Working with Cattle in NZ

Working with cattle in New Zealand.

As a young boy it was always my ambition to have a team of dogs and work in the high Country of new Zealand. My parents were Kiwis working in Australia and it was not until we moved back to a family Hill Country property in New Zealand that I was able to look forward to achieving my dream.

This article will be about mustering on a cattle station called The Hossack; 30,000 acres, 17 Kilometres up the Hanmer River in North Canterbury NZ's South Island., to do the annual calf marking.
The picture shown here is of what is called The Downs block & the 500 Cows plus calves moving down the Hossack Stream towards the main cattle yards at the very back of the property adjacent to the mighty Clarence River

This country is generally well covered in snow for a good part of the winter so the cows must be brought into the front & lower country before the first snow falls.
The timing of this is not always perfect and some very bleak weather during the muster at this time of the year is often experienced.
Before the cows and calves are brought into the front & lower country the new seasons calves need to be marked and tagged. This involves a separate muster and generally takes two to three days.. It is a three hour ride from the homestead to the back hut where we will camp while doing this job.
Hence the need to pack out supplies for this period plus Dog tucker and our own sleeping bags and spare clothes. The latter we generally carry in a swag on our own horses. Working Cattle i find, is generally more enjoyable than with other forms of livestock handling

These cattle are Herefords and good to handle moving off easily with their calves and only the occasional cow fighting the dogs to protect her calf. Good stockman keep off the mob to avoid this happening at least until we get close to the holding paddock when more pressure has to be applied to get the mob through the gate.

The first day is usually a long day leaving the homestead early in the morning to get onto the block before there is too much heat in the sun. It is a 20 km ride to the back hut.
The packman ,who is also the cook on this occasion will arrive at the hut before the musterers and be all set up by the time we get to the yards with the cattle.

There are three of us each with a team of dogs up to 8 per man and once we reach the block about another 3/5 hours to get the cattle to the holding paddock. We will spread ourselves roughly in a line across the country converging after,3 hours or more , with hopefully all the cattle in one mob and moving into the holding paddock.Cattle handling or any Livestock handling for that matter is something you learn from experience and patience is a great attribute!

Time to unsaddle, wash down the horses in the nearby creek and tie up & feed the dogs after a long day.
The dogs, at this hut , all have separate kennels, in this case 44 gal drums buried into a bank of soil, keeping them warm in winter & cool in summer.

There are a number of Cattle dog breeds but the most common in NZ is the Collie or Collie cross.When it comes to cattle handling the collie has the intelligence as well as being versatile.

The horses are let go in a small holding paddock next to the hut and fed,hay which has been previously stored for them.

For us the mustering team it will be a welcome cup of "Billy Tea" and boots off. The packman will have the evening meal well on the way, invariably meat & spuds cooked in the camp oven over the open fire.

With no electricity it is usually a game of cards then an early night ready for another long day tomorrow.

Early morning breakfast ,eggs & bacon with another good brew of billy tea. Horses caught & saddled and with the help of the 20 odd dogs the Cattle are driven into the stockyards.

At this point the calves are drafted from their mothers through the race and we set up to do the marking. Branding is no longer an option so all the calves are held one by one, in a small crush and given an ID tag in one ear and a colour coded tag in the other to record their age.

There is a variety of cattle handling equipment on the market. The yards here are fairly basic.The main drafting race as shown in the photo which does incorporate a crush. The other piece of Cattle handling equipment is the calf crush which is basically a head bail holding the calf while the earmarks and injections are done.

The bull calves have their testicles removed and all calves are given an injection of Selenium & copper. Two elements known to be short over most of the south Islands High Country.
With 500 plus calves to mark this will take 4 of us most of the day with a short break for Lunch.
By the time we finish we are ready for a wash in the creek and a spell while the Packy ( Cook) gets the evening meal on the go. Another early night and the cattle are left in the holding paddock to "mother up ".

The next day we let the mob back out on the block.
The job not quite finished as we then muster a smaller block of country closer to the yards to mark about 150 calves from first calving Heifers
The third day will see us saddle up and ride the 18-20 kms back to the homestead.