Rhen and Gael washing dishes–McCoy supervising at El Rio Restaurante in Baggs, Wyoming
Tag Archives: McCoy
Branding days
Three amigos ready for branding
It’s the time of year to brand the calves. We have a mixed crew–all ages, but generally experienced. Here are photos from three brandings–hence the varied backdrops. When we branded the desert calves at the McCullem Place, our long-time (not “old”!) friend Mike Buchanan helped us. Mike worked for my Dad back in the day, and spent a number of years managing the wild horse training program at the Wyoming Honor Farm. He’s back to cowboying now, in his spare time. When I introduced him to our young ranchhand, Cody said, “Mike Buchanan! Everyone’s heard of him!”.
Most of the calves are branded, but we have lots of spring work ahead of us. We have had great rains, after an open winter. We were worried about the drought, but for now, we have blessed green grass growing.
Cody and Mike, ready to rope calves
Cody, Eamon and Mike
Pat, tending the irons
Add Poll
Randel and Brittany rassling
Meghan and Tiarnan
Seamus and Tiarnan, ready to help (with McCoy a’horseback)
Siobhan bringing in a calf
Cody and Jayce at the McCullem Place
bringing in the cows and calves
Calves after snow
Cows and calves with Battle Mountain
Calf, posing
Sheep Mountain with a frost of snow
Lucky Butte over the Little Snake
Cowboy crew–Rhen, Eamon, Cody, Brittany, Brenden, Amy, McCoy, Megan, Amy
The Ides of April
Bull fight
The bull fight crowd is pretty placid
the cranes of spring
Seamus on the run
Free range children
Seamus with Val and Dulce
McCoy, Tiarnan and Maeve ready for lambing
…’til the cows come home
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.
Is she or isn’t she–that is the question
Dr. McFarland pregnancy checking a cow
It’s that time of year again. With the calves weaned, it’s time to learn which cows are pregnant, which ones are open (not pregnant) and which ones are due to calve later than we like. This keeps us from putting winter feed into a cow who is not going to raise a calf next year. Often the ones who were bred later will make a fine cow for someone on a different calving schedule, but do not fit our “program”. Our annual cycle is absolutely determined by our climate. We ranch at a high altitude, and even our low country is more than a mile above sea level. The long summer days and great soil mean that our grass is high in protein, perfect for raising strong and healthy livestock and wild ungulates. The short growing season means that we need to maximize that grass while it is available. Add to this our complicated schedule of a landscape scale rotation through private and state lands, and BLM and Forest grazing permits. This means that we need our calves to be born in a fairly small window, so that they will grow and thrive when conditions are optimal, and be a uniform size when it is time to sell them. We shorten that window for some of the cows by artificial insemination in late June. This does give us an added risk of bad weather during a shortened calving period–a risk we try to minimize by keeping them close to sheds and shelter during calving. But we will worry about that next spring. For now, we wait for Dr. McFarland’s cry of “pregnant!”, “late!” or “open!”. First he peers through the googles that show what the ultrasound machine is perceiving, then he follows up with an old-fashioned palpation if necessary. Some of the cows get vaccine, some get new eartags, and they all get a backpour for parasites. Then it’s on to the wintering grounds–just in time, for today we got our first real snow
Brittany and Megan taking care of business
Rhen and McCoy supervising, again.
Megan contemplates her next move
Eamon running the hydraulic chute, with “pregnants” in the field
“pregnant!”
McCoy bringing the cow up
Cow in squeeze chute with Brittany and Pat
Brittany and Rhen high-five
Brittany–the happy cowhand
Rhen and Meghan, thinking about cows
Helping fish and irrigation on Battle Creek
the sun shines on Battle Creek
We have been working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners Program for a number of years. The Partners Program, along with several other partners, have helped us in a project on Battle Creek that includes a number of structures that enhance habitat for fish, especially Colorado Cutthroat Trout, and provide improved flood irrigation for our native hay meadows. This, in turn, benefits the wetlands that support our bird populations. The structures also protect the stream banks against erosion during spring runoff. The structures got a good test during the high runoff years of 2010 and 2011. We saved a lot of meadowland, but some of the structures took a beating. We had a Colorado structure that failed and was causing erosion. Thanks to NRCS and the Fish and Wildlife Service, we were able to repair and enhance these rock and log structures, and are good to go!
It takes big machines. Thanks to our very professional crew!
New double drop structure near the headgate
dripping water as the wood is placed in the Creek
This operator can grasp a toothpick if he chooses
Preparing the floodplain
Seamus checks out the trackhoe bucket
McCoy and the dogs check out the new structure
Val reflects upon the project
Ladder Ranch
