Being on DCAI Council for the past four years and President for one of those years took up a fair bit of my time but I have to say I really enjoyed that experience, and thank you to those Members who voted me in for both of those two-year stints.
Last year I asked that I not be re-nominated for President due to Gray having had open heart surgery the day before that AGM, and this year I did not nominate to go back on Council after the AGM on October 8th.
My time on Council was best spent in Member Service & Herdbook. I handled phone and email enquiries that would otherwise have been dealt with by the Registrar at a cost to the Association, and it was good to be able to help Members sort through transactions that had become complicated for one reason or another. Sometimes enquirers just wanted to talk or learn, and that was OK also. Many other items of concern were addressed
Since the beginning of this financial year when DCAI changed Service Provider, most of my time has been taken up with transition of the Herdbook data. Improvements have been made on the new database but still a work in progress. We are fortunate to have wonderfully accommodating staff at LBC.
Graham is currently completing a new fence to make an L-shaped paddock out of otherwise wasted land on other sides of the creeks in one of the hay paddocks. That will be handy for bulls and steers that don’t need the same constant observation like the females do in calving and AI seasons.
The next job is to bring thirteen female and five male feral yearlings in and work on teaching them a few manners. They were lightly handled at weaning so they need to be reminded.
Mostly Hiyu Saturn’s Warlord calves this season all very pleasing, but also one very interesting Apple Coda baby, maybe even two. (We sent the new calf’s tail hair to UQ for parent verification yesterday.)
Now looking forward to SE-NSW Dexter Group Xmas get-together catch-up with friends!
Margaret
