We've been through a lot with our favourite livestock transport truck driver. But I am not at all keen on hearing from him some time around 3am tonight when he arrives with a final load of sheep from relatives "out west".
My ever-obliging husband has told Dave the truck driver he is happy to unload any time. Just ring when you get here. (Although I have noticed the same husband never seems quite so eager to be up when it is the baby issuing the wake-up call.)
But the real question here is probably more about how on earth one even acquires a favourite livestock transporter.
We first met Dave when times were if not good, at least not as bad as they later got, in seasonal terms.
We had sheep in a position to sell and were doing so. When we sold some wethers into Victoria to a buyer who was very particular (a man described to us as having even the droppers on the fence down his drive in perfect alignment), Dave came with the deal. The buyer would send a truck and driver who met his high standards.
When Dave got here both he and his truck epitomised how this buyer had been described to us.
His truck is spotless, he is easy to get along with and great with the sheep. just a great bloke. As a producer, you want to do the best thing for your sheep, with sheep stressed as little possible and be treated with care. Not only is it good for the sheep, you get a better result.
Being fairly particular ourselves, we used the same transporter next time we sold wethers, this time to Queensland.
And when we started trucking sheep to southern Queensland on our own behalf, for agistment, it was Dave who got them there, those drought-weary girls eager to leave the dusty plains of the south for the abundant season of the north. Dave took our first load up and finally the last load 12 months later as we all but emptied 40,000 acres of sheep.
And when the wheel turned and that last load of sheep eventually made it home again as we finally got enough rain for a green pick, it was Dave who brought them home.
We made it through the drought and Dave was there for many of the key moments, the sheep movements that told the tale of a season. So maybe I am kind of looking forward to that 3am wake-up call.
