Keeping cool

Our poor cattle have been out in the sun for a couple of weeks and yesterday we put up some shade for them at last.  It's been bugging me that they haven't had it as, whilst these guys are ultimately being fattened in order to be 'sold', they still deserve some comforts. I also have a theory about happy animals thriving far better.....  I'm told that many people who keep cattle don't provide shade at all, which I think is pretty tough on the animals that are ultimately providing their income. 

So, yesterday was a good old bit of manual work and today there was some more as I was on lunch time feeding duty.  This meant lugging a 50kg sack of feed out of the shed, which once upon a time would have been far easier than it was today.  I'm starting to convince myself that the black cow (far right) is pregnant, we know one of the others is, so we may have got a little more than we bargained for! 

The picture doesn't show it, but the weather is back to being terribly hot - Alex doesn't seem to enjoy the heat much and he has not been at his best today the poor boy, culminating by spending the afternoon very much at odds with the world.  Thankfully, all is ok again as he is fast asleep with a fan blowing nice cool air over him (and us when we finally get to bed!)