Another day shot to hell! 😉
As to the picture, we had some close guesses, but not exactly right on the button.
When you are in the back and driving a herd of cows and calves, you expect a few extra calves in the back, as most cows are smart enough to take their babies with them and keep them pretty much beside them but there are always a few who let their babies wander off and really don’t care until later and then they are in a panic to find them.
In this picture, way too many calves are in the back with no idea where their mothers are and wanting to go back, causing grief amongst the people in back trying to keep them with the group and dashing off to bring one back when they get away, which happens real often if you don’t pay absolutely close attention and let your mind and eye drift away from them even for a second. Not fun! And it wasn’t.
We started out with unpaired cattle and stayed that way the whole way, but that is the way the boss and some of the riders wanted it, or at least expected it, as these were first calf pairs and just a notch above the intelligence of yearlings, which are just a slight bit above chickens on drugs, when it comes to brain power.
Eric and Casey helped me yesterday and we got cattle moved to different pasture, the heifers north and the pairs and steer south. Heifers gave us fits, but we managed to coax them across the road. wind was against us and that never helps. We vaccinated the cows for breeding shots and doctored a cow with a bad foot and she had a reaction and killed her. I sorted off a couple dries and an ol’ shelly cow and calf and took them all to the sale today. Sold real well. Old shelly cows brought over 60 cents and the baby calf brought 435. Wow! I had a calf come back in the night and had to get him back with his mother this evening after penning him this morning. Had to get the bummed calf off the dead cow to suck a bottle. And he is way to big to rassle with!!!!
He wouldn’t suck this morning but he sucked tonight. If I had any idea what they were going to bring I would have hauled him to the sale also!
Quit a thunder storm going as I write this so i will end. see you tomorrow. Maybe ! 😉
Dennisranch 
No rest for the willing… Nice to see calf prices up.
Hmmm. I did not know that – Dad got out of the pairs business about the time I was old enough to help out a lot more. He decided to background heifers – the didn’t bring as much as steers, but they didn’t cost as much, or have to be cut, or mess up his fence as bad as steers. When we moved cattle, all the neighbors got together with their pickups – only one had a horse, and no more than he was ridden, it was a pain to ride the kinks out to move cattle. I had a trail bike I used, but it wasn’t as good as a pickup. No reverse. I couldn’t get turned around quick enough when the heifers would get balled up in a corner fence and want to double back. Throw the ol’ pickup in reverse and haul hiney would generally cut ’em off, but the bike not so much.
Nowadays, my neighbors are more horse oriented, but even most of them ride four wheelers rather than horses.
There just aren’t many who live on horses like you do around here, which is one reason why I enjoy reading about your work. You are definitely old school, Robert!
Yup, born at least a 100 years too late. Possibly 150! 😉
So was the cows leaving the calfs behind on the cows or the cowboys pushing too fast? Or maybe a little of both?
Cows leaving calves behind because the boss and most of the crew didn’t want to bother with pairing them up. Didn’t think it was needed!
Sure seems like lots of people make things harder than they need to be. Not just in ranching but everywhere. 🙂