Feeding Sheep

Here are a few pictures of feeding sheep from my trip to Hyattville last weekend. They are just about ready to start lambing, so after feeding someone walks through the ewes to check on them.

Hauling Hay

I went with Kyle to deliver a load of hay while home this weekend. I've been wanting to document the process, and this seemed as good a time as any.

This is Kyle's semi and hay train. It's called a train because there are two trailers behind the semi. People also haul hay on other types of trailers, depending on their setup. Kyle can haul a maximum of 123,000 pounds, if everything's just right, and this load weighed in at about 72,000 pounds. His trailers hold 46 bales total. Different hay weighs different amounts, and each load's weight will fluctuate.
My dad and brother both sell and deliver hay. They charge based on miles and weight for delivery. Hay is bought and sold by the ton (1 ton is 2,000 pounds), and price varies based on any number of factors including type of hay, quality, how it was put up and how it was stored.
Just like raising cattle, producing hay is a very technical job that takes a lot of time and energy.

There are a number of things Kyle told me I had better include in my post. First was that a hay train could get stuck on a dime-sized piece of snow (that's been edited a little). This is because the tires have to be filled to high psi levels to accommodate the heavy load.
Here was the setup for the day I went with him. Dad plowed the snow down to gravel on the hill just beyond our driveway. Kyle had parked on the opposite hill so we could get a run at this hill.

The view from the truck. That brown dot on the road is the llama, soon to have his own post. After allowing the truck to warm up for a long time. We crawled in. This was the view of what was in front of us.

And this is what was behind us. You don't just stop, or take off with 72,000 pounds behind you, FYI.

Here we go, we rattled off the hill, hung a gear, narrowly missed the llama, made a wide arc onto the county road, downshifted, and made it up the hill without incident. Dad was standing by, in the tractor, to push us up the hill in case we didn't make it on our own.
Truckers also carry chains to use when they get stuck, and use them frequently.

Kyle is the best driver I know, hands down. But, when I glanced over and he was all tense like this, I immediately became tense too. But it was all fine, and we crested the hill and took off without incident.

Semi's amaze me. This is the dash. Remove your CD player and clock, and insert this maze of knobs, buttons and switches. I just want to play with all of them...but that would not be a good idea...i can just sense it.

This is the second hill that was of concern. This hill is famous among those who have driven it. You can't get a run at it, and it always has bad washboards. My dad plowed it for us too, and we made it fine, if not particularly fast, over the top. Many an oil rig, cattle pot, and miscellaneous other rigs have been stuck on this hill over the years.

From there we cruised down 19 miles of county road and about one mile of pavement to this place, where we were unloading.

We got stuck, and the owner had to push us to the location from which he wanted to unload. Another key point I'm to tell you is that each tire on a semi costs around $600, and there are over 20 on Kyle's rig.
He also commented that he gets checks for large amounts of money, but he also writes checks for large amounts of money. The expenses match the level of income in trucking. One extra expense and you go from making good money to not making anything on a load.

After stopping, Kyle whips out his handy dandy...er....pipe (I failed to get the technical name for this object), and goes to work.

He uses the pipe to release the straps on one side of the load, and pulls them free.

Then he had to shake and throw each one over the top because of the ice. Usually you just pull them off from this side. Then each strap is rolled up in a specific way, because when he straps down a new load of hay he has to be able to throw them over the top to be secured again.

You leave a hole in the middle, when you start rolling, big enough for his hand. You also roll starting with the end that doesn't have a hook. When he throws straps over a load, he will hold the hook and throw this roll, and it will unroll as it goes up and over the hay. It takes a little technique to get it right, and I've heard wind can be a major player in how successful you are.

While we were all rolling up straps, the guy who bought the hay was busy unloading, one bale at a time. Kyle said a lot of guys have big John Deere tractors and can unload two bales at a time. He said that once he had two tractors unload him, and that was awesome.
This guy has that extra bale on the back of his tractor to keep things balanced. Without it, lifting the heavy bales off the truck could tip his tractor over.

As the trucker, Kyle simply waits while the hay is unloaded. His truck also has a sleeper (area with a bed), and he spends a lot of nights in it when he's hauling.
There are a lot of rules and regulations associated with trucking, and one is you can't have an oversize load on the highway 30 minutes after sunset. So, especially in the winter months when days are shorter, Kyle kills a lot of time in this little mobile office/dorm room.

Another rule is you have to keep a log book. There are specific rules about how many consecutive hours, and how many hours a week you can be driving. This log book shows when you were driving, when your truck was just sitting somewhere, and when you were off. It has to be filled out in a specific manner, and must be maintained constantly.
There are also weight regulations, and truckers are required to stop and weigh at ports. Another note I'm supposed to tell you about is that in the winter, several thousand pounds of ice can build up on a truck. If you're overweight, you can knock this ice off. My dad knocked 7,000 pounds of ice off a load last week to get under weight. If you're overweight, you get fined. If you're not following any number of trucking related rules, you get fined. You also have to spend dead time at the port, or along the highway with the always friendly and helpful (just a little sarcasm there) DOT people.
The part of this haul I was on didn't take us by any ports, so knocking off ice and working with the people that work at the port wasn't involved this day, but is a major part of any trucking operation.
I am not even coming close to the tip of the ice burg when it comes to rules and regulations associated with trucking, and with those rules and regulations comes additional costs. These costs have to be passed on to the person you're trucking for, and are making many items significantly more expensive. My dad and brother are constantly dealing with these rules and regulations, while simultaneously trying to keep prices as affordable as possible for their customers. Several of these rules are simply ridiculous, and cause a lot of angst among truckers and people in agriculture.

We continued to wait as the rancher unloaded his hay.
This hay was chosen specifically for him based on what he wanted, and what he was feeding. It had some alfalfa, and Brome grass in it. While too coarse to be ideal for calves, this particular batch of hay was great for cows. My dad and brother work hard to find the right kind of hay for each of their customers, and spend lots of time building relationships on both ends of their business. There are countless combination's of grasses used for hay, and each combination is unique.
My dad has been doing this for a few years, and he knows who has what kind of hay, and who that hay will work, and how much is available, at all times. My brother is proving to be a great asset to the business, especially on the PR side, as he is great at visiting with people and taking time to get to know them.

After the last bale is unloaded, and stacked, the rancher pushes us out of his yard.

Like this, right past the very cows that hay was purchased to feed. Ranchers select feed for their livestock that is the best combination of nutrition and price for their specific situation. With the extended snow and cold this winter, my dad and brother have been extra busy filling hay orders the last few weeks.
My dad and brother's semis are considered our haying equipment. Some people put up hay, but we lack the grass and water resources to make that work for us, so we haul ours in. Hauling for other people helps make it more affordable for us, and diversifies our operation.

Sorting and Weighing

Today was a brisk 19 degrees, with 40 percent humidity and a stiff breeze out of the east. We eastern Wyomingite's aren't used to humidity above about 5 percent, and a cold humidity combined with wind will take our breathe away, literally!
Regardless of the weather, we had cattle work to accomplish prior to the start of calving season. We gathered and worked our calves today. The goal was to get our steers weighed and our heifers sorted into replacement (those we will keep and breed, and who will hopefully become future cows in our herd) and non-replacement (those we will not keep and breed) groups.
We like to have this work done prior to calving heifers because when heifers are calving they're in the lot and corral, and it's hard to shuffle them out of the way to work a bunch of calves. Second is you have to have your replacement heifers bangs vaccinated by one year of age in Wyoming. So, we make sure they're sorted and vaccinated prior to that date. A vet has to perform this vaccination, and ours is scheduled for Monday, after which I will have a post explaining the process and what I'm talking about when I say bangs vaccinating.
Here is what happened today...

First we gathered, and as I mentioned it was cold, damp and foggy. Mom was in the cake pickup, because the calves will follow her. Kyle and Holly were on one 4-wheeler, and I was on another. We use both 4-wheelers and horses on our operation, and I'm sure we'll cover that topic at some point.
This is what the pasture looked like.



We finally found the calves, and in the fog these missed the cake pickup.



So, we gathered them up and trailed them home, where mom was with the others already. We put everything in the corral in preparation for the rest of the day.
At our place we try to keep everything as stress free as possible. We don't charge after them on the 4-wheelers or horses, and give them adequate space so they remain as calm as possible. We also expect our cattle to respect our authority, and they don't get away with running off, tearing down fences, or running us up fences. It's a matter of maintaining a balance of mutual respect and efficiency, and this system works best for us.




Once everything was in the corral, we had to set up the chute. We have a very old chute that my dad and brother have rebuilt and converted to hydraulics. They also mounted a set of scales under it for the purpose of weighing our steers today. This loader is also homemade, and my dad and brother built it from a number of parts and pieces off other items.
That propane bottle was moved after I took this. We maneuvered the chute into position on the smoothed gravel, and attempted to keep things level until we get a permanent platform put into place. Today was the maiden voyage of having the scales under the chute, without a permanent platform. It didn't work at all, and we won't do it again until we've put a platform under it.




But, we didn't know it wasn't going to work at first, and spent time leveling the temporary gravel platform. The chute is raised here, and we move a little dirt to get it in the correct position.
We weigh our steers multiple times as they grow to measure how fast they're gaining weight. This is one of those areas of efficiency, and the faster your cattle gain the more efficient they are, and more efficient cattle are more profitable. We gather this information, and use it make production and genetic related decisions, and to make sure our cattle are responding to the feed and health plans we have in place. We are constantly doing things to improve our cattle, and this is one way to measure our success in certain areas.





After getting everything leveled, we set it down, got the loader out of the way, and hooked up the hydraulics (black hoses) and the scale head (blue wiring). This pickup is what we hook the hydraulics to, hence it being parked there. The flatbed also works well for setting all your stuff on that is needed for the day's cattle work.


Then we sorted the steer calves from the heifers calves. We have a specific way we do this every time, using the same pens within our corrals. After a few times, animals know what to expect and sort easily. These young calves aren't some of those animals, so sometimes it takes a little longer to get them split into male and female groups, which is how we were sorting on this particular day.
We often sort cows from their baby calves when we're working them, like branding, or when we're shipping (moving them on trucks) to prevent the cows from inadvertently hurting their babies during the trip. Our cows sort out of this pen very efficiently.



These guys are pretty clueless, but worked very well. Again, working cattle in a calm and efficient manner, and teaching them to respect you while also respecting their space and zones of movement helps with this. But, as with all things involving livestock, it's never going to work great all the time.
As we would sort them, we take them to the lower end of this pen...




Where Kyle and Holly were running the gates. Holly was running the steer gate, and they were put in the alley so we could just run them on through the chute and weigh them. The heifers were put out Kyle's gate. I was helping my dad bring them down - one, two, or several at a time, depending on how many of one sex we could sort at once.




Here are some of the steers, looking down the alley from the opposite end.



Turn 180 degrees and you see this. I'm sorry for the blurry picture here, but it shows everything the best. You take the cattle, 5 or 6 at a time works best in this situation, down past the first red gate on the right and shut it behind you, as seen in the previous picture. The panel/gate just past the end of the tin (the tin is leftover from the sheep days, and hopefully something that will be removed soon) swings over, and encloses the calves in that half-circle pen, which is called a tub.






Like this. This is me, and my job is typically bringing cattle down the alley, following them into the tub, and moving them up the smaller, single-file alley that leads to the chute. As you can see, the gate swings through the entire tub, but I typically prefer to stop it about where it's at now and not crowd the cattle too much.




From there they enter the single-file alley. These steers are waiting for the cattle ahead of them to move through the chute, so space becomes available for them in the smaller alley.



This gate is one of our least favorite aspects of our tub and alley setup. It's heavy, loud, and scares the cattle. It's high on the list of the list of things to replaces in the near future. For now, whoever is in charge of moving cattle up the smaller alley (my dad today) holds it up as often as possible so cattle can move freely under it, then lowers it behind them. They can also walk under it, because it swings up and forward, but that's where the being heavy and loud part often makes cattle resist.
The purpose of this gate is to prevent cattle from backing out of the single-file alley. If they do that it makes the process take much longer, and teaches the cattle bad habits.




From there the calves move into the chute to be weighed. My dad has a short-handled hotshot, and uses it sparingly. One of the things that makes me maddest is when people overuse hotshots. But, I also feel they're a useful tool when used appropriately on livestock. We take the, "less is more approach" with them and in most instances only use it like we would a stick, to tap livestock on the back to encourage them to move forward into the chute. That's usually all it takes.




Kyle catches them using the hydraulic controls. Setting the scales under the chute raised it up several inches, so he had to use a "stool" today. When the permanent platform is put it,it will be set lower than it is now.
We like a hydraulic chute because it's much easier on the person running it, and we've found we can run cattle through it faster. Running them through faster, and being able to stop them from thrashing around keeps them calmer also.
My mom, on the right, was recording tag numbers and weights for each steer.



Here's her setup. She was writing down each steers tag number and weight as he went through the chute. She would zero out the scales, as she's doing here, after every few head to make sure the weight stayed accurate. Unfortunately, the temporary gravel platform caused the the wooden frame the scales were setting on to bow, and give us inaccurate readings.



After they're released from the chute, they stayed in the corral until everyone else was done.




Then the steers were trailed back to their pasture, and fed. You always care for your livestock first on our operation - be it your cattle, sheep or horses. We didn't take a coffee break or go warm up after we finished our work and prior to feeding everything - the animals were cared for first.
We typically get up early and work our livestock straight through without anything beyond a a quick coffee break mid-morning All to get them back out to pasture as fast as possible, with as little stress as possible. There are lots of days where we've worked cattle and not had lunch until after 3:00pm. That's just how it is, and we do it by choice for the good of our livestock.




The heifers were left in our lot, to wait for the vet's arrival Monday morning. They were also fed.



This is one of my heifers. After everything was fed and watered, we gathered inside the house to defrost around mugs of hot tea and cocoa.