Well actually red and a little white and not an invigorating fizzy drink. Unfortunately our resident bull, Thomas, has been found  to be infertile. He only has one job and he was failing to deliver the goods as it were. So much like an apprentice, he has been fired. This did mean a trip to Carlisle and the excitement of trying to buy a new Beef Shorthorn bull. There was a smallish sale of pedigree Beef Shorthorn cattle and we had identified a likely candidate in the catalogue who was a red ( and a little white ) bull.

We got there early to inspect the line up and make sure the one we were after was the right bull for the job. The fly in the ointment is that there are lots of other farmers all judging the same cattle and arriving at the same conclusion as us. So when our chosen one arrived in the sale ring its squeaky bum time when we have to hold our nerve, outbid our rivals and not get auction fever and spend more than our budget.  We managed on all counts and the hammer fell to our bid.

We paid up and came home leaving instructions to the auction market to organise the bull his transport home as our truck has a poorly clutch. But we had a phone call at 8 30 in the evening that they could not get him delivered as no one wanted to go so far from the motorway network. Frantic phone calls got the loan of our neighbours land-rover and setting off on a dash up the M6 at 9 45pm.  When we got there the night watch man had a bloody face and a black eye after getting kicked by a bullock so he was having a bad day too.  Returning home we were stopped by the police because they thought we were cattle rustlers! But finally Beef Shorthorn Hallsford Dustbuster walked out in to the dark at 2 am. We hope he was worth the effort.