My name is Speedy and I’m the hardest worker on this farm or so the master says. He won’t hear a good word said about the visiting dogs. Shadow and I live here. She’s a Pyrenean Mountain Dog and keeps guard on the place. Hugo comes every day with Colm. Nala and Luna come in the evenings with Philip.

I’m the handsome, long-haired, cattle dog – jet black with grey paws and usually in great demand.

They even fight over me sometimes. It makes me very proud. I haven’t had too much to do in the last while though. But things seem to be improving.

The mistress has taken to walking to the yard at night before she feeds myself and Shadow. I love these excursions. She scans the shed with her torch looking for baby calves and I run around checking for a prowling fox.

Last night she and I headed to the yard. She had a bucket and a big gallon of Milton with her. She left them in the yard. The calves are not due for another week but something got her really going early yesterday morning. I don’t care what it was because life had become frightfully boring. She was drawing buckets and washing and sorting calf bottles, jackets and stuff all day.

\ Clyde Delaney

Then I heard her calling out an email that she got from a lady called Mary. On Mary’s farm, they were well ready for the first calf with everything in place.

The mistress loved this lady’s story. A big family with all sorts going on but like the O’Leary’s, the whole family’s energy was invested in getting ready for the arrival of calves.

That was definitely what got her going with the final preparations.

The first calf of the season, a heifer, arrived on that very day. She was in school when it happened. I know that didn’t go down well. She came home all a fuss. I followed her over to the yard and into the pen to have a look. It was like a five-star hotel with deep straw beds, cosy shelters and infrared lamps for added comfort and coats ready for the little darlings.

Still who’d want to be a calf? Idle all day. Then she saw me nosing and I was banished outside and she chained the gate. For the rest of the season, I’ll have to be content with peepholes through the stock board.

Strange happenings

They were all up at cock crow last Saturday morning. I followed them to the yard. There was something serious going on with the maiden heifers. Colm and Tim were busy opening the barriers on the slats and directing the heifers out over the step. They didn’t want to go at first.

I was trying my best to help but the men were having none of it

Colm was talking gently to them. I was trying my best to help but the men were having none of it. Instead I was sent upstairs. Sometimes, I just don’t get them. I’d have those heifers down that passage, over by the top of the parlour and into the crush on my own.

I hung down my ears and dropped my tail and slowly climbed up the stairs. From my vantage point I spotted the green lorry coming. Where could the heifers be going? I wondered if I’d be going myself. They usually follow the lorry to unload.

The mistress asked the men if they were any bit sad seeing the heifers off and they just laughed at her

Wherever I go, I cry all the way with excitement. They tell me shut up but I keep on anyway. I just love to work. Sometimes the master gets so mad he puts me in the back of the jeep. All the heifers go into the truck.

MJ drives off. Herself looks a bit sad. Apparently the girls won’t be coming back until next January. It’s this heifer rearing lark. Philip sourced a suitable rearer up the country. I’ll miss all the fun moving them from paddock to paddock all spring, summer and autumn.

The mistress asked the men if they were any bit sad seeing the heifers off and they just laughed at her, adding that it was just good business. But she’s wondering if the new man will talk and interact with them like the O’Leary’s do. She walks away deep in her own thoughts. I might have hard work to get them used to me again when they return in January.