Waiting on Cows

You've heard a lot about feeding cattle from me this winter, primarily because that's the main thing we do with our cattle this time of year, especially on years like this when they don't have any grass to partially fill up on.
The thing about feeding cows is it is easily one of my favorite activities. I love gathering up my two little dogs, making a latte, grabbing my camera, and loading everything into an old pickup with squeaky doors, dents, and other downfalls that come with hard working vehicles, then slowly shifting through the gears on the way to load up with cake or hay.
From there it's a drive down deserted, often rutted roads, where at most I will see one other vehicle belonging to our neighbor, who is also out feeding. The more common traffic is of the bovine, sheep or wildlife variety.
Upon reaching the pasture and catching a glimpse of where the cows are, a decision is made on where to feed. Then I wait. In my busy, often hectic but wonderful life, the most important part of my day is waiting for cows to trail in for the meal I have on the back of my vehicle. This wait varies from minutes to well over an hour, depending on how far away the cows are from a location I can reach and feed them at. Weather also hinders or helps their progress.
Some days this causes me frustration and stress, as there are a lot of things to knock of the "to do" list before I can quit for the day. But, most of the time, this chance to sit, let my dogs out to explore, drink my coffee, and listen to the radio if its working that day, is a wonderful and rare opportunity to relax. There is no computer or phone, no people or tasks demanding attention, no noise beyond that of the wind, pickup and radio.
There is just this land my family loves so much, and these cows we have worked so hard to make into what they are today. My camera, dogs and coffee round out the list, and are also all things I love and hold dear.
It is a joyful task, and that joy doesn't diminish as the cows arrive. As they trail in I get to look at them, admire personal favorites, mentally change less outstanding individuals, and enjoy all over again these animals that we are blessed to make our living from while admiring the results of the care we've provided over the winter months in their current shine and condition.
Once the feeding is over, I often take a moment to drive back through the cows, or stop and enjoy the fact that they are completely happy and perfectly content, munching away on their cake or hay, and that they will also be warm and full until I return. Just look at the cows above. Sometimes it's hard to believe that this is part of my "job," because it's so fulfilling, enjoyable, and important, all at once.
To me, the chance to feed a cow is worth waiting for.

Pulling bulls

This week we are pulling our bulls. If you aren't certain what I mean by that, we are not going to physically pull them around (assuming their are no attitude issues), and what I mean by that statement is we are going to take them out of our cows.
Ranchers can manage when they start calving by when they turn their bulls out with their cows. They manage when they stop calving by when they take the bulls out of their cows. This is all assuming the neighbors bull doesn't pitch it before or after your bulls are with your cows. Artificial Insemination (AI) is another very effective way of managing calving, but we don't currently use that method and this will focus on natural breeding.
Managing your calving season is important for several reasons, one being that you want to work around the weather in your area, especially if you don't have adequate protection in case of bad weather. Another is that the closer in age all your calves are, the more uniform they will be their entire lives.Your firstborn calves will also have the competitive, size and age advantage over their younger counterparts for their entire lives. When you will market the calves is another thing to keep in mind when choosing a time to calve.
We strive to have all our calves born as close together as possible each year so they are uniform, easier to manage (think one branding instead of three because calves keep being born for several months), and more marketable (extra big or small calves may be sorted off when you sell).
But, we also want as many cows to calve as possible, and it's not economical to turn a bull out for 10 days, and only get a 50 percent or so calf crop. A cow's estrus cycle lasts 21 days, and gestation length is 280-some days, or about 9 months. So, for each cycle you leave the bulls in, you extend your calvig season by one month. With that in mind, we will typically leave our bulls in for one, two or three estrus cycles (called simply cycles), depending on the group of cows, year, and other factors.
Lots of people also put bulls with their first calf heifers sooner than they put them with their mature cows. This is because calving sooner will give the heifer more time to put on condition post-calving, and before she is turned back out with a bull to breed again. Trying to get a cow to breed back after she's had her first calf is one of the most challenging aspects of livestock reproduction, and a lot of management decisions are geared toward getting her pregnant for a second time.
To put it in perspective, since June 15, when we turned the bulls out with the cows, we have been managing what will be happening on our ranch starting next March, and on through the remainder of next year with our next calf crop. Or, you can think of it the opposite way, in that we have been managing for this year's calf crop that we're about to wean since June, 2011, and actually before when we purchased the bulls that sired them. As in many cases, this is one area of ranching that takes significant planning and investment long before you see the fruits of your labor.
This year we left the bulls in with our yearling heifers, who are those being bred for the first time, for 40 days, or two cycles. This gave every heifer two chances to get bred. If she didn't breed she will be sold, which eliminates the least fertile females from ever entering our mother cow herd. Often times we only leave the bull in with the heifers for one cycle. This ensures we are retaining the most fertile and efficient females into our herd, and makes calving heifers last one month instead of two. The less time spent calving heifers the better in most cases, plus it goes back to having a uniform calf crop and giving each heifer more time to gain condition before she's expected to breed again.
In our mature cows, the bulls are going to be pulled at roughly 60 days, or three cycles. These cows are in much larger pastures, have a calf sucking on them which uses more energy and can make it more difficult for the cow to breed back, and have already had enough money invested in them to make it worthwhile to give them three chances to get bred.
Another key consideration in putting in and pulling bulls is that gestation length in cattle varies, just as it does in humans. Different bulls and different cows will throw calves that are born early, right on time, or late. So, since we turned the bulls in on June 15, we will expect to start calving at least one week early. This is particularly important in our heifers because we use low birthweight bulls, and the way you get a lower birthweight is through a shorter gestation period. Combine that with that fact that we are continuously available to help our first-calf heifer during calving, and it becomes something to pay close attention to.
Some years the bulls aren't pulled, typically because we get so busy with other tasks. We also have cows spread out over a 200 mile area, so it's not like we just spend an hour and they're all gathered. For us, pulling bulls is a big "want to" each year, but not a "absolutely have to" management practice.
If you don't pull bulls the vast majority (over 90 percent) of mature cows will still be bred in 60 days in our place. Very few head will be bred later than that. Big deal you may be thinking, and really it's not a catrastrophe, but it is a pain in the neck. You will have to set up a second day to brand those few head, if they aren't branded they will have to sorted off when you're shipping to summer pasture (and they are always in the way during this), and throughout the entire spring you will spend extra time shuffling, sorting gathering those few head. Plus, those calves you have to spend all that extra time on will be worth less than their larger, more mature siblings for the majority of their lives.

Here Lately....

I realize I have been very absent on here. It has been a hectic, hot, busy, hot summer, and for some reason those seem to suck the extra time and energy out of a person faster than cooler summers.

Among my recent activities:
- Helping with hauling water to our house because our house well pump quit working
-Watching a litter of pigs be born
-Photographing my second wedding of the summer
-Getting bulls out of heifers
-Moving heifers from the creek of kosha weed and Russian thistle to the pasture of year-old grass and sunshine.
- Having the most expensive bull we've (err...I bought him) ever purchased be hurt, badly.
-Spending approximately half my working hours for the last two weeks on the phone with Dell, trying to get my laptop to work, and stay working. Grrr... This particular point is one key reason why the blog has been seeing less action lately.
- Finishing the editing of the first wedding of the summer, in spite of this faulty machine I own.
- Working on writing assignments
-Fighting fire
-Sweating...it was over 100 degrees here for a week straight
- Re-tinning the side of our trailer house that the wind blew the old tin off of. Heaven forbid we actually get rain and not have tin on the "new" trailer house.
- Providing moral support when we had to haul more water because a toilet in our garage and one in the trailer house ran all the previously hauled water down the sewer.
- Running errands all over the state
- Spending a weekend at the Sheridan-Wyo Rodeo
- Family Reunion
- Starting the move into the trailer house, which is currently sporting half new and half old tin.
- Checking water
- Checking (looking hopelessly for) grass
- Being very relieved when the house well pump suddenly, with no explanation, started working again. Laughing as my dad called the company he bought it from and chewed on them again, telling them he either wanted it broke or working, why was it not doing one or the other (he is under a lot of stress)
- Preparing to wean and ship and pull more bulls, and getting ready to do the daily fall ranchwork mostly alone as my dad and brother are gearing up to start hauling a massive amount of hay.

I have lots of pictures, and several posts involving those photos, planned for on here. Hopefully I will have a chance to catch up on at least some of my summer activities in the near future! Hope everyone else is having a nice, wet summer : )

DOL Child Labor Law Withdrawn!

Today the Obama Administration and the Department of Labor withdrew their proposed child labor law, which would have significantly limited what farm and ranch work a person under 16 years of age could participate in. This is a HUGE win for agriculture and rural communities across the country!!


The Labor Department's statement:
“The Obama Administration is firmly committed to promoting family farmers and respecting the rural way of life, especially the role that parents and other family members play in passing those traditions down through the generations. The Obama Administration is also deeply committed to listening and responding to what Americans across the country have to say about proposed rules and regulations. As a result, the Department of Labor is announcing today the withdrawal of the proposed rule dealing with children under the age of 16 who work in agricultural vocations. The decision to withdraw this rule – including provisions to define the ‘parental exemption’ – was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms. To be clear, this regulation will not be pursued for the duration of the Obama Administration. Instead, the Departments of Labor and Agriculture will work with rural stakeholders – such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Union, the Future Farmers of America, and 4-H – to develop an educational program to reduce accidents to young workers and promote safer agricultural working practices.”


How much of this is genuine concern over the nation's reaction to the proposed rule, and how much is election year hype, is a little questionable. But, at least it happened. I was thrilled to hear it, and sincerely hope they meant what was said about not ever pursuing it again during the Obama Administration. 
Yay for good news on the political front! Hasn't been a whole lot of that recently. Also a huge thank you to all the people who wrote comments, contacted their elected officials, worked on the political front lobbying against it, worked on it through their careers, or helped in any other way!
I'm so glad I won't be breaking the law when I make my kids work someday.

Winter Water

Kerstin asked another question a few weeks ago:
Here's another consumer question: How does the water 'system' (the one with the tire) work? Is there a trick to keep it ice in the winter and alga/bacteria free in the summer? How do you fill it? Thank you! K.
Thank you for the question Kerstin! I didn't have the pictures I needed when you asked, but I got them all snapped, and here we go.
Our water system is all based on about 30 miles of underground, PVC pipeline, that transports water from multiple water wells to more than 20 water tanks, most of which are recycled tractor tires, like the one below. We also use a couple windmills to pump water, and have a solar well on our place that we pump water with also. The system is kind of like a town's water system, where water is piped to various residents (water tanks) from a large well (several wells in our case).
We put in all the pipeline and tanks ourselves, do the maintenance on them, and specifically designed our water system so that every pasture has water that comes from at least two sources. That way if one well/water tank/ pipeline/etc.. breaks, our livestock will still have water from a different source.

Each tank has a center cement ring, seen here. Some of them are covered, and some are uncovered. All the "guts" of the tank are located in this ring. Having a ring around the guts keeps the cows from breaking everything when they crawl into the tank (yes, they do this), and reduces the risk of the guts freezing even more.

Here are the guts. Our water tanks work exactly like the tank on your toilet. The water is piped up into the tank from the pipeline, windmill, or solar well, and the big black ball is a float that controls a valve on the water pipe. The float floats on the water, and when the tank is full it turns the water pipe valve off. As cows drink, the water level drops. This is like when you flush the toilet. The float drops with the water level, and opens the valve it controls more and more as it drops, which refills the tank. There are holes in the bottom of the cement ring that feeds the water into the entire tank.
We set each float to shut the valve off at a certain level, and that's what keeps the tank from spilling over the sides. This is done in a very high tech fashion: we bend the metal stem the float attaches to the valve with until it stops at the right spot : )
That white PVC pipe is what we call an overflow. This is a key part in reducing the amount of ice, and freezing, that occurs on a tank. The little part that is sticking out to the left is a nipple, with a hole in the end. That allows water to constantly flow out of the tank in a small volume, which also keeps water flowing in very slowly.
This is based on the science that atoms in motion are warmer than atoms not in motion. The continual movement of water within the tank created by the continuous flow in, and out, keeps it from freezing, or freezing as bad, as it would without any flowing motion.
The overflow also doubles as a drain for the tank. You can pull out the part you see above. Then the water can flow out a pipe the same size as the visible overflow pipe.
When we drain a tank, we use a specially designed key to turn off a valve that controls water flow to the tank. The valve you turn on or off is called a stop and waste valve. It stops water from flowing to the tank, and "wastes" any water left in the pipe by allowing it to seep back into the ground, thus preventing the pipe from freezing. The key we use is several feet in length, because pipelines are several feet (5 feet for us) below ground. You drop the key down a pipe that "T's" onto the pipeline, work it onto the valve, and turn it to turn the valve on or off.

Where does this water that's flowing out go? Downhill. Here is one overflow example. The water flows out, away from the tank. Sometimes it creates ice, which can be bad in the winter for cattle, but we design each tank in a way that cattle can get to it with ease, and without crossing the ice.



Here it is a little closer. The board is sitting there so we can see the overflow, and don't accidentally drive over it. The pipe "cage" on this tank is to keep livestock from crawling into the tank.

Here is a different tank's overflow. It goes down a little draw. The amount of water coming out of the pipe is about what we want to flow out of the overflow. This one doesn't ice up near the tank, and basically irrigates this little draw and provides additional water to a number of small and medium wildlife species that can't reach the tank, in addition to reducing how much ice we have to chop every day. Win win!

Here is a tank where the overflow wasn't working. We turned it on a while before we turned some cows into the pasture it's in, then didn't check it until the cows were turned in. The ice was 8-10 inches thick, and the cement ring was frozen solid. In these cases we get a bar, and pound all the ice out of the ring, then fix whatever we broke (and by "we," I mean my brother in this instance), then get it up and running again.

In contrast, here is how thick the ice is on a tank with a working overflow, in similar temperatures. Having cattle drinking out of a tank also reduces freezing, because the more water they drink, the more the tank has to refill, and the more movement of water that occurs.

Using tires for tanks also helps with ice because they're black, and absorb more heat than light colored tanks would.

As you've probably noticed, there is still ice to chop. In addition to the ideas we've implemented to reduce ice, we also check our livestock's water every day, and always have an ax and a shovel with us so we can chop ice and make sure they have water to drink. Where I'm from is considered very mild winter country, and in other parts of the state and country, ranchers have to chop a lot of ice every day, no matter what they do, because the weather is so cold.

As for algae/bacteria, yes we do have both, algae especially. Not as much in our black tire tanks, but the one I showed that wasn't a tire gets a lot of algae in it. We think this also has something to do with the colors of the tanks , and amount of sunlight the algae gets. My mom puts about a gallon of vinegar in it every so often to kill the algae.

We also empty most of our tanks when cattle aren't using them, and that controls algae and bacteria too.We use our water system to control the areas of a pasture that our cattle graze in, and turn tanks on and off to maximize the use of our grass, without overgrazing any specific area.

Thanks for asking, and I hope that helps answer your question!

An Update

Well, my blog, or Internet connection, won't let me upload pictures, so the vast majority of what I've been trying to post for the last couple days will have to wait (some more).

On a more personal front, things in my life are going extremely well! The transition from desk/town/career (I use that term very loosely) to outdoors/ranch/self employed has gone smoothly, and I am a very blessed and happy girl.

Professionaly I just completed my first photography job since leaving the paper, and am working on my first writing assignment as well. When not working in those two areas, I've been helping build fence, picking up bulls, branding and keeping the guys fed and clothed in my moms absence. I am also helping some family and neighbors with their ranch work over the next few months, and have scheduled that through the end of May.

Other highlights in the work area include finally being able to learn how to AI (artificially inseminate) cattle this June. Adam's (he did not like being referred to as "the guy," and requested a change) mom AI's, and will be teaching me. Getting to spend some quality time with my grandma while working at my uncle's place is another thing I am really looking forward too.

Adam and I (as in mostly him, and I get to go along) also have some traveling planned for the summer, and I'm thrilled to have a schedule that allows me to participate in such things again. Traveling and being able to attend events, and see places, of interest to me were things I've really missed.

This week Adam also surprised me with dinner at my favorite Casper restaurant, and floor level tickets to Riverdance when they performed in Casper. Next weekend we are planning a night out in Deadwood, and after that is a week of AI'ing together. If you couldn't tell, things are going extremely well in the relationship area too, and I am a very lucky girl in that area as well!

Hope all is well with everyone who reads this, and as soon as possible I'll get caught up on posts that include pictures!

A New Chapter

The sun set on my days as an assistant editor last Friday, and I am so relieved and happy. These major work related decisions are never easy, and this one was no exception. I certainly did not plan to leave the paper after a year and half, but, I am confident it was the right choice, especially after the last month since I gave my notice I was leaving.
The last few days have included a weekend at the guys house, meeting his dad and brother, unpacking more stuff than my Acura knew it could hold, fencing, making freelance writing phone calls, booking the first photography job since quitting at the paper, cleaning up the ol' personal Dell computer and a pluthera of other activities. It's been fun, fast paced, and relatively stress free, all things considered.
I am now fully inbedded in ranch work, photography work and diving into the world of freelance writing.

A New Leaf

Things are changing rapidly in my life at the moment.
Last Monday I gave my month's notice at the Roundup, and will be leaving April 30. There were a number of factors that played into the decision, and while I will miss a lot of things about the job, this definitely feels like the right move for me at this point in life.
What am I going to do is typically the next question asked, and what a good one it is. For the next couple months I will be home, helping get a few necessary things caught up on the ranch-God bless my family for offering that opportunity!
During that time I am also planning to get my photography business off the back burner and into focus again, and am going to pursue some freelance/correspondent writing opportunities as well. From there we will see how everything shakes out.
Then there's my house, which I am in the middle of getting rented, and (partially/fully??) moved out of. That is also falling into place amazingly well, all things considered. God, and some quality friends, are definitely helping with this whole thing in big ways.
Things on here may be a little sporadic for a few weeks, but after everything settles into place there will be the usual ag pictures and stories posted on a perhaps not as regular, but often, basis.

Preg Checking

We pregnancy checked (pregged, preg checked) one bunch of my uncles cows last weekend. Pregnant cows are "bred," and non-pregnant cows are "open."
First they gathered the cows and calves, and sorted. This was also weaning day for this bunch. The calves can be seen in the far pen, and will stay there until they no longer miss their mothers.

We preg check to eliminate any cows that aren't pregnant in our herds each year. There are several reasons to get rid of cows who aren't going to calve the following spring. Economics is a big one. It costs money to feed, vaccinate, transport and care for a cow and her calf year-round. An open cow can be replaced with one who will raise a calf for you, and calves are how you pay for the expenses.
Where I'm from the rule of thumb is it takes 7 years to pay for a cow, then everything she produces for you after you've had her in production 7 years is profit. Everything up until that point pays for the costs you incurred getting her grown up, bred and those annual expenses I mentioned. If you have to sell her much before she is 7, you will lose money. If you sell her when she over 7, whatever she brings is profit. Cows typically make it 10 years where I'm from, so the margin of income isn't really high...we want our cows to be bred!
Another reason to get rid of open cows is that if she doesn't have a calf for a year some people (myself included) believe she loses a lot of her mothering ability.
So if you keep her another year and she has a calf, you have double the money in her to get that calf, and she may not like it because she hasn't been a mother for so long. This could result in the calf dying, or being scrawny.
There are also sexually transmitted diseases in cattle, and one of the main symptoms for these diseases are cows who abort their calves early (which you wouldn't notice, except she wouldn't be pregnant in the fall) or cows who simply don't breed.
Getting rid of any open cows significantly reduces the risk of these sexually transmitted diseases infecting your herd, and pretty much eliminates the chance of some of them occurring.
There are other reasons for preg-checking, and they vary from operation to operation, but those are the two biggest ones- Economics and a means of preventing disease in your herd.
I personally feel it's an important management decision and I disagree with those people who don't get rid of their open cows, either through preg-checking and selling them in the fall, or selling them the following spring when they don't have a calf, and before the bulls are turned in.


Here's what we did. First we maneuvered the vet's hydraulic chute into place. Using a hydraulic chute makes it easier to handle the animals and isn't as hard on the people running the chute.



Here is the setup. Please note the camera bag. I put it there for a specific story I will tell in another post. My job was moving cattle up this alleyway to the chute to be pregged.
Those cement blocks hanging there are for the gate at the end of the alley that can be seen in the above and below pictures. The gate is weighted, and you can just barely pull on it and it will go up or down.
When I was very little my job was to close this gate when the cows went in the alley. My grandpa was in the back in those days, and I took my job very seriously and enjoy the memory now.



Here's the other side of the alleyway in the previous picture. Cows come down a large alley, around a 90-degree corner, and into a single-file alleyway. My cousin was in the back and can be seen loading the alleyway I was in charge of. I mentioned being "in the back," and that refers to the the position he has. He's in back of the alley for the day.



The gate...This gate prevents cows in front of it from back up the alley and either getting out or smashing the cows behind them. It is almost perfectly balanced, and the cows know to bump it, which will cause it to swing up like the photo below.


Then they walk forward, and ideally the gate hangs like it is here. If she backs up it is low enough that her tailhead will catch it and cause it to swing down, preventing her from getting out. This gate is the key to this alley, and keeps everything moving efficiently.


It's also scary. I've seen my dad get his head caught between the wooden poles and the top horizontal pipe when a cow backed up. My uncle jerked it down and drug my dad out. You want to watch how you handle it and keep your neck, fingers and everything out of the path between the top horizontal pipe and the wooden pole.



Here's the alleyway full, and the gate partially up as a cow goes under it.


Then they enter the chute, and the vet "Doc" performs the rectal pregnancy check. He will loudly yell "PREGNANT" or "OPEN" after he checks each cow. He wear's a plastic sleeve on his arm and washes after every cow. If a cow is open, he dunks a big "O" (for open) in his bucket of bright white paint, and puts an "O" on either side of the cow's back so she is easily identifiable. He also has a big "P" and can put that on cows too.
We sort off any cows that are over a certain age and sell them because as they age they wear their teeth out and have a harder time staying in good condition through the colder months. The old cows all get an O or a P to help sort them at the salebarn. The cows we are keeping that are pregnant don't get any mark.



Cows also get poured with a pesticide that will kill any bugs, like lice or worms, that they may have. This is called a spray gun, and it's attached to a plastic bottle filled with the pesticide. The gun measures a set amount of the liquid, then someone sprays it down the back of each cow. She absorbs it through her skin and it kills a variety of pests if any are in her.


Cows are also given a shot to prevent them from getting any respiratory diseases over the winter. Pregging is a chance to do a variety of other health-related things to cows in the fall. It's all about efficiency, and we try to run the cows down the alleyway and through the chute as little as possible. This is because it takes time, and why not do it all at once while the cows, vet and working crew are all present.


After all that the cow exits the chute and heads back up the corral. You can see the vet's plastic sleeve in this picture. He also wears full-body coveralls, and they can get messy.
After all the cows had been run through we either haul or trail them to their winter pasture.

Clothing Clarification

I get asked a lot about what we wear in the ranching profession. Everyone assumes we all dress like these first two pictures all the time. That's a big negative! There are people who dress like this when going to work cattle, sheep or fence...but the general opinion of most people is that the more pressed and perfect they look, the worse they are at actually working. These clothes are worn in more semi-formal settings, and not in day-to-day ranch life unless they are an older, more worn out piece of clothing. There are also lot of us in the ag profession that don't dress like this when we dress up , and prefer more mainstream fashion choices.

This would be classified as a more buckaroo attire for actual ranch work. When I see someone show up to brand/ship/sort/ etc and they look like this girl I just assume they are completely useless. This is based on the fact that every single time I've seen someone show up to do ranch work in a pressed button down shirt, belt with matching buckle, a pressed pair of western brand jeans and nice boots, they have been a total failure on the actual work aspect.
They also usually have chaps or chinks, an assortment of matching tack for their horse, a perfectly shaped hat, and spurs with big, showy, may very well get me bucked off rowels on them. Their brand is prominently displayed on a number of their personal items, they may have a feather in their always present cowboy hat, and they definitely have on boots. Everything usually has a very "look at me" vibe, and in reality makes them look like they're completely useless, whether that's the truth or not.


Photos Courtesy of Sheplers
They usually look so spotless because they don't do anything. They often have the misconception that looking like this makes them look authentic. Big negative there! While there is nothing "wrong" with being dressed nicely, while doing ranch work is hardly the time to be overly concerned with appearances. Your clothes are going to get dirty, ripped and stained, it's a pretty unforgiving environment to wear new/nice clothes in. Farmers and ranchers know this, so you won't see us decked out in our newest outfit for spring planting or fall shipping. It's like wearing your brand new jeans when you're sanding and staining the hardwood floors in your house, it just doesn't make sense.
You will see ranchers dressed like this for non-work related events, such as church, picnics, school functions etc.. where they aren't going to be getting dirty.




This is how every girl I know and grew up around dresses for ranch work. There is no hat, belt, pair of spurs or adornment beyond sunscreen involved. I've had those jeans since high school, and while that particular pair is a western brand, I will wear any of my old worn out jeans for work. You will see girls in old Lucky, Buckle and other name brand jeans. The t-shirt with the sleeves cut off is another staple. Cotton shirts are light-weight, and rolling the sleeves up helps with your summer tan :) We all have light-weight, long sleeve t-shirts for cooler days, and hoodies for winter. Sometimes an old button-up shirt is used for work too.
The shoes I have are are a lace-up boot, and they will never win a fashion show. But they're light-weight, comfortable, and I can do any task in them. My hair is perpetually in a ponytail, out of the way.


Very few ladies I know wear cowboy hats to work in. Some wear caps and others don't wear any hat. Men's work hats are very very rarely shaped well. This is because they are usually an old "nice" hat that was starting to show wear. The hat has also probably been rained and snowed on, tromped, pooped, peed and/or chewed on by a cow, sheep, dog or other animal. If it still has a decent shape to it, you can bet it was just recently converted to a work hat.
Most men wear western shirts. They typically have a number of "light" and "heavy" cotton shirts for warmer and cooler months. New shirts are never used for work, because they get the same treatment as the hats do.


Some guys wear belts, others wear suspenders, and very few wear actual cowboy boots day in and day out. Those are typically saved for days when you dress nicely and aren't working. Most men I know prefer Redwing boots, or the Ariat slip-on shoes.
I know they like Redwings because they last a long time. Most ranchers also mechanic, so footwear has to be something that will hold up to that kind of work and keep the wearer comfortable on a cement floor.



Lots of guys wear caps too, especially when riding a motorcycle or four wheeler. This is how pretty much every male "ranch kid" I know dresses. Up close that shirt has some missing buttons and a couple small tears. The jeans are stained from grease, and those are another pair of Redwing boots.Everything is worn, but still well cared for. Some may wear a t-shirt in the summer months.


But, like I said, we do clean up for non-work related events. Nicely shaped straw or felt hats come out, new jeans are donned, and a newer pair of a favorite shoe, or a nice pair of boots are added.

In the winter months it's the same way. We are more about the reality of staying warm in quality clothing that will last than looking great.

Cows never care how you look anyway.

Fall ranch work terminology

Some of you will know exactly what I'm talking about in my posts over the next few weeks. But, if you aren't familiar with ranch work I might use some terms that aren't exactly clear. So, in an effort to reduce confusion I thought I would lay out and define a few terms for you ahead of time.

Pair- A pair consists of one mother cow and her baby. They are collectively called a pair. If there are a lot of mothers and their babies in a pasture together they are known as pairs.

Sorting - This can mean a variety of things. We could be sorting pairs, which means we are matching each mother and baby together. We do this to make sure we don't leave any calves behind, and to see if any calves died over the summer.
Sorting can also refer to splitting the cows and calves apart in preparation for shipping (see below) We haul the cows in the same truck and cattle pot we hauled the sheep in recently. You don't want to haul cows and calves in the same compartment because the cows will accidentally squish their calves, and could kill them.

Shipping - This refers to hauling livestock from one location to the other. We move our livestock long distances to utilize leased grass during the summer months, then bring them home for the winter. It's like a postal service for cows.

So, if I say I'm shipping pairs, I am referring to hauling the cows and calves somewhere.

OK

Pregging/preg checking - Checking cows to determine if they are pregnant. This is done on our operation every fall. If a cow isn't pregnant we sell her. This is because she is losing us money if she isn't raising a calf.

Culling - This is the term used to describe getting rid of the cows who aren't pregnant. They are called cull cows, because we are culling them out of our herd.

Weaning - I know this one is pretty basic, but every fall we wean the calves off their mothers, much like people do with puppies or kittens.

Pre-conditioning - this is a series of shots given to calves at weaning, much like kids are given shots at certain ages in school. It can also include getting calves started on a feeding program sometimes. We are not pre-conditioning for a number of reasons I will discuss later, but that is what the term means.