As usual nothing goes according to plan

Arnold the steer was supposed to leave home in the weekend - enriching our bank account on the way. That was the plan.

We got him in in the morning and tagged him and gave him a pour on drench at the request of the buyer (who said he would pay for it) and left him until the buyer turned up, which he did with the most disreputable looking stock trailer which appeared to not only be a bad design job in the first place but also long overdue for some maintenance.

This guy raved on that he didn't know much about cattle. He was trying to imply that he was going to keep him for a pet forever but did confess to planning to eat him in due course when I asked whether he would be homekilling him (which may sound a bit callous to city dwellers but really steers have no other logical purpose) so either stupid or thought we were. Anyway Arnold was okay so we prepared to load him. The disreputable stock trailer had a variety of sticky out things so didn't sit right up against the yard fence the way other trailers do so we were left with doing the best we could. Not good enough for Arnold of course who attempted to escape down the side and took a chunk out of his shoulder on a sharp and sticky out bit on the trailer.

The buyer then became a cattle expert - this one was wild, would never load, he'd handled Angus bulls for years so he had seen it all, he was not fit for sale, now he was damaged, sale was off and he was leaving. So he did, no money, no apology, no further interest. Obviously just an a***hole.

So here we are with a steer with a big slice in his shoulder, tossing up. Vet - pretty expensive for a cheap steer and he's unlikely to go back into the race today, he really isn't that keen on the people thing at the best of times but definitely not when his shoulder hurts and he's already had his ears pierced today. Maybe we just call the homekill guy and put him in the freezer before he risks infection... uhh No - there is a 21 day witholding period for the drench he didn't need anyway as he was done a month before - and oh look a***hole hasn't paid for that either! Even less impressed. Not only has he damaged our steer on his crap trailer he requested we render him inedible and didn't pay for it.

In the end poor Arnold got a spray of disinfectant on his shoulder and returned to his mate Amanda.

So far - two days later - the wound looks dry and clean. Hopefully it continues to heal okay. Will then have to redecide his future.