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Category Archives: Cattle

Pregnant! Late! Open!

18 Sep

Preg testing crew hard at work

It’s that time of year again.Our friendly local vet Warner McFarland showed up to determine which heifers are pregnant, after a summer of hanging out with the bulls on the forest all summer. We had a full crew, including a visiting photographer. Warner checks with an ultrasound machine and makes the call which will determine the future of that heifer. We then mark them with a clorox paste. The position of the mark tells us if they are pregnant, late (but still pregnant), or open (not prenant).

in the chute

pregnant!

kids having fun

Next!

 

 

 
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Posted by on September 18, 2024 in Animals, Cattle, Folks, Folks who help us out

 

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And now, Branding!

10 Jul

We have lots of baby calves to brand as we move from spring to summer. This involves gathering friends, family and ranchhands, as well as cows and calves. A lot of moving parts have to come together. It takes phone calls, folks with horsetrailers and horses, and sometimes maps, to make it all happen. This year, we’ve put together several brandings, with locations from the high desert (sagebrush steppe) to a spot in the Routt Forest.Here’s some pics from this summer’s brandings.

 

bringing in the calves at Dudley Creek

branding crew at Lower Powder Springs

wrestling calves

roping and wrestling

Rhen and Eamon

Siobhan and Eamon

Belle and Tiarnan

Randy, Biscuit and windmill

Ray and Rose helping out

Trevor at branding

Rhen and Liza on the job

cows and calves mothered up at Dudley Reservoir

 

 
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Posted by on July 10, 2024 in Animals, Cattle, Dogs, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Friends, Horses

 

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Autumn work

04 Nov

horses in Big Meadow

 

It’s that time of year when we are crazy busy. The cows and calves, and the ewes and lambs, have trailed down from the grazing allotments on the Routt and Medicine Bow National Forests (which are geographically one forest). Once they have trailed back to pastures around the Home Ranch, we look at each and every animal. We sort off the calves and the lambs. Both are sold to buyers. The calves go on to be fed and eventually become tasty steaks and burgers. Some of the heifer calves go on to become cows. The wether lambs and the smut-faced lambs go on to become tasty lamb chops and holiday legs of lamb. The white-faced ewe lambs stay home to become ewes. We look at every cow and every ewe. The cows are pregnancy tested by our trusty vet, who calls out “pregnant” or “late” or “open”. The opens (not pregnant) are sold and the pregnants stay home to produce next spring’s calves. The ewes are checked, one by one. Most of them stay with the ranch. They will go to winter pastures, hang out with the rams, and have lambs in the spring. Some ewes are older, or lack teeth, but can go to gentler climes in the Midwest and remain productive. Some are not sound, and go on to become food in Mexico. It is a time of decision-making as we select the animals that can continue to sustain us. After the terrible losses of the 2022-2023 harsh winter, we cast a special eye. “Is she strong enough?” “can she survive a hard winter?” “will it even be a hard winter?” We are all still shell-shocked from last winter, and this adds extra perspective to these decisions which we make every fall.

In the meantime, we have to appreciate the blessings of fine weather and the joy of working with livestock.

horses in the corral, contemplating the day’s work

old ewes on the Mesa

Alejandro’s bellwether Solano, and friend

ewes by the chute

cows after sorting

cows, fall work

 

 

 

 
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Posted by on November 4, 2023 in Animals, Cattle, Horses

 

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Loading steers

02 Sep

loading the steers

 

 

Campbell on the job

After a summer of cell grazing, it is time for yearling steers to leave the high country. Here we are loading them on trucks, fat and happy.

in the chute, waiting to load

 

 

working the steers

sorting

Supermoon rising

 
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Posted by on September 2, 2023 in Animals, Cattle, Folks, Folks who help us out

 

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Out Like the Abominable Snowman

31 Mar

March came in like a Polar bear, and is going out like the Abominable Snoman. Here’s the cows in the Ames Field, waiting for spring.

 
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Posted by on March 31, 2023 in Animals, Cattle, Nature and Wildlife

 

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In Like Lambs

20 Mar

Lambs in the sunshine

Rams in October mean lambs in March. Even though we still have record amounts of snow on the ground, the lambs are arriving right on schedule. We raise our own rams–Rambouillet and Hampshire–and the moms lamb in March at Powder Flat. Our Peruvian crew is doing a great job at getting live lambs on the ground. It is a reminder that spring will actually arrive, someday. We did see birds migrating north. We saw geese in the sky and Sand Hill Cranes on the alfalfa feed line with our ewes.

Alejandro pulling a lamb

Alejandro bringing twin lamb #2 into the world

Pat and Edgar

bum lambs

guard dog on straw, cows on feed

cows on the feedline

Geese heading north

Alejandro supplementing a lamb with milk

 

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2023 in Animals, Cattle, Dogs, Family, Folks, Nature and Wildlife, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

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Preg Testing

19 Nov

Casey bringing in the heifers

 

November brings pregnancy testing. We bring in the heifers and the cows, call for the vet, and learn who is pregnant, and who is not. Our long-time vet, and friend, Warner McFarland, the jefe at Carbon County Veterinary Clinic, came to check the cows. As the cows come through the chute, he palpates, looks at the ultrasound, and calls out “pregnant,”  “open,” or “late”.

Each animal goes in with her cohorts to await the next step. Occasionally, we find a cow with a problem that needs attention, such as an errant horn aiming towards her eye. Luckily, Warner carries a saw for just such an occasion, thereby saving the cow’s eye and a whole lot of misery. Thanks, Warner, for all you do!

Our neighbor, Matt lending a hand

Chandler at the chute with Warner

Warner with the tools of his trade

preg checking

sawing off the threatening horn

 

 
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Posted by on November 19, 2022 in Animals, Cattle, Folks, Folks who help us out, Horses

 

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Fall Work

09 Nov

Cows in the JO

 

I once told a cook that we were only really busy in the summer. As the year wore on, he commented “I didn’t know summer lasted until November!”

So here we are in November, and it seems like  the fall work just keeps coming. Here’s some pics of cows, calves, ewes, lambs, dogs, horses and folks who help us out.

in the corral

Eamon and dogs at the ready

Casey and Bubba

Eamon, Bubba and Casey having a meeting

ewes and lambs in the Dixon corral

lambs onto the truck, Nevada bound

sea of sheep

Meghan and the loaded truck

beaver dam across Battle Creek

 
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Posted by on November 9, 2022 in Animals, Cattle, Dogs, Horses, Sheep

 

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Fall Work

19 Oct

Chandler counting cows through the gate

 

October is one of our busiest months. The cows and calves, and the ewes and lambs, along with yearlings of both species, have spent the summer on the Medicine Bow and Routt National Forests. Our off-date is October 1st, so we stage the bands of sheep and gather all the cows we can find and bring them down to pastures near the Home Ranch headquarters. It has been a warmish fall and some of the cows are hiding out. Eamon and the cowboy crew have been backriding every day, but the best incentive is cold weather, which reminds the cows that it’s time to get the heck out of the Forest. We migrate along with the deer and elk as instinct draws the critters downward. This time of year, all the sheep and all the cattle are close to home. We work them through the corrals. The lambs are separated from the ewes. Often we sell the lambs this time of year, but this year we still have feed so we will keep them a little longer. The lambs are weaned and switched to a different bunch. The calves will be with their mamas a couple of more weeks, and then it will be time for them to be sold, as feeders or as replacements. It’s noisy as night, as the newly weaned lambs and calves call in the night, and the guard dogs who are now close to home bark all night to warn us of various impending dangers. To be fair, usually the coyotes are howling which makes the guard dogs even more on alert than usual. Tomorrow, we’ll start the sheep on the trail to our fall pastures, some 20 miles to the west.

Meghan, bringing down the cows

lambs in the corral at sunrise

 

Hampshire ewes hanging out with the bucks for March lambing

Theo working sheep

at the Home Ranch corrals

cattle in the Big Meadow

yearling ewes in Loco Canyon, with guard dog

fall colors with the Petite Tetons (the Mountain Formerly Known As Squaw)

 
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Posted by on October 19, 2022 in Animals, Cattle, Sheep

 

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Heifers on the Move

10 Sep

semi at the chute

 

It’s time to move the heifers to fall pasture at the Home Ranch. We still have lots of green grass, although the leaves are showing some yellow.

guiding the truck in

Eamon and dogs at the ready

in the corral

headed for green grass

 
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Posted by on September 10, 2022 in Animals, Cattle, Dogs, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out

 

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