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!
Category: Ranching
Preg Testing Cows
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!
Feeding Heifer Calves
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!
Baby girls out to grass
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!
Well Repair
Just posted a new story titled Well Repair 101. It’s a tribute to father and son working seamlessly to repair a well for watering weaned calves. OK, maybe not quite seamlessly…but still. Find it on my web page Sandy Stahl Author under the Nonfiction section.
Shipping steer calves
Early morning gather then sorted cows away from calves. Loaded calves on stock trailers, hauled to scale for weighing for the year’s paycheck. Coldest day of the year so far, but so thankful for good help from good neighbors!
Preparing to ship steer calves
Gathered and moved steer calf pairs to smaller holding pasture before shipping the next morning. Windy but nearly 80 degrees. Photo shows three generations – Ed, Jess and Sonny.
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Day of Recovery
We spent this day recovering from yesterday’s mistakes.
First we’d been short handed while moving pairs yesterday and missed a few pairs in the gather. Then we trailed through two pastures of cattle who were interested in our progress and wanted to join in. With only three of us riding, it’s really surprising we didn’t have even more trouble than we did.
Then last night all the weaned calves broke fences down and ended up in three pastures. That resulted in quite a bit of fence to fix this morning, plus one heifer with a chin full of porcupine quills to pull.
All ended well except that I lost my camera – and I wasn’t even horseback then!
Horses at work
Videos and stills showing some of our fall work. (Hope it works right!)
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Happy 83rd!
Sonny’s 83rd birthday and he had a new experience riding with a war bridle. Looks like Sonny’s having a better time than Gumbo, but we moved some pairs and Gumbo adjusted with no problem. He did “spit the bit” when he drank at a water tank – Sonny dismounted fast to correct the problem!
Sandy Snider Stahl 