Bringing in the cows and calves
It finally stopped raining long enough to allow us to brand some calves. Clouds were threatening, but with lots of good help, we got through them. They were, as my Dad used to say, “Big enough to get ahold of.”
cows checking the clouds
Eamon watching Jeff chase the errant cow
Jeff bringing her in
Jeff and Mike watching the calves
Cows and calves in the Lower Meadow
It’s that time of year when we bring in the livestock–the cows and calves, the ewes and lambs–the time when we finish our summer’s work and prepare for the winter season. We sell most of the calves, and send many of the cows to less snowy pastures for the winter. Some of the cows will go to our friends’ ranch near Laramie (where the snow is horizontal rather than vertical), Some will go to Nebraska. This means we bring them all in to the Home Ranch, work them, and load some of them on trucks.
First, we need horses
Ready to bring them in
And we need a crew–Eamon
Meghan and Peruanito
Siobhan and Taylor
McCoy checking things out
Rhen on the job
Megan and Jeff
Our neighbor John may be a belts and suspenders kind-of-guy
calf on the lookout
ready to load
Rhen supervising the truck
Eamon watching the calves
Cows gather at the Elephant corrals
Each June, we artificially inseminate a selected group of cows to famous bulls–or at least their “on ice” reproductive avatars.
Crew at the ready
Thanks to Eamon’s crew, including his cowhand sidekicks Jeff (his father-in-law), Mike and Karen Buchanan (who have returned to cow work after retiring), intrepid ranchhand Brittany, and Eamon’s wife, Megan (on-site medic). The AI crew included his sister-in-law, Halli. And not to be forgotten is his mother-in-law, Georgia, who wrangled McCoy, 4, and Rhen, 2.
so WHERE’S the bull???
Oh wait–it’s Adam!
Megan from the AI crew (left) and Megan from the Ladder crew (right)
feeling pregnant
the real McCoy
Georgia on the job with Rhen (dirty job but somebody has to do it!)
Lambs, ready to load
It’s time to load the lambs onto semis so they can go off to the feedlot in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming. They will spend a few months there eating locally grown corn, and gaining around fifty pounds. It is sort of like going on a cruise, only without the tugboats and humidity. Richard Drake will look out for them and determine when they are ready to become lamb chops. It makes for noisy nights around our headquarters, since we separate the lambs from the ewes the night before they load onto the trucks. It is less stress for both lambs and truckers if they are “empty”–off feed and water–when they load. When they arrive at the feedlot, Richard is ready with plenty of feed, water and good conditions so the lambs will thrive. The ewes call for a day or so. My Dad always said that it is so the other ewes will know they are good mothers. The ewes then settle down, and get ready for the winter months.
McCoy surveys the lambs in the corrals
lambs heading for the semi
Pat pushing lambs with a flag
Lambs and horses
Eamon, Jeff and Rhen bringing them up
Siobhan, Rhen and Seamus providing child labor
Grandpa Jeff Stocklin and Rhen supervise the operation
Yanush on the job
Sorted, inspected, loaded, and ready to roll.
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
Ladder Ranch
