Hi! My Name's Kylie and I'm a Gen Y

This blog is dedicated to all those fabulous Gen Y who I work with as Young Farming Champions and around the traps.

So, apparently I stepped on a few toes with my last blog “Who Gives A Flying Fandango”.  I’m not surprised however.   I welcome feedback, I am not perfect, I am forging my way through this wilderness too.  It would be easier if those wanting to say things about me would say it directly and not in round about ways.  But enough of that before you all roll your eyes at me and say (all together now) “Who gives a flying fandango?”    I’m certain I will step on some more toes, or even kick someone in the shin, but may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb eh?

I have many failings, but according to much of the feedback I've received over the last couple of years my biggest downfall is that I had the misfortune to be born in 1981 and therefore am that nasty thing “Gen Y”.  My fellow Gen Y’s and I have had it said to us quite a bit recently that because we are too young we just don’t get it and we should just shush and let the older generation carry on because they've been doing it for years.  And because I’m that apparently rare thing known as a “polite Gen Y” I've bitten my tongue until now and have blurted out in true 80’s child style “if you’re so damned good at advocating for agriculture, why are we in this mess”.  Because I truly don’t think like that, it’s just my childish reaction!

Our urban Gen Y cousins also seem to get the finger pointed at them for not “caring about farmers” or "knowing how food is produced"  (again I don’t think this, just what sometimes seems to be the undercurrent from a few.)  I can assure you if you stood in front of a room of Gen Y and demanded that they be grateful for farmers because without us they would starve, they would tell you ever so politely (or not) to bugger off.  How do we know this?  Because we went to school together, we went to Uni together, we are friends and our kids are friends.  Gen Y’s are raising and teaching the next generation of leaders.   I believe that Gen Y’s are the best people have those conversations with other Gen Y’s.  In the Gen Y way.  Don’t get me wrong, we will always look up to you for your wisdom, experience and guidance.  But the world is changing and we must change with it.

Gen Y is the up and coming generation.  In the next decade they will rule the world so to speak.  So by all means talk to your generation how they best receive it, and us “young upstarts”  (I’ve seriously been called this) will talk to our generation in the way we know it works.  Because it’s important that we build those lasting, positive connections now.

Post Script:
Please note that I don't think all Baby Boomers are grumps just like I know you all don't think Gen Y are little toads.  Some of the coolest people I know are Baby Boomers.  As for you Gen X, with your middle child syndrome, I have a blog in mind especially for you and the challenges you face.

Who Gives a Flying Fandango?

I know, I know, I have been absent from my blogging for YONKS!  But my mate Sherrill inspired me with the blog she wrote  yesterday so I thought it was time I had a go again!

So, here goes:

We've all got at least one (well those of us on Facebook but there’s plenty in real life too).  You know those people who thrive on drama and love being the victim.  Everyone is out to get them, to judge them, to gossip about them.  And you read it (or listen) and roll your eyes and say to yourself “who gives a flying fandango?”  Well my language is usually a little more colourful (sorry Dad).  But you all know what I’m talking about don’t you?

The concerning thing is however, is that sometimes I think that the Australian farming community is turning into one of those people.  Now for all of you puffing up your chests in indignation “calm your farm” and hear me out.

I think it’s great that there are so many farmers out there in the general public working to get their message out there.  But maybe we need to stop and think about what message that is.
Only a very small amount of the general public is against us.  It might seem like a majority, they will tell you it’s a majority but I’ll let you in on a little secret.  Not too many give a flying fandango.

Australians hate whingers.  They hate people playing the victim; they turn away from people with a bad attitude.  They switch off to those who think the world owes them a living and that they have it tougher than anyone else.

The Australian general public (who by the way should be our target audience and not the very small minority of people who have their minds and hearts shut off to us) do however love people who can take the mickey out of themselves.  Those of us who are going through tough times but can still grin and have a laugh at our own expense.  And they love the underdog.  Those of us who will pull ourselves up by the bootlaces and have a go.  Those of us that despite all odds we still do our best.

Think about how YOU want the Aussie general public to think about you?  Do you want them to pour vitriol and scorn on the farming community?  If so, keep up the swagger about how without farmers the world will end (without a lot of professions the world would be a struggle for us first world people, even farmers).  Keep on telling people to shut up, they have no right to say what happens in how their food/fibre is produced.  Imagine if we approached our child’s teacher about a concern and they told us to shut up, they've been teaching for so x amount of years and we have no say.  We’d flip them the bird if not physically at least mentally.  Just because they've had x amount of years experience doesn't mean they shouldn't take feedback on board.  A good teacher would listen to your concerns and then explain WHY they do things.  Farmers should be the same.

Do you want people to pity you for the rest of your life?  Keep on saying poor me, poor us, nobody loves me.  That turns into scorn pretty quick.

Or do you want the general public to understand and support you?  So that if they do have a concern they can approach you knowing that you won’t laugh or ridicule them?  So that if someone says something crap about you, the general public has faith in you?  I know farming is not all giggles and rainbows, some pretty crap stuff happens.  It does to everyone.  So that’s okay to show people the bad side, but let people know that you’re tough and will carry on the best you can with a smile.  But don’t always make it about the bad side.  Because we want the Aussie General Public to see our Facebook pages, blogs and videos and go “WOW, I didn't know that about our farmers, how awesome is that!?”  and not an eyeroll with “who gives a flying fandango?”

To find out more about getting YOUR positive story out there, check out Ask An Aussie Farmer's new initiative Cultivating Connections.

Our Beef With Untruths

 So I'm sitting here on a cool winter morning, procrastinating on Facebook as usual, when a friend posted this video:

 

For those of you who don't know (and I didn't know until this morning either) that The Gentle Barn is a sanctuary farm on the outskirts of Los Angeles, California. They have over 160 animals on just six acres.  They "rescue" farm animals (claiming most of them are starved, tortured, abandoned or from "backyard butchers").  They then ask for donations to help with the feeding, medical expenses and upkeep of animals.  I must admit they seem to do fantastic work with disadvantaged and special needs children.  I take my hat off to them for doing such outstanding community service for the children AND animals.

But why does this have to come at the expense of accuracy?  Why do they feel the need to blatantly condemn other professions such as farming?  Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

This is what they say on the Website (http://www.gentlebarn.org/index.php) about this cow Karma:  Karma was rescued from a cruelty case where she had no food, water, or shelter, and enormous stress. We were able to save her two sons as well, and she is an excellent mom. Now their every need will be taken care of. 

So a group of rural men and women who live and breathe cattle watched this video expecting to have our hearts broken about this poor tiny baby calf, starving cow and magical reunion.  Instead we sat there in disbelief, indignant that a cause as great as The Gentle Barn could blatantly make up the story for their own purposes.  

We put together a few of these points:

·       The website claims she had no food/water and was under incredible stress where she came from.  She’s looking like she’s in fantastic condition for a cow that hasn’t been fed or watered as well as feeding a large calf.  She looks to us like she’s had ample food.  Also Karma was rescued in November 2008 and Governor Schwarzenegger declared a drought state of emergency in February 2009.  She was only removed from the “cruelty case” the night before.  She’s obviously been well fed in a state that’s been drought declared. 

·       If cows are under considerable stress, they will not continue to produce milk.  Karma had plenty of milk.  If she didn’t she wouldn’t have had leaky udders and would have weaned her calf long before this video was taken.

·       It astounds me that people who take in these animals can’t read the easiest signs about them.  The narrator of the video claims that they had no idea the cow had a calf. To anyone that has half a clue about cattle it would have been obvious that she was lactating.  Even if her udder had recently been sucked out, it would have been obvious by the shape and texture of her teats.

·       Speaking of reading obvious signs, it turns out 8mths after her rescue; the owners of The Gentle Barn went to lock her up one evening to find a hoof protruding from her.  Yes, Karma was calving and they had no idea she was even pregnant, something which should have been very noticeable.  Karma would have had to get in calf before she was “rescued” (cattle have a nine month gestation period), something she wouldn’t have done if starved, dehydrated and stressed.  Karma would have found it quite hard to sustain milk for Mr Rojas (older calf) and carry Surprise (new calf) without extra care (which she wouldn’t have received as they did not know she was pregnant).

·       Our guess is judging by the size of the calf shown that it was being weaned by the previous owner.  Something that is done by all farmers for good animal welfare.  If the calf is not separated from its mother by a certain time the mother will wean the calf naturally by kicking it in the head every time it tries to suck.  I would have thought people at The Gentle Barn were going to have to separate the calf in the not too distant future to stop this happening.  By re-introducing the calf to the mother it’s just drawn out the process. Under the clip, a comment asks why the man didn’t carry the calf.  The Gentle Barn replies that the calf weighs around 300lbs (approx. 126kg) so is too heavy.  A calf that size and in that condition would be most capable to survive without its mother’s milk.  After further reading it turns out that Mr Rojas was never weaned by the Gentle Barn, putting him at risk of injury and putting undue physical strain on Karma.  Also in several blogs written by The Gentle Barn, they say Karma and her “tiny” baby Mr Rojas. The  Mr Rojas in the rescue video is beyond tiny.

·       Karma has just been moved to a strange environment and put in with strange cattle.  She will be bellowing as much for familiarity as for her calf

·       The video claims that Karma tries to break down the pasture fence.  She’s not in a pasture; she’s in a pen with hard dirt ground and artificial shelter.  From what we can see Karma and the other cow don’t even have a bale of hay to graze on as is a cow’s natural behaviour.  Looking at other animals, they are in the same sort of environment.  160+ animals on 6acres is quite intensive.  I’m wondering if they have any vet checks or at least someone well practiced in dealing with animal health on board?  Probably not if they didn’t realise Karma was in calf.  If that was a working farm and had animals at that density there would no doubt be an uproar.

·       The calf is obviously not halter broken.  You can’t just put a calf on a lead and expect it to follow.  You’re better off pushing it than pulling it.  Another thing that I’m astounded by these people not doing.  Pulling on that calf would have been unbelievably stressful for it.  I know their hearts are in the right place, but honestly? Calves are no different to foals or puppies when being taught to lead.

·       The calf is in great condition.  He has ample fat around his brisket or dewlap (the fold of skin under its neck.  If it was starving, it would not be so full looking).  It’s not falling over because he’s weak.  He’s throwing himself down just like a reluctant toddler, simply because he’s sick of being dragged around.  Being away from his mother for one day would not have caused such weakness. Also if cattle collapse from weakness, their front legs buckle and they go nose first.  Not flip themselves on their sides like in the video.

·       If he was that weak, he would have been easy enough to carry with two people, he would not have put up much of a fight.

·       Why not back the trailer into the yards, so they could let the calf walk out by itself and not go through the stress of being dragged around?

·       This wasn’t said on the video but I’m sure a lot of people look at the end bit and say “oh look, the poor little baby is crying because of what’s happened”.  Newsflash: cattle don’t cry with emotion.  They can’t wipe their eyes out with their hooves like we can with our fingers.  So their eye watering mechanism is really touchy.  Poor calf probably had heaps of dust it his eyes from throwing itself down in the dirt so his eyes were watering to clean out.

·       Another comment under the clip on YouTube asks about dairy to which The Gentle Barn answers “have you tried soy”.  No mention of the huge environmental and health problems with soy. But according to any Animal Rights groups, dairy calves are taken from their mothers from birth and slaughtered very young.  To us, Karma doesn’t even look like a dairy cow.

You’re probably wondering what a beef farmer from North Queensland is doing writing about a sanctuary in California.  It’s because this type of farming misinformation is so common these days that someone has to stand up and say “hey, that’s not right”.  Before the world thinks that whatever is written by animal rights groups is gospel.

As I said before, The Gentle Barn does some great work, but why portray something so inaccurately? Is it because they simply don’t know any better (one would hope not though, if they have so many animals in their care surely the above is obvious) or is something far more sinister….. Like never let the truth get in the way of story which will raise you money.

About an hour after I wrote this, some further information about the Gentle Barn came to my attention.  Seems my gut instincts may be right.  This is an extract from one of many comments (mostly negative) about the running of The Gentle Barn (you can view them all here) : Further, while many of the animals came from neglected and abused backgrounds, many others have not. However, they use all of the animals in their campaigns to gain sympathy and more donation dollars with "rescue" or "neglect" stories that are simply untrue; deceiving the public further.

I also found a photo of Karma and Mr Rojas after rescue:  

http://www.easyvegan.info/2009/09/21/a-tale-of-karma/

To my mind this is a different Karma to the one in the video, she seems in worse condition in this photo than what she is in the video.  She was rescued in November 2008 the video not uploaded until April the next year.  So did they take this photo when they first rescued her and take the video later, causing stress on mother and calf for their own purposes?  Or did they take the video straight away and this photo later showing Karma in worse condition for being at the Gentle Barn?

I find it very disappointing that organisations that have the capacity to do so much good find the need to “expand on the truth” to simply get the public’s heartstrings going and wallets open.

Our endeavour is one of awareness, while many organisations are certainly genuine and worthy of our support, services and our money, there are some, even in Australia, that initially portray themselves to have sound moral ethics but upon closer inspection choose to manipulate the truth to serve their own purpose and often hidden agenda

Counting the Sheep

One of the good things that came out of the Live Export suspension last year is the amazing people that I have "met" via Facebook, Twitter and Blogging because of it.  For those of you that don't know, we have a Facebook group called Save Live Export, with members from all over the country (even some from across the other side of the world.) If you have a Facebook account, come and join us. We come from all walks of life: dairy, cotton, wool, beef, sheepmeat, vets, agri science students the list goes on and on.  One of my favourite people I've met is Michael Trant who writes Farmer's Way of Life.  If you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favour and read it.  You won't regret it (unless you have no sense of humour!) But Michael is on the total opposite side and end of the country to me and he produces those funny looking sheep for meat! (They are damaras or dorpers but NOT geeps!)

So, on Twitter today some of us in North and West Queensland were moaning about the heat which was reaching up to 47 degrees in some parts.  Michael pipes up and tells me to "toughen up princess".  When asked how hot it was over there, he replied with a measly 19 degrees! So he was laughed at, but then he said he had to contend with the wind, posting this video to show us.

Michael then put out the challenge on Twitter to see if anyone else could count the sheep right when they run out of the gate (if you look at the top right corner as the sheep first run out of the gate you can see his finger flicking as he counts).  Ella-Beth and Clancy decided to take up the challenge:

Ella-Beth got 30 and Clancy got 26.  What did you get?

They Say Things Happen In Threes

They say things happen in threes, I'd believe that today!

First up, Shane and Clancy went on the quad bike to get the steers in.  Seeing as we've just had a little bit of rain (75mm a couple of weeks ago) the buffalo fly (annoying little fly that bite the cattle and horses making them very uncomfortable) are biting bad and we thought we'd pour some drench on them to help get rid of the flies for a while.  Anyway these particular ones hadn't been back in the yards since we let them out after buying them and they did NOT want to cooperate.  Usually when they're not behaving, Shane will come and drop Clancy back off at the house or at the very least put him through the fence.  But I looked out the front door to see Clancy hiding behind a tree:

We were driving past a bit later and wanted to get a photo of him but being a boy he wouldn't pose properly! Anyway he was hiding behind this tree because this steer was standing about 10m away shaking his head at him

I somehow managed to leap over the houseyard fence and started running barefoot up the gravel road!  But the survival instincts of Clancy must have kicked in, he wasn't moving from behind that tree and was yelling at the top of his lungs for the steer to "get in the yards".  Once the steer (who hates dogs and most likely thought Clancy was a dog) turned tail and ran so did Clancy!  I was telling him he was a brave boy and he was saying "No I'm not, I was crying".  I would have cried too!

So that was the first "incident" the second was that when Shane came home on the bike we was all hunched over like he had broken a rib or something.  Then when looked at me he had blood coming out of his mouth. He'd hit something while going about 50km/hr through the long grass chasing the cattle and flipped the bike! So he has busted lips, bruised forehead, skin off his nose, shoulder and leg, and a bruised thigh and toe! Not to mention his clothes were ripped to shreds and his sunglasses have been lost somewhere!

After all that we put the steers through the yards to apply the pour on.  Ella-Beth has discovered the video function on the camera and is having a great deal of fun capturing everything on film.   This is how it goes:

The cattle are a little nervous at first, but they soon settle down.  After being treated for flies a few times, they soon start lining up at the gate to the cattle yards when the flies start annoying them! It's amazing how much they calm down after being treated, but then again we all get grumpy when we're getting bitten by some little insect.

All done looking happy

The Supervisors 

So they were let out, and shifted to a new paddock so the last one can have a spell and recoup.  Came home, had a nice cold drink and Shane decided he'd better go to hospital to get his sore leg and toe looked at.  Five minutes after he left, he rings to tell me there's a small, smouldering fire at the front gate.  I thought he said it was about the size of the car, could I please take some water up and put it out.  What in the world was I going to cart enough water in to put it out.  There's no way I could pull the big shuttle tank on to the back of my car.  So I had a brainwave.  Meet Firefighters Bessie and Clancy Boy, and Chief Fire Warden Buddy (where there's water, there's Buddy)

So I get up the road, looking for the fire, I can't see it anywhere, but can smell it.  Turns out Shane said it was only a quarter of the size of the car.

 So the water bottle would've been sufficient...

But anyway, all's well that ends well.  Turns out Shane only has bruising, the Xrays' didn't show any breaks which is a relief.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

You Comfy?

As I've mentioned in the "About Me" section, my husband Shane is a Livestock Agent.  It's like being a Real Estate Agent, except he buys and sells cattle on behalf of clients (NOT try and find cattle acting jobs like one comment I've previously recieved).  Being an "agent" means that he spends lots of time on the phone.  Lots and lots of time (what did agents do before mobile phones I often wonder).  He is also a smoker but I hate that so he is NOT allowed to smoke around the house, I banish him over to the sheds.  His favourite "perch" while sitting and yarning is on the tail gate of my ute.  But the other day he added a variation to this, I had two bags of horse feed sitting in the back waiting for him to take them out for me.  I looked out Saturday morning to see this:

Needless to say, he didn't move the bags of horse feed....

Special Visitors

Yesterday afternoon I was chatting away to my sister on the phone (as we do) when all of a sudden I gasped and said "Just wait, just wait, I have to go and get the camera, you should see what's on my lawn!"  She of course thought I had a snake as that's what she usually gets on her lawn although she doesn't run for the camera to deal with that!  But it wasn't  a snake, it was these:

These are double-barred finches, native to Northern Australia. You can read about them here.  We do have lots of them around, but they are usually very shy and we never see them this close to the house.  They love to hide in the long grass, which we have lots of at the moment because of the good wet seasons we've had these last few years.  They like to eat grass seeds which the lawn has plenty of because it really needs a mow!