A run through the run down

 It's that time of year around here, where gathering, branding, breeding, sorting, shipping, weather related delays (hopefully), and numerous other tasks converge into a few hectic weeks known as spring work, spring ranch work, the spring rush, that time of year etc...
What I was unaware of, until about two weeks ago, was that this seasonal workload conveniently hits at my fiances about three weeks before it hits here, and dwindles down just in time for ours to kick into high gear. After about 10 days of firsthand experience at his house, I'm back home with a much more thorough understanding of how the timeline goes around his place, and with dark bags under my eyes as we get into the heart of our spring work.
Here is how it has gone. I have lots of photos I was, and still am, hoping to share in multiple detailed posts. But, I also realize that time will pass, there is also a wedding being planned in the midst of all this, and if I don't share a little about these tasks going on right now, I may not get around to sharing anything.

May 6 - Helped clean the drill and also "helped" plant Barley for the first time since I was old enough to walk.

May 8 - A fellow Wyoming Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher State Committee member and myself drove to Sheridan to read last year's Ag Books for Kids and lead a coordinating activity on seeds as a part of the 1st grade's plant and soil section. I was so thrilled when they called and asked about having me back! What a wonderful compliment to the Ag Books program, and all the work our committee has been putting into making it great in our state!

Throughout all of this my fiancee was AI'ing his heifers to Connealy Irish, which was largely selected because of me. He has been teasing me that I will have to deal with the result of my first management decision for as long as the resulting cows are around, so about 10 years.

May 9 - My future SIL tilled up half the front yard and the some other areas for our grass and tree planting projects, part of which is coming up below.
May 10 - We put CIDR's in my fiancee's cows, which are used to help synchronize them. Those are the CIDRs above.

 May 11 - AI'id early in the morning, then went to two rope and drag brandings.

 May 13 - Planted between 1,000 and 1,500 trees (I have yet to hear the official number). This was very cool, and one topic I am hoping to cover more in depth! These trees will hopefully grow up into a natural windbreak and help keep all the snow from blowing in the corrals and yard, provide more moisture in the field they border and help protect the livestock in blizzards.

I headed back to Wyoming on May 14, and on the 15th we hung this new gate at the end of our alley, cleaned up and prepared for branding, and got a few more odd jobs done before the rain started!

 May 16 - My dad, brother and I gathered our three-year-old pairs and kicked them into a pasture closer to the house. I managed to get this picture of my favorite calf of the bunch : )

 May 17 - Our first branding of the year. Photo courtesy of Double H's mom.

May 19 - We headed north for my uncle's first branding, and finished in a drizzle that turned to a nice rain that lasted all afternoon and evening up there. It hit here the next day, and between the rain and the wind I stayed in and worked on wedding stuff.

Yesterday my brother and I spent the day horseback, sorting and tagging our calves, getting the bulls gathered and put behind an electric fence to assure they avoid sexual temptation for three more weeks. All but one, who was put in with my cows to help them get on their future South Dakota schedule, which includes calving earlier than we do.

Today I took a trip to town to be a part of our local Ag expo, hosted by our county Cattlewomens. This is my second year doing a booth, and my topic this year was explaining the differences between beef and dairy cattle. We looked at different breeds, I brought items from the grocery store that came from each type that we looked at and talked about, and the students decorated a cow cookie as one of the breeds and then told me what breed and type of cow it was.
Tomorrow we're branding again and Saturday morning is my uncle's second branding, followed by a wedding Saturday night.
Wedding plans have also continued throughout all this, and headway has been made! Invitations are out, I finally found someone to do our cake, started on decorations, worked out more specifics on the reception and various other tasks.
Somewhere along the line an article or two has also miraculously appeared, and a few have been skipped. I really appreciate my self employed status this time of year, and the wonderful, understanding people I do work for that are also ranch folks and therefore understand why the schedule is so erratic for these few weeks.
While I love this time of year, I'm also always happy to see the last cows turned out to summer grass, and know that the rush is over and we can settle into the summer months before we hit the fall rush, and do it all again in reverse.

Tagging and sorting another way

While on my interview trip, I spent the night with some of my relatives. Everything didn't come together as planned with the interviews, and I didn't have to leave their place early, so I got to go along and help tag and sort a few calves out of the cows.
I am always up for a change in schedule that allows for a little unexpected spring ranch work!
It was a cool, rainy, wet morning, and some of my pictures suffered from the dark skies and rain drops. I apologize for the blurriness in some of them.
This ranch is near Hyattville, Wyoming, and a whole different world than where I'm from. Because of the differences in geography, weather, soil, and other factors, they operate differently, and I made sure to grab my camera, so I could share some of the things I helped (read, sat on 4-wheeler and opened a couple gates) during morning chores.


One difference is they calve their cows on an irrigated circle, as opposed to out in big pastures. That's the center pivot in the back of the above picture, which is what applies the water to the crop (alfalfa and grass in this case). Irrigating makes land much more productive, and is something I know very little about, as there is no irrigation where I'm from.
As cow's calve, they sort out the pairs and put them in another pasture. They also give a shot to help prevent scours (diarrhea), tag, and band any bull calves at this time. Moving these new calves out of this area is also done to help prevent scours, and to keep everyone from mothering the newborns.
On a side note, scours is one of, and in some places the biggest, calving related problem ranchers deal with in many parts of the west. Being able to calve in big, open pastures, that are very dry compared to some parts of the state, is one huge advantage to calving where I grew up.
There are always unique advantages and disadvantages to ranching in a particular location, and that location dictates many of the operation's management practices, and is also the reason why there are often so many effective ways to do the same thing on different ranches.


Anyway, at this place a cane is used to grab calves, then maneuver them into this sled. This is much easier when calves are younger and less coordinated, just like tagging is where I'm from.





A chain is secured around the calf's neck, much like a dog collar. This prevents the little guy from trying to jump out, and potentially hurting himself or getting away.



Then you pull the sled with a 4-wheeler to the pair pasture. Ideally the cow follows along, like here. (I had to use pictures from a few different trips to get the whole process, hence there being both red and black cows)



Upon arrival, the calves are tagged, banded, and given their shot. Just like where I'm from, tag, gender, and mother information is recorded in a book for future reference. Ranchers actually keep an incredible amount of data on their livestock, crops and daily activities.




This isn't always a job for the faint of heart, and since calves are handled so much more than where I'm from, (we don't touch a cow's calf until branding, when he's a couple months old) cow disposition is a really big deal for this operation. This guy doesn't want to get run over every time he leans over the sled to tag a calf.





But, it's a fine line in many ways, because he still wants his cows to be good mothers. Most of them stay very close and keep a good eye on the proceedings. This cow also bellowed and blew a little snot a couple times.



After everything is done, the calf is released from the sled. He bands bull calves at this time because he's already handling them, and it will make branding day go faster, as there won't be any bull calves to castrate. It's always about maximizing efficiency in whatever ways possible.



You always want to keep one eye on the mother cow, who is right in the middle of the whole process.



If he couldn't get it banded while in the sled, he finishes that up, then the calf is released.



Except for a miffed mother, no one is the worse for wear, and this calf's chances of getting scours is greatly reduced through these management practices.



The pair joins other newborn calves, and we go back for another one after everything is recorded in the book.
By the way, this post is linked up over at Verde Farm's Farm Friendly Friday too, which is a fun place to check out a lot of great blogs!

A tagging story

I've been told this story, starring myself, for as long as I can remember. I heard it again this weekend, and thought I would pass it on to a new audience.
Once, when I was really little (we're talking 2 or 3 years old), I went with my mom to tag calves. I actually went almost every day, regardless of the activity at hand.
Anyway...
I've mentioned some cows are nasty about having their calves tagged, and I mean it. There is no way to explain having a big cow dead set on destroying you to protect her baby. Dealing with these cows is something we put up with, because after their calves get a little older they typically mellow out, and having a protective instinct is a good trait to have in mother cows.
Well, on this particular day my mom found "that cow," as in the really bad one who would hunt you down, run you over, come back and maul you, if you simply got near her calf, had calved. This was one mean girl, and my mom knew it.
In good ranch wife fashion she got her taggers and book ready, pulled the feed pickup between the already irritated cow and her calf. She then quickly jumped out, grabbed the calf, and drug it under the pickup's flatbed to tag it. At the same time the cow rounded the pickup, bellowing (they're really loud), blowing snot and throwing dirt. She proceeded to try to crawl under the pickup too, and was rocking it pretty good to hear my mom tell it.
Enter me.
In my wise two-year-old prime, I got out of the of the pickup to help, (it must have sounded like she needed it). I walked around, stuck my head under the pickup, and likely began chattering away (I've always been a bit of talker), as this big, loud, mad cow continued to try to tip the pickup over so she could kill my mom and retrieve her baby.
My mother still goes pale at this part of the story, and ironically enough I have no idea if she got the calf tagged that day or not. I do know she was ready to kill me after she found out the cow hadn't.
I made it out without a scratch, from the cow or my mother.
This wasn't the first, or last time, I had such incidents either. It's amazing my mother doesn't have more gray hairs really.

Tagging Calves

After feeding this morning, Holly and I were asked to tag calves and sort pairs out of the calving lot where the heifers are currently residing. My mom came along too to help with sorting, and was kind enough to take several photos of Holly and I as we went about our tasks. Here's the calf tagging part of our morning.
If you want to read more about ear tags and how and why they're used, here's a recent post on the topic.


Holly was the official driver, and gunned it across this muddy ditch, laughing and telling how fun that part was. I was a little surprised the first time my typically slow and steady driving sister did this to me, and made sure to hang on this morning!



After successfully making it across the ditch we tagged one calf, then paused to re-load the taggers with the next number, 16. Holly was in charge of the tags, and kept them in her coat pocket.
After this photo was taken I got back on, and Holly drove me to the next calf.


Everything from this picture on took under a minute. After Holly got close to the calf I jumped off and eased up behind him. I have my taggers in my other hand, and the calving record book in my coat pocket.




I like to grab standing calves by the tail first. Luckily this guy didn't seem to mind too much.




Then, if they're standing, you flank the calf and lay him on the ground. Sometimes this catches them by surprise and they bawl, like this guy. Sometimes this results in the mother cow thinking you're harming her baby, and she decides to harm you in order to protect her calf. This guys mother was really mellow about the whole thing, which is probably why mom was able to get so many pictures.



Then you have to get everything situated.




First thing, for me, is to get the calf's feet out from under him so he can't stand back up.




Some calves bawl and carry on throughout the whole deal, like this guy. Others lay quietly. After everything was situated I lifted up a back leg to determine if the calf is a bull or a heifer, this guy was a bull.



Since his mother didn't take offense to me tagging her calf, and was actually not even making herself known, I took the time to record his number and sex while sitting on him. At times, particularly when a 1,000+ pound heifer or 1,200+ pound cow is bearing down on you blowing snot and ready to eat your lunch, it's more logical to spend time writing in the book just about anywhere else but while sitting on her calf.
In those instances you jump on the calf, get him tagged, maybe see if it's a bull or heifer and leave, quickly.



In this case the next step was tagging him, which included making sure to put the tag far enough in his ear that it wouldn't weigh the tip down, and in a location that avoided the bigger veins running through the ear.




He continued to squirm around and bawl throughout the process. He was irritated with having someone sit on him.




When you're done, you just step off the calf and walk, or run, away, depending on the mother's attitude about the whole thing.




Like I mentioned, this guys mom wasn't worried at all. So, I stood by while the usual group of mother's gathered round, pacifying the little guy, and making sure he wasn't their calf, waiting to make sure I had him matched with the right cow in the record book.




Eventually everything sorts itself out. Sometimes this takes longer than others, and heifers are especially helpful and overly interested in anything else going on around them.




But eventually the rightful mother gathers up her young baby, who is none the worse for wear.
This guy wasn't very old, which made tagging him easier. As calves gain weight,strength and coordination, tagging becomes much more challenging in some instances.
This guy was about 24 hours old, and weighed between 70 and 80 pounds. As I mentioned before, tagging doesn't take but a few seconds if everything goes well and you're trying to be fast.
As with most things, a great number of things can also go wrong while tagging calves too, and lots of people have wild stories involving mad cows, dropped taggers and ornery calves.
This is also a task that different ranchers do in different ways. Lots of people use horses, and lots also use 4-wheelers. We've used both over the years, depending the setup and what works best in a given situation.