Because our neighbours allowed us to use their cattle yards and bull I offered the use of our back paddock for their cows and bull until they sell their bull. They were going to sell their bull in May, although may not do that until we have good rain again. So until then we have about 20 cows (with some calves) and a bull visiting our cows in the back paddock. It will be good to have the grass eaten down a bit, so in truth I'm probably gaining more than I'm giving. But they spell their paddocks, so everyone wins.
I have been walking to the middle fence along the top of the hill to check on them each morning but they don't stick together as a herd and spread out over the entire paddock, which is about 25-30 acres, so most of the time I can't see all of them. Today they were mostly together and luckily I had brought the camera. So I have included some photos. Our girls are in the foreground, as they tend to keep to themselves being the new girls. Plus I took a photo of the bull, as he was sort of on his own. I also took a photo looking back up the hill towards the middle of the property. It's a pretty big paddock. (Okay, I realise they are not great photos, but the cows were in an awkward position, where I was lower than them, and when I came closer they all crowded under the tree - well, that's my excuse anyway.)
Also, some sad news, we lost one of our Isa Brown chickens to a fox on Wednesday morning. I even saw the fox. He jumped a nearby fence with ease, so the low electric netting, which is probably shorting on the long grass anyway, is really no protection. 'One of these days' I'll pay someone to build a proper fence around them. In the meantime, I'm back to closing them in each night. We were doing that before but when there's no danger I feel there is no need. The local fox population has increased lately, evidenced by the increased number of dead foxes on the roads. We now have one Isa Brown and four Australorps.