by Tony Parsons
Moira shivered. It could have been me too, she thought. What an idiot to go for a fellow like that with a father like David. Gary was nothing like him. Nothing at all.
Catriona came in and found her daughter on her husband’s lap. She had a momentary pang of something approaching jealousy that always assailed her when another woman seemed to be usurping her place.
‘Friends again?’ she asked brightly.
‘Lovers,’ Moira said, as the words of the TV commercial flashed into her mind. She laughed and threw both arms about her father’s neck. He laughed too, and then picked her up and put her on her feet. She felt the strength of the man and blessed him for it. She knew what lengths her father would go to to protect her. It made her feel good to know that.
She simply wants love and affection, Catriona thought. Beneath the mannish clothes there is a woman who wants to be loved. She remembered how it had been for her when she wanted David so badly. There had been years when she wanted him to hold her and tell her he loved her. And she had had to wait for him while he pursued his dream of winning the National Sheepdog Trials for his father. Of course, it had been worth the wait, but frustrating at the time. Unfortunately there was nobody like David out there for Moira. There were young men, but they couldn’t hold a candle to David. Just as other good women throughout the centuries had been attracted to rotten men, so Moira had turned to Gary Trainor – and it could have ruined her life.
Subsequently, it seemed to Catriona that the Gary Trainor episode drew Moira even closer to her father. Of all men on earth Moira knew that he was the most trustworthy and loved her most. Catriona often watched her husband and daughter walking hand-in-hand through the orchard up to the dogs or to saddle horses. They would ride away together to muster so perfectly content in each other’s company that they could have been lovers.
It was Moira who was first to congratulate her father when he won the Maiden Yard Trial with Spike. This win silenced the critics who had labelled David MacLeod as one-eyed. David didn’t consider the win of great importance because most of his attention was focused on the three-sheep trial with Rip the next day. He had won a Maiden Trial with Rip at a small event the previous month so the dog went straight into the Open.
In the first run of the Open the judge took a point off Rip for smelling the ground, where a bitch in season had urinated earlier in the morning. Bitches in season weren’t permitted to work at the trial but sometimes a worker would have one there anyway. The long and short of it was that Rip scored ninety-nine and if he hadn’t smelt the ground he would have scored the perfect 100. This equalled the score David had put up with Belle thirty years earlier.
Before the final of the Open David rubbed eucalyptus oil around Rip’s nostrils. Rip didn’t smell the ground this time. He ran an absolutely perfect round to score 100 points from the judges. Rip had dropped only one point over the two rounds. It was the best performance ever recorded at the Merriwa trials, and was never surpassed. That was the last time David MacLeod worked a dog at a sheepdog trial.
The first person David rang that night was Bruce McClymont. The old kelpie breeder was elated when David gave him the news of Rip’s success. ‘I’ll bet that win silenced a few of your criticis,’ Bruce said gleefully. ‘And you won the Maiden Yard Trial, too. What a lark!’
In Bruce McClymont’s world one man stood out on his own: that man was David MacLeod. If he hadn’t met David his life wouldn’t have been the same.
‘And you won’t sell him to me, David?’ Bruce persisted.
‘No, I won’t, Bruce. Rip is too valuable for me to let go. But bring a couple of bitches up to him. You can have a couple of services to Rip,’ David said.
‘I’ll take you up on that,’ Bruce said. He knew that this was a concession on David’s part as he didn’t take outside bitches to his stud dogs. So he would be the only breeder to have litters by Rip, which was quite a coup.
Catriona and Moira knew that David had pushed himself hard to find time to get Rip and Spike in shape for the trial. He really didn’t have time to trial dogs any more. There were too many other things for him to attend to and, like everyone else on the land, David was short-handed. He was here, there and everywhere – today, meeting ram or bull buyers; tomorrow, off to help Greg Robertson at Molonga or Wirrewarra. Angus and Sue-Ellen ran the horse side of things very efficiently but David went to Strath Fillan to help at shearing and crutching times.
Glenview didn’t take up a lot of David’s time, as the young chap who looked after it could do the drenching. David went up there at shearing time because he kept a close eye on the wool. It was the wool from Glenview that made the big money and added gloss to his sheep stud.
Glen Morrison and its management was David’s major concern. Shaun Covers had hung on there well past retirement age and was now ready to leave. Glen Morrison was David’s shop-window property and required a full-time manager. There were bulls, rams and steers in feed continuously, and a constant stream of buyers.
David didn’t have a lot of options when it came to finding a replacement for Shaun Covers. He could move Angus and Sue-Ellen up to Glen Morrison, but if he did that he would need someone else to look after Strath Fillan and the mares that came to be serviced by Western Star. This was an important and profitable part of the overall MacLeod operation, and Angus and Sue-Ellen were doing a great job. Alternatively, he could bring Greg back to the high country and give him the manager’s job at Glen Morrison. This would mean putting on an outsider to manage Molonga and Wirrewarra. In the long term David had plans for Tim Barden in that job, but for the time being Tim was at college.
David had discussed the matter with Catriona who then discussed it with Moira. Moira decided it was now up to her to relieve her father of some of the responsibility of running the eight properties. Kate had looked after Glen Morrison and so could she. Kate had been a role model for Moira.
‘Dad,’ she said to her father over dinner, ‘what about letting me look after Glen Morrison for you? It’s time I got out from under your feet here.
‘You mean live there on your own?’ David asked in surprise.
Moira nodded. ‘Kate did, so why couldn’t I? You’re there nearly every day and Lew isn’t far away. There are clients there all the time, so it’s never lonely.’
‘Except at night,’ David said. ‘A young woman alone at night. Is that what you want?’
‘I wouldn’t be frightened, Dad. And it seems to me that it’s about time I really pulled my weight and took some of the responsibility off your shoulders. You can’t go on forever looking after everything, and I’m the obvious choice. I’ve looked after the place when Shaun has been on holidays so it isn’t as if I can’t handle it,’ Moira said.
David knew that what his daughter said made sense. If she had married he would have lost her. This way he would still see her virtually every day and he knew she would do a great job – Moira knew stud sheep and cattle as well as any man, and his clients would love her.
‘You’ve got the job,’ he said.
‘Thank you, Dad.’ She knew it would be a wrench to leave High Peaks, but it was her place to do it. It was as simple as that. Dougal had his profession and his own life and she was next in line. Her father had trained her to be a judge of sheep and cattle and managing Glen Morrison was the way she could help him most. If a suitable knight in shining armour came along, well and good. If he didn’t, too bad.
So Shaun Covers retired and Moira took his place. The large photograph of Aunt Kate in the lounge room of the homestead, which Shaun had never removed, reminded Moira that she was the second woman to look after the sweeping property. Kate held a special place in everyone’s memory – particularly her father’s – but now Kate was gone Moira had to prove that she could do the job.
For his part, David had no doubt that his daughter could manage Glen Morrison. She wasn’t yet the stockperson Kate had been but she was a better judge of stud stock. Kate, in her lifetime, could rise to every challen
ge on the property. She could shoe a horse as well as anyone, and was unrivalled looking after ewes and cows in trouble birthing. Moira hadn’t shown any great willingness to put her arm up a cow’s backside, but of course Kate had been a theatre sister before she moved to Merriwa, so that sort of thing was second nature to her.
What appealed to David was that Moira was so keen to shoulder some of the responsibility for running High Peaks Pastoral Company. If the properties were to be retained in future it would be up to Moira and Angus to look after them. That was why he had to let her manage Glen Morrison – to prepare her for what tomorrow held. Life was short and in twenty or so years, if he lived that long, his useful life would be as good as over. He wondered sometimes if it was worthwhile carrying on given all the problems, natural and man-made, that one had to worry about. It was the love of the land and good stock that motivated him to carry on. He knew that some would advise that it would be better sense to sell up everything and invest the lot. But what would he do? And where would that leave Moira and Angus? His father had worked himself into an early grave to build a future on the land for him. To throw it all away now would be an act of pure bastardry. David couldn’t do it. He couldn’t deny, though, that he hadn’t thought about it, because he had had a gutful of useless politicians who had no vision and who thought only of what they could do to keep themselves in power at the next election. And then he told himself that he was foolish because he had a great operation all up and it was still paying its way.
Secretly, Catriona was pleased that Moira had moved to Glen Morrison because it meant she had David to herself now, and together they had privacy. Moira was old enough to look after herself, and she would manage quite well in the big Glen Morrison homestead. It was David who was her main concern, and in the years left to her she wanted as much of him as she could get. The young people had their own lives to live. It was time they took over so she and David could enjoy more holidays and maybe another trip overseas. She would like to visit the place where her father had died and go to Iona, the place that had affected him so deeply. A life didn’t take long to pass. David had amassed enough to pass on to his family, and it was time he eased up. Or so she thought.
David always reckoned that when things were going smoothly, sure as blazes trouble of some kind would be lurking. That was life on the land, and you had to accept the rough with the smooth. It would never be any different – not while there was such variation in the seasons and livestock to care for. So, after a period relatively free from major problems, it was only to be expected that trouble was just around the corner. It came to the MacLeods in the form of a phone call.
Catriona could tell from David’s facial expression that it was bad news. Or unpleasant news. She could also tell from the questions he asked the caller that it involved sheep.
‘Is it bad news, darling?’ she asked. She always tried to involve herself in just about everything they did.
‘The news was bad enough, but what it might lead to could be disastrous. It could be the end of our merino stud,’ David replied gravely.
‘David, no,’ she said, ‘you can’t be serious.’
‘It’s this Ovine Johne’s Disease thing. If a stud tests for it and gets even one reactor, you can’t go on selling rams. That was Jim Lawler on the phone. He’s had a couple of reactors. When I was starting off I bought a big ram from Jim.’
‘How precisely does this affect us, darling?’ Catriona asked.
‘If we test for OJD and get any reactors, even one, we’re finished as a stud. I can refrain from testing and go on selling rams but it would be a reasonable bet that most buyers would want to know if the sheep have been tested. It’s a marketing plus to have an OJD-free flock,’ he replied.
‘How does this OJD thing affect sheep?’ Catriona asked.
‘It’s a wasting disease caused by an organism in the gut. Every country in the world that runs sheep appears to have the disease. There’s some vets that support eradication of an entire flock, which can wipe out generations of breeding, and there are other control measures. It seems that there isn’t a really reliable test but you have to go with what there is.’
‘Can you do anything to prevent it?’ she asked.
‘There’s vaccines in use overseas and I believe there’s a limited amount here. I don’t know much about the business but the vaccine would seem to be the way to go. I’ll talk to Dougal and see what he says. Meanwhile, I’ll have to decide what to do about testing for OJD.’
‘How much would it affect us if we got a positive test for OJD?’ Catriona asked.
‘It wouldn’t destroy us, or anything like that, but it would mean the end of selling rams and the income that brings in. It would be a blow after the money we’ve invested.’
‘And of course, you wouldn’t be able to show sheep?’ she said.
‘That’s exactly right, Cat. We wouldn’t be able to sell stud sheep and we wouldn’t be able to show them,’ he said.
‘Then you had better talk to Dougal,’ she agreed.
Dougal hadn’t had much experience with Ovine Johne’s Disease and had only a sketchy knowledge of the problem. But he promised to talk to some of his colleagues and to come back to his father with a better appreciation of how to handle the matter.
Sure enough, Dougal was as good as his word. He was impressed that his father had consulted him on the matter and he threw himself into a total understanding of the disease. Inside a week he had absorbed virtually every item of technical information available on Ovine Johne’s Disease and was informed and comfortable about discussing the problem with his father.
They sat in the lounge over morning smoko and discussed the matter calmly and logically. It was Sunday morning, so Dougal for once had some time to spend with his parents. ‘Have you noticed a tail in your older ewes? I mean, are there any sheep that don’t seem to be doing as well as the others?’
‘Can’t say that I’ve noticed any, Dougal. I haven’t seen all the ewes at Molonga and Wirrewarra for a little while but there are no bad doers in the stud ewes at Glen Morrison,’ David said firmly.
Dougal nodded. ‘So far so good. The situation is that Ovine Johne’s Disease is a notifiable disease. If you’ve got it in your sheep, you’re supposed to notify the Department of Agriculture. I can arrange for your sheep to be bloodtested and if there are no reactors you get placed on the category MN1. That is, you’ve monitored negative at first testing. You can proceed to MN2 and MN3 after further testing. The rub is that if you test and there’s a reactor or reactors, then you’ll be defined as an infected flock and you won’t be able to sell stud sheep,’ Dougal said.
‘So what would you advise, Dougal?’ David asked.
‘I suppose you could go on selling sheep for the time being, but more and more of your clients will probably want some assurance that your sheep are clean. Some may demand it and if you can’t give them such an assurance they would probably buy rams elsewhere,’ Dougal said. ‘Conversely, there’s probably some who regard this Ovine Johne’s Disease as a heap of bullshit, as just another sheep problem, and would buy rams from you whether you tested or not.’
‘What are the chances of the disease being here, Dougal?’ David asked.
‘There is less chance of it being here than in some other districts, Dad. Have you bought any sheep from the south lately.’
‘I bought a ram from Jim Lawler. He’s had a couple of reactors. That’s why I called you, Dougal.’
‘How long ago?’ Dougal asked his father.
‘Close to five years?’ David answered.
‘The disease has a long incubation period but if you had it, you’d see it in some of your older sheep by now,’ Dougal said.
‘So what do you suggest?’
‘It’s up to you, Dad. If you test and your sheep are clean, it’s a plus. If you test and you get a reactor or reactors, you’re in trouble. It will be the end of your merino stud and I have some idea what that would mean to you. You can hold off and
wait for a vaccine. They’re using one in New Zealand but it’s only being used under very controlled conditions here so far. That’s the safe approach but it leaves a question mark over your status and some of your clients might not like that,’ Dougal said.
‘I’ll have to think about it,’ David said.
Dougal nodded. ‘Do that, Dad.’
Later, after Dougal had left them, Catriona came and sat beside him. ‘So what are you going to do about this Ovine Johne’s thing, darling?’ she asked.
He looked at her for a few moments before answering. ‘I think I’m going to test them,’ he said.
‘I would have bet that you would,’ she said.
‘You know me that well?’
‘I think I do, darling,’ she said and took his hand.
‘If we win, we’ll win well. If we lose, then we’ll be out of the stud sheep game. I think that it’s one of those situations where you can’t be half-pregnant, to use a term I once heard from Kate. We’ll do the right thing by our ram clients and it will remove any uncertainty. We might be back in the flock sheep business but what the heck. We can always start again,’ he said.
So Dougal arranged for all the stud sheep on Glen Morrison, Molonga and Wirrewarra to be tested for Ovine Johne’s Disease. It took three days with travelling, and was quite an operation for the High Peaks Pastoral Company. David prowled about like a great panther while the testing was being done. Although he had tried to assure Catriona that the outcome wasn’t too important, he was very much on edge about it. The merino stud had become an important part of his life and of the total High Peaks operation. Moreover, it was an important part of his plan to promote Moira and Angus as top merino breeders and judges. It would be a huge setback to lose the stud.
Catriona was not at all taken in by her husband’s professed indifference to the outcome of the testing. She knew what he had put into the merino stud over and above the financial investment. For the days leading up to the results of the testing, she was even more loving than usual. As she was always very loving where her husband was concerned, this meant that she went to great lengths to please him and to keep his mind off the possibility that the testing would reveal reactors.
