The Drought

The third year.  Who would ever have thought that we would be heading into our third year of devastating drought.  Our records show that we have never experienced three straight years of drought so we are heading into new territory.  We started the year with over 3000 head of cattle and by the end of this month we will be down to just 600 females.  The most heart wrenching decision of all is to sell your breeders. It takes many years to get to where you want to be with your breeders and we were, sadly, at the point where they were almost perfect for our requirements.

I don't want to go on about it because it is part and parcel of living on the land that we face adverse times as well as good.  We always plan for the worse and pray for the best.

I took this photo at our branding earlier in the year.  I think this photo really tells a story.  The temperature that day was 42 degrees and this photo was taken as my son and husband were walking over to the donga for smoko.  The newly branded calf in the foreground doesn't have any idea why I am crouched on the ground and neither of the men have seen me so that always makes for a good photo.