The new bull is called Farquar!

The only things about this post that is remotely amusing is the name of the new bull we’ve chosen out of this year’s crop of calves. He’s a true son of his father, the handsome, cool, kind Orag Mor 1^st of The May. He won as a calf at foot at the Lampeter Show last year, and was much admired for his charming manners. He was the first to be haltered for training this year.

Our methods of training are very different but they compliment each other. This is mainly because I have to rely on Geoff for the muscle these days and he relies on me for observation and communication. You’d be surprised how much you need it with any animal, cattle are no exception. . I need Geoff to catch the calves and halter them for the first time. Then I can go in and comb them and make much of them so that being tied up has good memories for them. Geoff is the tough guy, there’s no-nonsense with him, but being so strong he often uses strength rather than persuasion and the animals he trains are more mettlesome. There are very few stout little old ladies of my age who show cattle and I need mine to be bombe proof and have excellent people skills!

So there we were with the first two tied up and I didn’t even know their names I’m ashamed to say. But it turned out that we hadn’t even named the little bull yet. It came to Geoff over breakfast afterwards. He’s going to be called Farquar! Rather apt from a man who is an expert in expletives!

This training is essential since even the animals we don’t show need to be fairly biddable in order to sell well. Of course with as many calves as we’ve got it is difficult to find the time, even now I’m retired, to train every single one to the halter. So we content ourselves with socialising the ones we know we won’t show at the moment. We usually manage to get them up to scratch by late summer.