We have finished work on the feedlot and are now offically unemployed! I thought it would be a huge relief not to be working and that I would be excited to go, but I actually just feel sad more than anything. For six months our lives have revolved around feeding the cows, watching over them and ensuring everything runs smoothly. So now this responsibility is someone else's, I feel a bit lost.
I've been meaning to write a post about a typical day at the feed lot but as I just mentioned, our lives have revolved around cows so my blogging hasn't been very consistent lately. Apologies, I will be better I promise!
A typical day for me on the farm starts at 7:00am. My first task is to clean out the feed troughs. It's very simple, scrape out the rubbish, keep the edible. I travel around by motorbike which lately has been torture in the mornings as its so cold! No one told me Australia would be cold!
You're probably thinking about how tricky it must be to carry around a shovel whilst riding a motorbike. Well I came up with a simple solution.
I sit on it. This causes a bit of discomfort and a cold bottom but it's only for an hour or so.
Once the feed troughs are clean and I have taken note of the left overs, I then create my feed mix. The feed mix contains grain, molasses, water, cotton seed, silage and hay. The ratios depend on which stage the cattle are on. The starter mixes for the newer cattle contain more hay and less grain as their stomachs can't digest the grain very well at this stage. The finisher mix is the opposite.
Two interesting facts I have learned about cows; a cow has four stomachs which allows them to consume the course food they eat and they are blind to the colours red and green. So cows spend their lives eating grass without actually seeing it as the green we do. Also when you think of a bull charging a red flag, they are actually more frustrated by the movement than the colour.
This is me using the loader to create my mix whilst trying not to look down. Although the ramp is only about a foot off of the ground, when you're in the loader it feels like you could topple over at any second. (This has never happened and probably will never happen).
Once the recipe is complete, I drive around the pens and paddocks and feed out. To make things simple, I feed the starter mixes and Mitch feeds the finisher. In this kind of job you want to keep things as simple as possible. If a pen is fed the wrong mix then all of it has to be dug out, this can be up to 2500kg. This has happened once and that was enough to teach us a lesson.
Once my four legged friends are fed, we usually have a tea break. Oddly Australians call this a smoke-o, even though no one on the farm smokes… Surely it should be a tea-o? Aussies love to add an O on the end of their words. Here are some typical examples I've come across:
Serv-o = Service station (makes sense)
Arvo = Afternoon (where does the V come from?!)
Thing-o = Thing
Right-o = Alright
No I didn't make Thing-o up, I've heard it many times and it always cracks me up.
After a cup of tea we then fill our afternoon with cleaning water troughs, processing cattle, mustering by motorbike/horseback (I prefer bikes as they don't have a brain) or just odd maintenance jobs. There is such a wide range of jobs, I can't really put it all into a list.
Cleaning the water troughs is probably my least favourite job as it takes around two hours to do all of them and you stink after. The cows are quite entertaining though. When I have my head down with my cap covering my face, they start licking my head. Their tongues are like sandpaper but I appreciate the love I guess!
Sometimes I have a little helper join me. Well I say helper but really they just confuse the cows and play with them, or hop in the trough for a bath.
My favourite, favourite, FAVOURITE job is mustering. It is so fun. Well it's fun when the cows go where you want them to. I love mustering by motorbike and it has improved my off roading skills vastly.
Mustering by horse back can be quite fun too. Especially when theres a HELICOPTER.
I've only ever seen things like this on TV, so once I was past the stress of trying to move young cattle by horse, it was pretty amazing. I felt like a modern day cow girl. The dogs are a great help as well.
Especially when the cows decide to go for a dip.
What I have really loved about this farm which I haven't found in a lot of places over here, is that girls can do just as much a boys. I have been able to do so much and have so many experiences. I can now drive a tipper truck, basic welding, drive tractor's, feed mixers, rake hay for the harvest, drive a loader, a motorbike and many other things. There's not much in the way of limitations for a motivated female here.
No limitations when it comes to the piling the hay as well! I was a little nervous driving this one back but I arrived with all the stacks in one piece.
I am missing this place already and have had such a great time working here. We were part of a fantastic team and I will miss my two legged and four legged friends a lot. I'm especially going to miss this little face.
We are staying in Brisbane for a few days whilst we get a few things sorted then its onwards to Vietnam. I can't believe that our two years are up already. I have had an incredible adventure and couldn't of spent my time here any better or with a better person.
Here's a few more photos of me on the farm. You can probably tell why I'm missing it so much by looking at these!
THE BLOG OF TRAVEL 
Wonderful post. Farming is just like that!
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I loved it. I’ve always worked as a farm hand over here and not picked one piece of fruit!
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Great read. What was the story behind you finding work on the farm, if you don’t mind me asking? Really enjoyed admiring your photos, too.
I’ve given you a follow as I also write a travel blog!
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Well we were meant to work on the dairy farm we worked for previously but the people who worked their decoded to stay. So my friend sent me an ad which had been posted on facebook and recomemneded we apply for it and luckily we got the job. We took a four day motorcycle trip down to Meandarra from Atherton and we loved it π
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Well we were meant to work on the dairy farm we worked for previously but the people who were meant to leave decoded to stay. So we were a bit stuck. Then my friend sent me an ad which had been posted on facebook and recomemneded we applied for it. Luckily we got the job π We took a four day motorcycle trip down to Meandarra from Atherton and we loved it π
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Ahhh I see. What a great memory to have! π
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What an amazing experience!!! π
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Looks amazing! Can’t wait to get my hands dirty in a week or two when I finally get to Australia π
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The best advice that i can give you is make yourself an ad on gumtree if you’re looking for work. Gumtree is really popular over here and we got a great response rate when we did one π
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Thanks, I’ll remember that. I already bookmarked it, but didn’t know how used it was :o)
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This sounds much nicer than my farm work experiences! Much more to do also! As mine was very monotonous indeed. Take a look at mine too if you have the time π great read by the way!
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I’ve always wanted to do this! Loved reading your experience !
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Thank you π
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I loved the picture of your shovel-carrying solution! While I never road a motorcycle to tend cattle, I did get up early, load hay wagons, drive tractors, and feed 80 β 100 horses. Memories that stay with you. Right-o! (Now I βgetβ my Aussie friend. Have to ask him about βarvoβ!
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It’s a great place to work, so many great experiences. Please do ask as I don’t really get it!
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You forgot about Australia’s favourite O, I just need to get a beer from the Bottle-O around the block π
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How could I forget? Why do you guys call it bottles of piss though? Our house mate told us he had a fridge full of piss and we were a bit startled!
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I actually didn’t know myself so I googled and got this:
http://www.australianbeers.com/culture/piss.htm
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I know the feeling. Itβs so hard to leave! Thanks for sharing!
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Sounds like you really enjoyed it, that’s awesome.
P.S. I love the pic of the work boots, it reminds me of one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings. Is that what you were going for, or was that just a coincidence?
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Just a coincidence! I hadn’t noticed that before π
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What a magnificent experience. Dealing with animals every day would be just so rewarding. You are right us Aussies do add an ‘o’ to the end of a lot of words. Ha ha. Glad you have enjoyed your time here.
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Always good to hear from you Sue π
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That was very interesting and a great read. I loved the photos, too! Thanks for posting this.
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Thanks for your kind comment! π
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What an enjoyable read. How did you get this opportunity?
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Every other farm we’ve worked on we got through gumtree, this one however was an ad on Facebook π
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You travel around farming? How long have you done this?
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Determination and hard work π At home I worked in Business Development in a law firm, before that I was a hairdresser. If you put your mind to something and you’re motivated enough, you can do anything π
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We have been doing this for the past two years, unfortunately my visa has come to an end!
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Really enjoyed reading this. Iβve worked on farms for a while here at home, but have since turned veggie and was put off working with animals when I go to Australia for some reason or another, but I feel I could do this πͺπΌπ€πΌ
Another thing worrying me is mode of transport when I go too..
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It’s tough sending them off on the truck but you sort of become desensitized to it. I’m a meat eater so I think it’s important for me to know where my food comes from.
If you’re coming to Aus you’ll need to get a car, makes it a lot more easier especially when looking for work π
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That was brilliant Emily. I always did mean to get a photo of you on the bike with the shovel. Thankyou for sticking with us for so long, we really appreciate all you did. Righto talk to you later. Safe travels.
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Great post! Thanks for visiting couchmapgie.com and liking one of my posts. Happy travels! π
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I’m hopefully heading to Aus over the course of next two years after a stint in NZ. This has made me think the farm work can be my so bad after all!
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Just don’t pick fruit and you’ll be fine π
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Dear Emily,
You have the coolest blog. I love following your life adventure. I am going to pas your blog off to my son John, who loves traveling a photography. He would love to be doing this, too. Enjoy the new part of your journey.
Thanks, Gary
On Sun, Jul 23, 2017 at 4:51 AM, The Blog of Travel wrote:
> Emily posted: “We have finished work on the feedlot and are now offically > unemployed! I thought it would be a huge relief and that I would be excited > to go, but I actually just feel sad more than anything. For six months our > lives have revolved around feeding the cows, ” >
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Thank you so much Gary, it’s so great to receive this message from you. I’m so glad that you enjoy my blog enough to pass it on! You have made my day π
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Really enjoyed reading your blog post. Had a bit of a laugh over “thing-o” and “smoke-o” there’s a town called “smokoe” in the myrtleford area vic π Really beautiful country, and used to be tobacco growing town.
Sounds like you had a wonderful experience.
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I really did, didn’t want to leave if I’m honest!
I’m sort of getting use to the Aussie lingo but it will always be hilarious to me πππ
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It is morning here in India and the very post I read for the day. It was so cool and had a great humour too in its own way. Loved reading it and enjoying the photographs. Can’t wait to read more of your work. Have a lovely weekend. Cheers !
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Thank you so much, I’m glad you enjoyed it π Have a great weekend π
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