Sometimes the calf wins

I forgot to post the pictures of why working cattle can be so entertaining. Even the strongest man can be upended by a little calf. This little guy took three adults to keep it down...and the form wasn't the greatest. Thanks to the guy on the back legs maintaining his grip and another helper diving on top of the calf, we were able to finish the job.

 Although it's not typically the way we do it, we still go the job done. But this one is probably chalked up as a victory for the calf.

Social Time (a.k.a. working cattle)

Today is a day I look forward to for an entire year. Working cattle is not only a necessity for cattle ranching, it is also a great time to reconnect with neighbors and friends and also get a little free entertainment ;-) I'll explain the process with photos today. 

First we have to gather the cattle out of the pasture and take them to the corrals. These pics are of the heifers (the cattle that just had their first calves). They were pretty skittish because they hadn't been through the process of being gathered with horses before.

Next we sort the cows from the calves and put them in separate areas.

After that, the pen is set up for the calves to be worked. Today we had two guys on horses roping the calves. They have to be able to rope them around the back legs because if not, they are really difficult to get down to hold. It's much easier on the calf and the crew if they can get them by two back feet. After they are roped, they drag them to a pair of workers who sit on the calf and take off the rope when they are situated to hold the calf.

 

While they are holding the calf, we do several different things. We do it all at once so we don't prolong the stress on the calf. If we are on point, the calf will be laying on the ground and be branded, castrated (if it is a bull) and receive two vaccinations in about two minutes. The vaccinations are meant to prevent common diseases in cattle and also prevent respiratory illnesses. This year we changed the location of the vaccines because it seemed to make them sore from the previous location under the front leg. So this year we gave the shots in the brisket area.

Branding is an art. First of all you have to make sure the branding irons are hot enough to do the job in a short amount of time, again, to make sure it is all done quickly. The smoke is actually from the hair that is burned off, then the brand goes through to the hide. These are two different brands but it shows the process.
These brands are not only used to identify our cattle if they get into a neighbor's pasture, but they are also used at sale barns and feedlots to verify that we are the actual owners of the cattle we are selling.

Everyone is utilized when we work cattle. Even the young kids pitch in. They are an important step to making sure the ropers know when calves have already been worked. They marked them with a pink paint stick today. They also had a can of spray they sprayed on steers after they had been castrated to help prevent infection.

While the calves were being worked, the cattle were being worked in a different area. We work them in what we call "the tub." It is a set-up that my dad and uncle put together and I'm always amazed at how efficient it is. There are several gates set up in a circle and we put around 8 cows in one section and push them through to the alley. Then we load another group and just keep working them through and the gates rotate around and lock into place.

We poured each cow for flies and lice. Flies get to be a really bad nuisance for the cattle when it starts warming up. We also gave each one a vaccination to keep them healthy as we put them out to the pastures.

After they are in the tub, the cattle are pushed down an alleyway to the chute where they can be caught in a head gate if they need to be. It keeps the cows in a single file line and also has metal "gates" that come down behind each cow so they cannot back up once they are in the alley.

A very important tool in this area is the sorting stick. It is used as an extension of the arm to keep pushing the cattle where they need to be.

Sometimes the cows get a little curious while in the alleyway.

This is another picture of the set up for the entire operation. The pen closest to the tank is the one that we use to work the calves. As the work winds down, there is a little time for socializing. The best part of the day is always the food. My mom and aunt (and today my cousin) always do an awesome job with this! I was so busy enjoying the delicious food that I totally forgot to get a picture of everyone chowing down. So, here is the picture of it afterwards. We serve it in our big machine shed so people don't have to take off their manure covered shoes (and sometimes jeans).

We had awesome weather and got a lot of work done. We are so blessed to live in an area where neighbors help neighbors and a day of hard work is worth it just because of the chance to catch up and eat some good food.

Sorry this is a long post, but hopefully this helps to explain a little of what we do and why we do it. Have a great week!

This is the time of the year when I am incredibly busy with school. It seems like every hour I'm in my classroom, I have at least one e-mail or one person with some "small" task that they need done immediately. I sigh, take a deep breath, maybe complain a little and then try to add it to my pile of things to do.

It's days like the one I had today that I love driving home. It is my escape. I don't have anyone at home demanding that I adhere to their schedule. I chill out on the drive home and take a break from my "life" once I'm away from town.

This is a pic of a beautiful foggy morning we had a couple of weeks ago. Still kind of takes my breath away.

 

Because of the wonderful moisture and mild weather we have been blessed with, we have wheat that is far ahead of schedule and we are looking for an early harvest. I still don't quite understand how a tiny little seed grows into something like this...I guess that is why God designed it and not me ;-)

We are working cattle this weekend so I am hoping to gather some photos from that. It is always a day we plan around because it is so vital to our ranching operation. I look forward to it all year long and I look forward to posting pictures from the activities. Have a blessed week!

Family Bonding

Despite the horrible wind, we needed to get some trees planted today. And we had some extra helpers as well. We make use of any extra hands (or in this case, feet) we can get. It took two adults, two kids and two dogs to get the job done. But it's done.

Dad wanted to add another tree row around the corrals at their place. This is where we do a good portion of our calving. So the tree line will serve several purposes and will mainly be a nice windbreak for our cattle. Again, it took a little elbow grease, but hopefully in a few years we will have a nice windbreak. Maybe by then the kids can hide behind the trees to get out of the wind instead of trying to crouch down on and behind the rolls of weed barrier ;-)

This is what we call a western Kansas hair-do.

Someone had to hold down the weed barrier with the wind as bad as it was. Might as well have some style while doing it ;-)

 One tree down.

Dad used the weed burner to burn a hole in the weed barrier to plant the tree after the kids had measured the correct distance between the holes.

My job was to run the post-hole diggers to dig the hole and then place the tree in the hole.

And as my nephew pointed out at the end of the job....now there will be more oxygen in the air thanks to us planting these trees. Smart kid.

Lovin' The Rain

As a farmer, we find a lot of joy in nature. This past week that has included me stalking turkeys  in my backyard to take pictures of them and getting my vehicle a little muddy. Who says life on the farm is dull?

I was doing pretty good sneaking up on them until my dog ran towards me. Run turkeys, run!

Good times on the dirt roads. I'm pretty proud of my vehicle.

Evidence that they had to put chains on the feed truck for chores in the morning.

God is great!! Have a great Easter and celebrate the risen King!