We were finishing up our sampling when a farmer pulled up in front of the gate.
“G’day! Will I be in your way if I let the cows graze here?” he called.
We looked over to the next paddock where sixty or seventy black Angus cows were standing (not doing much at all) in a yellow, dry, tussocky field. We looked at our feet, which were sunk into long green grass.
“Sure, we’re pretty much done here.”
The farmer gave us the thumbs up. He hopped on his buggy and drove to the next gate. The cows looked up immediately. Before he had finished unlocking the padlock, the herd had already begun to move towards him. They picked up speed when the gate open.
The cows ran — and I mean, ran — through the gate and massed down the road towards our paddock.
“That’s amazing!” Trav exclaimed. “They don’t need a sheep dog or anything.”
“They know what’s coming,” Matt said. I was suprised how fast the cows moved.
The herd skidded a little bit past the gate and had to backtrack. The animals came jogging past us in a line. Occasionally, one glanced at us.
“I need to take a photo,” I said to myself and slipped off my latex gloves to grab my camera.
When the cows past us, they dispersed from their file and quickly began munching. They were like kids in a candy store.
