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Tag Archives: bulls

Ladies in Waiting

pregnant ewes with the new shed

guard dog doing her job

guard dog puppy playing with Border collie puppy

ram lambs hanging out

rams, llamas, bulls at Powder Flat

Solano, pet lead sheep, hanging out with Border collie

 
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Posted by on February 10, 2022 in Animals, Cattle, Dogs, Llamas, Sheep

 

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Trailing to greener pastures

Heifers and young bulls, Meghan, Eamon, Rhen and Tiarnan

 
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Posted by on June 14, 2021 in Animals, Cattle, Family, Folks, Horses

 

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Young bulls

 

Young bulls in waiting,

waiting for spring, and heifers,

and life to go on.

 
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Posted by on March 23, 2020 in Animals, Cattle

 

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Tempus Fugit

Today, we are “springing forward” in time. The transitions back and forth between Standard Time and Daylight Savings Time are always jolting. I think it’s harder than one hour jet lag because the environmental clues of sunshine and shadows don’t change. We are close to the Equinox, when daylight and nighttime hours are approximately equal. This change is subtle but real. It reflects the wheeling of the earth, sun and stars. The measurement of time is a human construct, to give us a path to capturing the vast reality of our journey through the universe. The ancients built pyramids and Stonehenge to chart this course.

We are finally, I hope, making the transition from Winter to False (or Almost) Spring. A few days ago, we woke up to zero degrees, again. For the last two or three days, daytime temperatures have been above freezing–even as high as a balmy 40 degrees! We are moving from snow everywhere to snow most everywhere, interspersed with mud. We have lots of little lambs on the ground at Powder Flat. Most of the ewes are still in the Big Horn Basin, but we are seeing the light at the end of the snow tunnel and hope to bring them home soon. Most of the cows are in Nebraska and Laramie, but we are waiting for the day when conditions improve so they can come home too. The young bulls are hanging out at Powder Flat with the early lambers. Roma poet Virgil: “fugit inreparabile tempus”, which means “it escapes, irretrievable time”.

Home ranch on March 6th

Driveway

 

new lamb at Powder Flat

Young bulls looking forward to green grass

What–we’re losing an hour of sleep!

 
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Posted by on March 7, 2020 in Animals, Cattle, Musings, Sheep

 

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Looking for love

Put me in, Coach!

 

It’s almost time for the bulls to seek romance with the cows. The highlight of the year comes just before the summer solstice, when their long months of waiting are at an end, and they get to hang out with comely cows in the beautiful Routt and Medicine Bow National Forests. What more could a bull want?

 
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Posted by on June 16, 2017 in Animals, Cattle

 

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Fog instead of shearing

Shearing shed in the fog

Shearing shed in the fog

The time has come to shear the early lambers. We raise our own bucks out of our purebred Hampshire and Rambouillet ewes. These girls lamb in late February and March, so we like to get their wool off before lambing is well underway. Of course, we have some babies on the ground already.

The shearing crew showed up right on time–well maybe a couple of days late due to weather, but that is actually on time. We had to haul the shed into the Powder Flat Headquarters with a tractor due to mud. We managed to get a half day in, and shear most of the whitefaces. We were ready to start bright and early the next morning, but…fog, in February. This meant that the ewes in the wool were, not exactly wet, since it was 17 degrees, but frosted. We knew that with some sun, and maybe a breeze, they would be dry enough, after lunch, to start shearing. But no. The fog didn’t burn off until afternoon, and the air was absolutely still. Finally Meghan said, “I’m calling it. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

Ewes coming in for feed

Ewes coming in for feed

ewes on the run

ewes on the run

bringing in the sheep

bringing in the sheep

Catching a ewe who has just lambed

Catching a ewe who has just lambed

Frost on the wool hanging from the fence

Frost on the wool hanging from the fence

Heifers with more frost

Heifers with more frost

This bull is glad he doesn't need to be sheared.

This bull is glad he doesn’t need to be sheared.

In the meantime, the bulls came in for water.

In the meantime, the bulls came in for water.

 

 

 

 
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Posted by on February 14, 2017 in Animals, Events, Sheep

 

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Bulls! Heifers!

McCoy waiting to fly

McCoy waiting to fly

Eamon is working on his pilot’s license, so he decided to combine business with education. Eamon, Pat, McCoy and Eamon’s flight instructor, Ryan, flew to Texas to shop for bulls and to Nebraska to check on our heifers that are wintering there.

Our new bull--unfortunately, they couldn't hook a stock trailer onto the airplane.

Our new bull–unfortunately, they couldn’t hook a stock trailer onto the airplane.

McCoy checking out the bulls

McCoy checking out the bulls

Heifers on cornstalks

Heifers on cornstalks

Heifers on feed in Nebraska

Heifers on feed in Nebraska

McCoy, Eamon and Pat with the heifers

McCoy, Eamon and Pat with the heifers

Home Ranch from the air

Home Ranch from the air

 

 
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Posted by on February 13, 2017 in Animals, Cattle, Family, Folks

 

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Separating the bulls from the boys

Pat in the sorting chute

Pat in the sorting chute

 

It is time to chose our future bulls out of the contenders. The bull calves have grown out, and we looked at them with a critical eye. The best of them will grow up to be bulls and to sire our future calves. It was a big day for them, since they also had to leave their mamas and be weaned. As you can see, we finally have snow on the ground and temperatures have dropped–a lot!

Eamon with help from Chica, Belle and Gramps

Eamon with help from Chica, Belle and Gramps

Eamon, Casey and Meghan with the calves

Eamon, Casey and Meghan with the calves

Meghan, Eamon and Chica

Meghan, Eamon and Chica

Pat and Eamon with calves

Pat and Eamon with calves

 

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No Bull

Working the cows by the Elephant Corrals

Working the cows by the Elephant Corrals

It’s that time of year. In order for our calves to be born in a timely manner next spring, the cows must become pregnant now, or soon. Most of them will manage this in the traditional way, which involves a close, if brief, relationship with a bull–preferably one of our choosing. Some of the cows will have a close encounter with a straw of bull semen. What this encounter lacks in romance it makes up for in the quality of the afore-mentioned semen. Artificial insemination allows us to breed the cows to bulls which have been carefully selected for characteristics we like, while not having to buy and support very high-priced bulls. If, for some reason, the cows do not respond to the attention of Adam, Megan and Hallie–well–there’s always the actual bulls who are willing to work to ensure a spring calf crop!

Getting the cows ready for Artificial Insemination

Getting the cows ready for artificial insemination

Megan and Nikki bringing up the cows.

Megan and Nikki bringing up the cows.

Sam, our Wyoming Stock Growers Association intern, on the job

Sam, our Wyoming Stock Growers Association intern, on the job

Nikki with the flag

Nikki with the flag

Maeve--cowgirl in pink

Maeve–cowgirl in pink

Three Amigos--Chad, Eamon and Pat

Three Amigos–Chad, Eamon and Pat

Eamon pondering: Bull or No Bull.

Eamon pondering: Bull or No Bull.

 

 

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Some are lambing, some are still pregnant

Enjoying the sunshie

Enjoying the sunshine

ewes, lambs and bulls

ewes, lambs and bulls

Pregnancy testing ewes on the Red Desert

Pregnancy testing ewes on the Red Desert

 
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Posted by on March 21, 2016 in Animals, Cattle, Sheep

 

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