Category: Ranching

We were lucky the other night when lightning struck a stack in the hay yard near the house. A small stack burned but the much larger stack on the left in the photo was unharmed…no wind, no flying sparks. Lucky!

The smell of smoke didn’t even reach our open windows so we were unaware of the fire until neighbors started seeing the smoke the next morning and calling to see where our fire was. It wasn’t hard to find then!

We were lucky in so many ways. The fire was less than 100 yards from the buildings. Sometimes losing a hay stack is devastating, but sometimes, when you think of the things you didn’t lose, it’s just not that bad.

The Head Honcho didn’t want to waste all the clover Mother Nature has given us this year, so we brought one bunch of cows back from summer pasture and turned them into cow heaven. They grazed about 200 yards in the first 6 hours and not a quarter mile in 24 hours.

The cows are happy, the summer pasture is getting a well deserved rest, and the Head Honcho is all smiles – and when he’s happy we’re all happy!

This buck antelope met me near the edge of the hay field then led me as I made my first round raking this year. There is little monotony in haying because of Mother Nature’s bounty (especially on a wet year like this) and tracking the movements of birds and animals in the field – meadowlarks, pheasants, grouse, ducks, deer, antelope, rabbits…an unending display of protective parents and curious or frightened babies.

Is there anything more majestic than a Pheasant rooster strutting his stuff? It’s taken the whole of the Head Honcho’s life, but finally Pheasants and Grouse are plentiful. He monitors them nearly as closely as he does the cows, so don’t even ask – no hunting allowed!

One of the many joys of spring is noting when I see the first Meadowlark, Robin and Killdeer. And the Head Honcho and I report every sighting of Sage Hens since they are so rare any more. We had a Sage Hen visit the ground hay pile and checked for her every morning all winter, but she was too skittish and I didn’t get a single decent picture.

This spring we discovered she was a cock Hen when he started doing his mating dance for the Grouse. When I saw two Sage Hens a pasture away, I talked to our boy about the direction he needed to travel but I can only hope he was listening to my suggestion. Mother Nature has to take care of the rest.

This year a Red Headed Woodpecker comes to the yard every time it rains. That’s the only time we see the Robins, too. The young Curlew are testing their wings and two Bull Bats flew up in front of my horse the other day.

What brought all the birds to mind is that this morning I shared 50/50 with the birds on my first ripe strawberries – they got one and I got one! But ooh, so good, and since I found a ripe one I’ll be watching a little more closely so I beat the birds to them. All’s fair in strawberry wars and I intend to win the early bird battle.

Mother Nature gave us this intimidating view last night before dropping 0.6″ of rain – but no hail! Then this morning  a thick fog rolled over this hillside so it feels like we’re on a mountaintop in the middle of a cloud. We don’t get many fogs like this!

During the rain, the Head Honcho worried about having so much hay down getting wet. But like all Montana ranchers, he was thrilled with the moisture!

Next year’s calf crop is in the making as we got the heifers AIed and are putting bulls out with the older cows – breeding season feels as much like a new beginning as calving.

Since calving, we’ve been counting bulls once or twice a day to be sure they haven’t jumped the gun (and the fences). By tomorrow we’ll be worrying about whether or not they stayed where we put them.

We trailed some bulls out and hauled others – some were easy to handle, and some not so much. As the Head Honcho and I age, the hard runs and sharp turns our horses make turning cattle are tougher to handle – no less satisfying, just more challenging to stay in position (OK, I could replace “in position” with “in the saddle” but I didn’t want to be quite that honest!).

The photo looks innocent enough, but watch the video. It catches two year old heifer #712 in the act of stealing milk from the back as the calf sucks from the side. Turned out she was making a habit of it so we separated her from the heifers that had calved.

She now has her own baby but we’ll be watching to make sure that her maternal instincts are stronger than her criminal ones. If not, she’ll run with the old cows who won’t put up with such thievery.

Even the Head Honcho said this isn’t something he’s seen in a cow before – in a yearling, occasionally, but not in anything older.

I’m a proud momma today as my one and only two year old heifer successfully calved, loved her baby just the right amount, and had the good sense to calve on our warmest day for weeks! The Head Honcho figured I’d go pester the poor cow and interfere with their initial bonding, but I kept my distance and just took a few pictures, then left them to get on with getting that critical first meal. They are spending her first night in a shed – just trying to keep those tender ears from freezing.

The girls are always glad to see us on these frigid mornings. We enjoy the view of cows on feed, the nearer bunch in a bend of Pumpkin Creek.