Bog Myrtle & Peat

Calving started when the rain came, and now I’m underway for the year with three new births under my belt. The finest and most beautiful of these has been a ginger riggit heifer (above), who came without any announcement or fanfare. I walked through the field at midday and saw her mother’s teats looking large and pink. I remarked upon it to myself, but there was no other sign to suggest that progress was imminent. I thought she’d be “soon”, but three hours later my father rang to say that a red calf had been born and was already struggling to its feet.

Since then she’s done well and I’m thrilled with her markings, which are crazy enough to put her formal registration in doubt with the Riggit Galloway Cattle Society. A lot of white is permissible for a pedigree certificate, but this heifer must be getting close to the maximum allowable limit. To me she looks wonderfully similar to the Moiled cattle I went to see in County Antrim last year, and beside every other reason she’s a fine reminder of that excellent trip out West.

Last year I made the decision to keep a heifer back for myself. I chose a lovely beast, but I don’t have space for many more than I have. As this red heifer grows up, there’s a chance that last year’s pet will go to market in the autumn, and she’ll be kept instead. If she plays her cards right, she’ll take her ease on the same old farm for the duration of her days.

Her mother is a beautiful cow; Craig Barbara, who I saw for the first time the morning after a bad storm when all the world was boiling up with fallen oak leaves. I love her, but she’s too easily influenced by stronger characters in the herd. Her simple personality allows her to act like an amplifier so that while she’d never initiate an activity on her own ticket, she’ll often take it further than anybody else. That can be a fault, but I forgive her for this latest calf.

Her father is Godwit, my trusty old confidante. He’ll soon be heading off to pastures new in exchange for a young white bull with red lugs. The swap lies oddly across feelings of regret and excitement.