"...Sooner or later, it made sense to us that, if there were going to be some cattle raised on our land, they should be raised by us and not for other people. We had rented the paddocks to a couple of graziers and had watched them carry out the various tasks that were needed, the maintenance of fences, the cleaning of weeds from the pasture, and the whole process of ensuring that the cattle were well fed, well tended, healthy and generally happy. So now it was our turn.
Grant had removed his beasts in late August, traditionally the time to sell cattle, and we had decided to put some steers onto the property in November, allowing for an excellent spring pasture growth. We called upon the help of some friends we had made over the time we had been here and decided on a two-pronged investment. We would raise a couple of Highland cows as pets, for the beauty and nature of them, and some steers for fattening and thence to slaughter. The Highland cattle were being raised by a couple of expert farmers on the other side of Kerikeri who were close to dismantling their herd as part of their plans for retirement. We chose a very young black steer and his yearling red-haired sister. And so Aoife and Ruairidh became the first of the Darroch fold! With Ruairidh being only marginally bigger than the dogs, they made a very cute pair, and we knew we’d chosen well. Another farming couple, who we knew well from a few kilometres up the road, had a small dairy farm and wanted to sell off their weaner steers. At about three months old, these were also tiny and very friendly, having been bottle reared so that their mothers could be milked. We chose nine of them, wanting to ensure that we had more than enough grazing for them all (as a rule of thumb, one animal per acre is pretty much sustainable all year long, and we have about eighteen acres of useful pasture). And so, one morning, the cattle truck arrived with our miniature herd! As they were about the same age, we put them in with the Highland cattle, where they thrived, growing almost as we watched..."