds some ear markers, for ripping two triangles out of the lamb's ears as the farmers mark. The older woman holds the tools for rubber banding the balls of the males, an older man will be doing the same to the tails, and two young guys shove their way into the lambing pen to start hefting lambs onto the slide. We throw them in on their backs, and tug them through each station by the legs.

Blood spatters everywhere from the ear punch, and the lambs fling manure around when they kick their hooves. Some lie quietly, and the disease fee ones have glistening off-white coats. They'll sometimes make eye contact, and others bleat horribly.


Lambs to the Slaughter

9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
We work the assembly line for about and hour and a half, then pack up the fences and gates, and move to another pasture. After eight hours, I'm covered in shit, have blood spatters everywhere (including my glasses), and have an aching hand from tugging down the lambs all day. Heavy little buggers.











Bruce taking a brief rest

4:30 PM - Then off on the quad bike (I do like roaring around on these things, but drive like an old woman after all the stories about the thing slipping over on steep slopes) to shift some more sheep in preparation for tomorrow. Since I don't feel comfortable on the steep slopes, a lot of walking around and waving my arms up and down, sometimes yelling random words or syllables to move the sheep through the far gate.

All in all, just the day I was looking for. Was going to tell the farmer I was leaving early if i didn't get more work/time with the animals, but this was perfect, in a painful and disgusting type of way. Ah, farm life.

Rotoiti Farm

Spent 10 days on my best WWOOFing experience so far, and the farm was damn cool as well. It's nice to be back in the 20th century, and while a small operation that relies on a lot of man power, this feels much more like a commercial farm.

Rotioti Farm is owned by Sue and Roger More. They have ~100 acres, mostly fenced for sheep and beef, but the real money maker is the organic free range eggs. I've heard they get $10 NZ for them in Auckland, and lucky me, I got to eat them for free every day. They have about 1,000 hens that they get when 6 wks old, throw them in one of four chook sheds ("chook" is New Zealand for chicken), and then make them lay, lay, lay for 18 months or so. The hens are remarkably happy and tame. They like to follow people around, and will start a mad clucking at the sound of Sue's voice. The whole operation is deceptively simple. They've fenced in yards and built sheds according to the EU free range organic standards (BIG yards, lots of feeders and nest boxes, perches, etc.) This means the chickens act like chickens, which is to say cannibalistic beasts that follow a strict hierarchy. I've seen older chickens running around with bloody holes in them, as the other members think nothing of taking a bite or two of their mates. You see why many organic operations laser off the beak tip. Though the chickens have the best living environment I've ever seen, so hate to see how stressed out birds act.

My job on the farm was actually pasture maintenance. Which means whacking thistle and foxglove with a dipper. Very satisfying, especially when you get the stroke just right and the offending weed jerks out by it's roots and goes sailing across the paddock. The other task was digging out brambles, which while also satisfying, produced a horrible series of bloody scratches over my face and arms. At times all I really wanted to do was investigate Napalm application.

The couple who owned the farm was a delight. Tons of books, help myself to feed, and lots of long rambling discussions over wine each night with dinner. They also took me around when they went out to coffee with the neighbors, on a restorative trip to the hot springs, and to some local organic meetings. I don't know if Southland will be this relaxing, but headed to Marama Farm near Gore on November 5th.