Today was a very relaxing day for me, though I don't know that the weaners can say the same: in the morning we microchipped and branded them. I had the very difficult job of reloading the microchip gun.




All beef cattle in Australia are required by law to be mircochipped, so that they can be traced back to their origins in case of infections. Australia has never had a case of mad cow disease, and they aim to keep it that way. Each chip costs three dollars, and Jet says whatever they may say, the real reason for the tags is to make the government money.

We branded all the cattle with JJ3, Jet and his dad, Jack's, brand, and all the heifers were also branded with a '0,' signifying the year 2010. Traditionally, all the calves would be branded with their year of birth, but they no longer bother with the steers since they are eventually going to the feedlots, and the microchip also tells their age.

After lunch, Jet and I took the weaners out so that they could have lunch. I've been riding in a big western saddle that Jet has, but today Jet gave me an Aussie saddle to try out. I am informed that that very saddle was used by the Character of Clancy in a scene of The Man From Snowy River. How it went from Clancy's bum to Jet's shed, I do not know, but I do know that it is going to take me some time to get used to those Aussie saddles: I felt like I was going to fly right over the horse's head ever time we broke into anything faster than a walk.



All in all, a good day...