Here come the cows!
In the winter, some of our cows go to the balmy environs of Laramie, AKA “Laradise”. It’s almost spring, and time for the cows to come home. In a few weeks, they’ll start having baby calves, and you’ll see pictures of them on this blog. Usually, we have more snow on the ground, but the easy winter means we have plenty of hay.
photos by Siobhan
through the gate…
headed down the hill…
Chica supervising…
Eamon and the dogs put the cows into the…Cow Pasture.
Done. Pat, Rhen, McCoy and Maeve, with a little help from Belle.
Tags: Border collie, cattle, cows, dogs, Eamon, Laramie, Maeve, McCoy, Pat, Tiarnan
puppies on the run
puppy with shadow
Pat with young bulls
Tiarnan, Seamus, Maeve and puppies playing in the corn
Border collie puppy hanging out on the corn sacks
Hampshire ewes
Siobhan with Lulu
Antonio, Meghan, Oscar, Brittany and Gyp–hard at work
some early lambs
ewes with water bottles
Tags: Antonio, Border collie puppy, Brittany, bulls, cattle, ewes, livestock guardian dogs, Maeve, Meghan, Oscar, Pat, Seamus, sheep, Siobhan, Tiarnan
Cows waiting in the Elephant Corrals
Not all of our cows find Mr. Right Bull in their forest pastures in the summer months. Some of them meet Mr. Artificial Inseminator just before they trek to the National Forest grazing permits. After studying the bull catalogs and deciding on the future fathers of many of next year’s calves, Eamon orders semen and sets the wheels in motion.The process is complicated, but the day arrives, and the AI crew arrives, and the chosen cows are ready to conceive. This allows us to use better quality bulls than we can afford to buy, and means that we don’t need to keep as many live bulls on hand throughout the year. The bulls aren’t too disappointed though. They go to the Forest with the cows, and breed those who didn’t conceive or are in the natural breeding group.
The AI techs prepare the semen
This is romantic? No bull!
McCoy and Eamon working the chute
Family labor: Georgia, Jim, Rhen and Jeff
McCoy and Megan bringing up the cows
The bull team
Ready to ride
Tags: artificial insemination, bulls, cattle, cows, Eamon, Elephant Corrals, Georgia, Jeff, Jim, McCoy, Megan, Rhen
Some of our cows spend the winter months near balmy Laramie–or “Laradise” as Eamon calls it. They head down in the late fall to eat hay and hang out on our friends’ ranch for the heart of the winter. They travel to the feed, since we don’t raise enough to winter all our cows. This time of year, they head home, ahead of calving. Eamon, Megan, McCoy and Rhen put them on the trucks, and Meghan and I were here so see them unloaded.
Of course, a couple of them fell over from lack of wind.
Meghan and Maeve meet the trucks
Black Baldie glad to be home
Headed for the pasture
Tags: cattle, cows, Laramie, Maeve, Meghan
Eamon and his crew bring up the heifers
We have been getting all the livestock onto their winter quarters, or sent on to new homes. Here is Eamon and his crew bringing in some heifers which are to be sold. We had a lot of good wet snow. This means that maybe the springs will have water next season. Bog boots are the best invention ever!
heifers in need of bog boots
Sam on the job (Eamon’s Sam, not Meghan’s Sami)
Eamon: a two-fisted paddler
waiting for the truck
Tags: cattle, Eamon, heifers
We are back in the Fair business. After a hiatus of several years, we are once again fully involved with our county fair. Siobhan is nine, and old enough for 4-H. She took three projects–steer, sewing and shooting sports. Of course, since we are the “flock contractors” for the annual mutton busting, we never really left the fair scene. Still–there’s nothing like having one of your own competing and participating.One of the great things about attending the fair is the opportunity to connect with old friends from all around the county. At the style review, I could sense my Mom checking the seams. She was a sewing leader in our community for 32 years. If she asked, “Are YOU satisfied with that?” you’d know that she wasn’t.
Someone asked me what I had been up to. I replied, “I don’t know–last time I looked up, it was the middle of April.”
Siobhan modeling at Savery Museum
Savery Savers sewers
Meghan, Tiarnan, Siobhan and Pepper–Meghan won the whitest legs contest
Siobhan showing Pepper, with a lot of help from her leader, Jack Cobb
advice from the judge
Tags: Carbon County Fair, cattle, Meghan, sewing, Siobhan, Tiarnan
We love our bulls, but a couple of years ago we made a decision to breed some of cows using artificial insemination. Eamon spends hours studying the bull catalog, gazing at them as if they were suggestive photos of ladies. In fact, if you were a cow, you might look at them with that eye.
A.I. is a good way to improve herd genetics in a hurry. It is possible to buy semen from the nation’s top bulls, when the cost of buying such bulls would be beyond the means of the typical rancher.
Where’s the bull?
No bull
Tags: artificial insemination, cattle
Calves looking for their moms.
We have been really shorthanded this spring, so in order to get the calves branded, we had to call on every friend, neighbor and family member that we could rope into helping. I thought we might have to use literal roping to get a crew together, but in the end, enough folks showed up at each branding to get the job done. We started in early May, and finished the last branding on June 23rd. Thanks to all who helped us!
branding crew, ready to go; Dudley Creek
Eamon, Tony and Brian
Meghan and Brian practicing a marriage encounter
Raelyn and John vaccinating the calf
Raelyn and Siobhan, vaccinators extraordinaire
Iridescent testicles
Young bullhood gone awry
Gives lurking smirking cowdogs
Their testosterone supply
Peanut, Megan, McCoy, Rhen, Tiarnan and Sharon: training the future branding crew
branding the calf
Eamon with paddle
Tiarnan and McCoy with rope
Tags: branding, cattle
We have been praying for moisture, after yet another dry winter (this on the heels of two hard winters). We are getting intermittent rainy and snowy days, which usually we are grateful for. Last week, we got a snow storm which came with high winds which made it unfit for man and beast.
At Powder Wash, we lost several calves, lambs and ewes, in spite of sheds and shelter. On the Red Desert, the ewes “blew out”, which means that in sheep just walked in front of the howling winds. In these conditions, we tell the sheepherders just to stay in their camps. Since there are few fences, the sheep are usually miles away from where they started, but they are OK, and we have to find them and put the herd back together.
Still, the moisture brings promise of green grass.
Baldie cow with black calf
Squaw Mountain with fog at sunset
Red Desert wild horse shares the range with cattle
Tags: calf, cattle, cow, Powder Wash, Red Desert, Squaw Mountain, wild horse
Thinking about cows
It’s that time of year when we fertility test the bulls. All who pass get to go hang out with the cows in the summer. It’s sort of like getting your teeth drilled in order to have a happier future.
Tags: bull, cattle, fertility testing, Hereford
Ladder Ranch
