![Kye and Laine Falls, Southgate on the lower Clarence, with a mob of mini bucking bulls they call their own. This sort of education beats school any day! Kye and Laine Falls, Southgate on the lower Clarence, with a mob of mini bucking bulls they call their own. This sort of education beats school any day!](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/PcEc42cje6pcPmWfEZHiNS/ceaba115-c9d8-407f-971e-704273d7e129.jpg/r0_690_4032_2957_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Bucking mini bulls is a passion for a mob of school-aged boys from the Lower Clarence, who shun formal education for something more practical.
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Bidding on suitable livestock during the recent cattle downturn was better than maths class. Dealing with the public during up-coming holiday rodeos would have been called social studies once, but could be termed business studies in this scenario.
![Any mini bull is good as long as it bucks when ridden, reckons the next generation of champion riders. Any mini bull is good as long as it bucks when ridden, reckons the next generation of champion riders.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/PcEc42cje6pcPmWfEZHiNS/bc7c19eb-3cac-4aee-a40c-b8ab90a6e8fc.jpg/r0_287_4032_2554_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Handling their young charges is a form of husbandry best learned on the farm and the boys' English? Well this reporter reckons they need to beef up their narrative.
Typical of rodeo stars these fellas prefer to make their point on the back of a bucking bull, not with the tip of an inky pen.
No strangers to the local show, they have been showing poddy calves since they were little. But last year Laine, now 13, and his brother Kye, 10, moved with their family from Bonalbo to Lawrence to milk cows on a new dairy farm and brought with them a love of rough riding.
"We've always ridden in the rodeo", explained Laine. "There's the thrill of it. The adrenaline ... yeah. My favourite part is bucking at the chute," he says.
"We've always liked mini bulls and so we decided to go into them - as long as they buck."
The brothers were Inspired by the likes of Bundarra breeders Matt and Patricia Doak, who run camps for young up-and-coming rodeo stars.
Since they have started their own enterprise they have provided mini bulls to a few local events with more arrangements coming their way.
"We get on them and ride them. We've got all the helmets and vests and safety gear," Laine says. "It takes technique to get them to buck hard."
Some of their charges were bought out of the paddock, but a lot came out of the Grafton saleyards where the brothers are well known - Kye especially so for becoming emotional over his losing bid for a little Belted Galloway - his favourite type of bucking bull. It all came good in the end, however, with a private trade after hours.
To date their mob includes the full-mouth mini Dexter El Toro, along with the crossbred Milkshake, Big Red and the new Belted Galloway, Oreo.
Then there's Happy Feet, Hop Scotch, Maggie, Roy and Chatterbox.
"True, dad's been helping us bid for these," admitted Laine. "We'll just take things one step at a time."
![Kye and Laine Falls, Southgate on the lower Clarence, take their job seriously as livestock contractors. Kye and Laine Falls, Southgate on the lower Clarence, take their job seriously as livestock contractors.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/PcEc42cje6pcPmWfEZHiNS/80c8b730-cd95-4979-86f6-1d3955ae32a0.jpg/r0_376_4032_2643_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)