All in a Day's Work

We get a lot of visitors. Some are on vacation and want to spend a few days with us. Others want to come get a taste of ranch life, and help with whatever we are doing at the time.

One attraction is moving cows, or gathering cows off the government land. We have the allotment with 3 other ranchers. We don't know the exact amount of acres the cows run on but we're supposing its over 10,000 acres, It is divided up into 3 sections, about every six weeks we move the cows to a different section.  Its usually a group effort, we take our 2 4wheelers, and the other ranchers take their horses, in a couple hours the cows are grazing on a different section.

September 25 is the day each rancher is supposed to have his cattle off the BLM. It can take up to a week to find all our cows and calves depending on which pasture they are in.

September 25, 2018,  Rob's cousin Kathy and her twins, Colton and Cameron were helping us gather the cows. We also had a friend visiting, who came out to archery hunt for elk but he was getting discouraged and offered to drive one of the rigs to haul the cows back to our pasture.

Our neighbors Jimmy and Lisa took their horses and dogs, and starting looking for the cows.

As Jimmy and Lisa found cows they would trail them to the temporary corral the guys had set up. Then Rob and Rusty would load them on the trailers and haul them to their fall grazing pasture.

Rob, Rusty, and Colton had left with their second loads.

 Jimmy and Lisa were not finding the last of the cows so Kathy and Cameron took our 4wheelers and were going to ride over another area of the rangeland. They were only gone about 20 minutes when Cameron and Kathy came back riding double. Kathy's 4wheeler let her sit in the sage, out in the middle of nowhere.

As we stood there discussing what we should do, Cameron's cell phone rang. It was Colton telling him to bring a 4wheeler, the door on one of the trailers flew open in route, the whole load (about 13 cows and calves) had emptied onto the road. Rusty said later, he looked in his mirror and saw cows and calves spinning on the road and he thought" Oh no! it just can't be! He had offered his help and look what happened!

 Some of the cows were skinned up a bit but not injured bad enough to slow them down!

Cameron took off on the 4wheeler. Rob called Jimmy and Lisa, so they loaded up their horses and we all drove to the spot the cows escaped. By the time we all got there, the cows and calves had formed two groups and were heading in different directions. Jimmy and Lisa got their horses and rounded up each group and trailed them to the neighbors corral. By the time they got them all rounded up, the horses and dogs were exhausted, the cows were confused and the adults were discouraged!

We had moved 37 pair off the BLM and were still missing about 15 pair.

We decided to call it a day.

The guys did go back and pick up the disabled 4wheeler

That evening Kathy convinced Rob he had to have a horse. They spent every evening looking through websites. Within the week we not only had one, but three horses.... now we just need to learn how to ride them... and teach them to herd cows!!

                                                                          Kuna

 

Ginger

 

Sugar

P.S.
Over the course of the next several weeks we did find the rest of the cows and calves. They had moved to neighboring ranches looking for greener grass!

Snow Storms, Baby Calves, and Loco Cows

It's calving season again! I have decided it is my most dreaded time of year. It seems like winter doesn't really begin until calves are ready to make their appearance!

This years calving started out with the threat of two winter storms, back to back. The first storm was to last 3 days and dump 10-12 inches of snow on us. The second storm was to last 1 1/2 days and dump 8 more inches.

The first storm hit and we got 8 inches of snow, the third day the snow continued to fall and the wind started blowing. It turned freezing temperatures into an arctic blast!

We hadn't had any calves born yet and we were praying they would wait till both storms were over! Rob was going out late in the evening and early in the morning to check the cows.

The third morning he went out and found a new momma, the calf was pretty well frozen, she couldn't open her mouth so Rob brought her in and put her in the warming box. He decided to go out again and look for more calves, he saw some cows at the bottom of a draw so he walked down to see if any of them had calves. He found a calf  that was in pretty bad shape so he brought him in and put him in the warming box too. As he looked at the calf he thought it looked awful small so he went back out and looked around again. He found the other twin but he had already died.

We got warm milk into both calves that were in the box, but the other little twin died within the hour.

Several hours later when the first calf was up and running around we took her out to her mother. Her mother came up to her and smelled her but she just wouldn't mother up to her. We sat a distance away and Rob watched her through binoculars, the cow would kick the calf when she tried to suck or she would buck her away when the calf nuzzled her head. It was so frustrating.

We decided to let them together for a couple hours and see if the mother would accept the calf. Several hours later Rob went up to check them, he took the calf carrier along. If the mother was still rejecting the calf he would load the calf on the carrier and hope the mother followed. He planned to bring them both back to the barn. We learned by experience if you put cow and calf is a small area the cows mothering instinct will kick in. 

The cow was still rejecting the calf so Rob loaded the calf onto the carrier and started to drive away. The cow refused to follow. As he was driving down off the butte, he saw the cow that lost her twins that morning, in the draw where she had given birth. He started bawling like a calf, when she saw the calf on the carrier she thought it was hers and started coming toward the them. It was a slow process but Rob eventually got her into the corral. She realized the calf wasn't hers but she didn't kick it away either.

Sometimes you need to skin the dead calf and wrap the coat around the orphan calf so the mother recognizes the scent. Rob was hoping he wouldn't need to do that. He made a small pen in the barn and moved cow and calf into the barn. Later that evening he saw the calf nursing. We let out a big sigh of relief! We kept the cow and calf in the barn for several days. The morning the second storm was supposed to be over Rob let cow and calf out of the barn. It was a happy momma leading her new baby back to the herd!!