Herding words – or cattle – in South Eastern Montana
Just added a humorous short story on our Winter Ranch Olympic events. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Follow this link to Winter Ranch Olympics then please let me know what you think via my Web site Comments page or on my FaceBook page.
Mamma Nature threw us some curves over the last 24 hours. We started yesterday with freezing rain which changed to wet snow so livestock were pretty wet when it started getting cold and for us, ended at -15 this morning. And through that we saw a couple unusual things. First the snow yesterday was wet and perfect for snowballs but by this morning that same snow was light and fluffy – I had thought it would be a block of ice! Then at -15 F, we saw steam rolling off a stack of hay.
Our start to the new year at -18 degrees…the cows were sure glad to see us with their cake and hay. I’m dressed in my holiday best with coveralls over insulated pants, 2 pair of socks, 3 layers on my head and 4 layers of shirts and coats…hmmm – sounds like the ranching version of Twelve Days of Christmas!
Bugaboo, 2 year old bred Jersey milk cow, is the new addition to our family. I’m as excited as a kid at Christmas! She’s gentle and broke to lead…time will tell about the use of her tail and hind feet in relation to me and the milk bucket!
Finished the last of the main fall work with pregnancy testing. The cattle couldn’t have worked better as they corralled then went through the alley and chute like clock work, Tim averaged testing a cow every 45 seconds, and we were able to sort off the open and old cows. With Shawn, Ed, Jess, Jake, Tim, Sonny and me, no one had to work too hard. And we decrepit “Old Wrinklies” got to stay horseback the whole time!
We feed the heifer calves ground hay and cake pellets. The video is proof that Jess is low man on the totem pole so eats dust as he forks the ground hay into the feeders while at 83 Sonny takes the “choice” job – packing the 5 gallon buckets of pellets!
I’ve added a tribute to our beloved Old English Sheepdog who died this fall. Mr. Peabody’s story is in the Nonfiction section of my web page. The link to the story is Mr. Peabody Comes Home. We sure miss our big guy, and hope you enjoy this story about him.
Here are the videos of Mule buck deer fighting that I promised. There are several because I stopped shooting during periods of fighting out of my line of sight or paused to catch their breath. For a video of just the highlights (about 1 minute in length) go to my Facebook page Sandy Snider Stahl .
It was an exciting few minutes! (This may require some editing so please be patient with me – I’ll keep at it until I get it right.)
I have a video of this action and will upload it as soon as internet connection allows…
This battle for supremacy lasted nearly 5 minutes. A third buck came to observe but like me, he stayed clear of the action. They were about 150 feet from me, and when the light buck broke and ran, he passed within 20 feet. Busy making sure there was a tree between us, I didn’t get a picture of his retreat.
Sonny had recently told me he had never seen bucks fighting. Finally, I’m one up on him!
It was a landmark day as the little girls got to go out in the big pasture on their own for the first time – another step into the future with the girls that will carry on this ranch’s traditions.
It’s always a reminder that Sonny started about sixty years ago with a few head of his parent’s cut back heifers. He often says he is amazed that today he runs more bulls than the number of cows he started with.
On this beautiful fall day, we also went to look at the yearling heifers. It’s just a few months until we get to see their first babies!
Sandy Snider Stahl 