Grass growth has continued unabated here in south Leitrim, with pastures looking even better these days than they did back in May. If a person got the urge to stick their feet into a bit of mud, I wouldn’t be surprised if they ended up with a green thatch on their crown, though results may vary depending on the starting cover.

Now, in saying that, it is the beginning of October, so the quality is fairly questionable, but the cows are content, calves are flying and, for now, that’s what matters. At this time of year they’d normally start to bunch around a gate each morning looking for a fresh move, but this year they’re more often found lying down in a dry spot and in no major rush to roar at us either.

Despite this, it’s a delicate balance, even with the current exceptional ground conditions: leave the cows on one area too long and they walk the ground into mush and start poking into hedges for devilment, but take them off too early and they get bad habits and teach the next generation how to sing for their supper every time they spot the quad. But every day outdoors is a bonus at this stage, as I don’t think there’ll be too much spare fodder floating around if next spring is as wet as the one gone by.

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The smaller group was actually taken into the shed for a few days, as two cows were badly in need of hoof care and while our cattle are usually quite enthusiastic about following a bucket, three of them ran past me and made a beeline for the door into the shed.

Certainly a nice change to see them heading in the right direction for once and I assumed they’d remembered the daily scatter of nuts they used to get each day in the trough.

But that never even got a glance, as all three headed straight for the cow brush and set to work adding to the electricity bill – as they each gave themselves a complete makeover.

Our regular hoof care man of over 30 years is currently out of action, so there was only a small amount of pressure on the temporary stand-in, who I have to say did an admiral job with two very reluctant cows.

Of course, he’d have to be decent at the job, as he was trained by our regular man, though he doesn’t have the same flair for cursing. Using a more modern crate, the first cow’s eyes were on stalks as she gawked at the spaceship she was about to be pushed into.

I dislike forcing a cow into a place she has never stepped into, let alone never seen before as there’s no way of explaining that it’s a necessary task to make her life more comfortable.

Every time we’re working with cows and patience wears thin as the cattle refuse to play ball, I remind myself it’s not their everyday normal and most times they’re restrained it’s for something unpleasant like TB testing or dosing. But fair play to the 13-year-old girl, she took one giant leap for cowkind and landed herself right where she needed to be, and four hoof trims later she sauntered back into the shed with a little more grace.

While they were indoors we took on some of the more seasonal work of hedgecutting, and though they weren’t majorly overgrown, the trimming showed more areas in need of proper fencing.

This year some of our cattle showed a particular resistance to fences so instead of going at it ourselves, we’ve decided to let someone else take on the challenge with the correct tools and hopefully it won’t have to be worried about again for another few years.