Pablo is a (city) dog trainer. He wanted to see how working dogs do their job in the farm.... and we did see a lot of action. The Ireson's took their pups for the first time to the yards with the sheep. The senior working dog Suzie was right on, barking to the sheep, and one of the pups followed her example. The other one took his time, Pablo pick him up and got closer to the sheep to give him more confidence and after some minutes, he was barking as well, it was so cute to watch them. Pablo also had a go at sheep drafting...that went so so. After that Matt ask to capture one big sheep, which Pablo did so quickly that Matt was impressed.
We both helped cleaning the trough, learnt about de-weeding and watched Suz, the senior dog, do her job following Matt's whisteling. Very impressive. We chatted with Sandra and Matt about the management of the farm, the market for their beef, how difficult it is to get good shearers and how that affects their choices (direct arrangements vs. auctions, lamb vs. wool) and how they adapt to the recent floods and past drought. I am doing my PhD on the adoption of oil malle for bioenergy at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the ANU, so experiences like this one give me a better idea of the day to day life of farmers, a much better understanding than reading about it only.
I am thankful for the experience to Sandra, Matt and Pip Ireson and Farm Day Oz for matching us and organizing. What I have seen this weekend and is freedom, living one day at a time, it can be a hard life, but so rewarding. I think it is important for the city fellow to understand the joys and hardship of farm living. It's a full time committment, to the land, to your animals, your family and to yourself. We would like to live in a farm one day, I am good at planning and cleaning, Pablo is good with animals, so why not?.
