Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

I got a call from one of my northern neighbors yesterday telling me I was marketing calves awful late. I was very confused since I haven't been selling anything, what was he talking about. Well he informed me that I had sold a calf this week at the auction yard. I told him that I had not. He then corrected me and explained how I had.

You might remember my story last fall about the weaned calves taking a long run and some of them running over 8 miles and ending up in my northern neighbors pasture. This is the same guy that was telling me about this calf. Now you might see what happened. It turns out instead of 8 head ending up in his place, nine did but the ninth was discovered until the brand inspector at the auction yards caught her. Why wasn't she discovered before this? I'm not sure.

A little more explanation might be in order here. This guy on my northern end doesn't own any cattle nowadays. He just leases his grass out. When I got my calves out last fall I told him I thought I had them all but there might be one more in with the pairs he was running on his place. My calves were easy to spot since they had no ear tags and the calves that were in there all had big ear tags in them. He said they would look them all over when they shipped the cattle out in the fall.

Well, they gathered, brand inspected and shipped all the calves to a feedlot in the fall and guess what, nobody spotted my calf. Then they were moved in the middle of winter to another feedlot, which required another official brand inspection and again, the calf was not caught. Finally, when the calves got to the auction yard the brand inspectors caught her there.

Now why the brand inspectors didn't catch her earlier, I don't know. I will eventually get the money for her sale but there are a couple of hoops to jump through first. I have to laugh and I have to be disappointed about this at the same time. Laugh, because the whole thing is funny. Disappointed because two different brand inspectors let her slip through there gaze and get shipped across county lines. I really think they need their eyes checked.

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try. Beverly Sills

Blue sky, warm temperatures, baby calves running around, it don't get much better than this. I hope it doesn't mean it is going to turn nasty come March. I don't need that. Taken 2/19/2008.

The newborn calves not liking the wind and snow bothering them. We sure have been getting a lot of wind lately. Taken 2/18/2008.

The calves are finally really starting to look good. I don't know what the bug was that was holding them back but they are finally over it and going strong. All told I probably doctored about 25 of them for coccidiosis. Just under 20% of them. I think a few more had it but got over it on their own. I lost two calves in the battle. Both of them were under 300 pound potty calves that have been sickly from weaning and no big surprise to lose.

I looked into more than one way of doctoring the whole herd but my vet recommended just doing what I was doing, doctoring the sick ones. He felt that no sicker than they were and how easily they cured up, it would be more cost effective to doctor the sick ones than to treat the whole herd. The only warning he gave me was not to lock the herd up in a small space. I told him that wasn't a problem since I hated putting the calves in a small space and loved keeping them out on open pasture and had planned on keeping them there. Hopefully they will stay better now.

The two year olds are getting very heavy and it is time to bring them home. Tomorrow is the day I think. Get them home so we can take care of them while they are calving. I'm not looking forward to the long nights awake and going short of sleep all the time but that's the way it goes. Maybe someday I will be rich enough to hire the whole job done. Yea and pigs can fly. I would still have to do the job and see that it is done right.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. Kahlil Gibran

The sun coming up right behind a calf standing on the ridge line. I know she is hard to see, but she is there. Taken 1/14/2008.

Without getting into to many details, 2008 has to get better. Five flat tires in five days feeding taxes anybodies sanity.

Then I have had a small out break of coccidiosis in my calves for some reason. Usually there has to be a stressor for this to happen and I have no idea what that could have been. Most of them have been getting over it but I have had to doctor some and a couple of potty calves have died. Yesterday I got the whole bunch in and doctored about 20 head that had a loose stool trying to get a handle on the situation. It's not a life or death thing right now but it definitely is irritating.

It just makes it feel like 2008 is starting on the wrong foot here. I know it's not but damn, it's irritating.

When in danger or in doubt, run in circles scream and shout. Lazarus Long

We got a little snow the other day. it didn't amount to much but it's nice to see it white around here. It makes you think it is winter at least. The calves are eating their hay in the background. taken 12/31/2007.

Some of the calves eating their cake. Not all of them have learned to eat it yet. now that we have started feeding hay the rest should learn no problem. Taken 12/25/2007.

The replacement heifer calves peacefully grazing on a hillside. They've been on a protein tub type supplement since weaning and have been doing great. It's about time to start feeding them though. Nutrition levels are getting pretty low in the feed. Taken 12/12/2007.

Some of the replacement heifer calves this year. I was getting a little shy of color in the herd so I kept a couple of red ones. I like to see that color once in a while. They must be a little prejudiced though. They are always hanging together like the black cattle aren't good enough for them. Go figure. Taken 11/15/2007.

The calves grazing along during our recent snow fall. All the other critters were wandering around looking for a hay bale to be delivered to them. The calves don't know yet they get fed in the winter so weren't waiting for it. Taken 11/20/2007.

The calves grazing on the Crested Wheat Grass hillside. This is a real sandy, south facing hillside so the new green grass has really come in under the old grass and they are really enjoying it and doing good on it. Taken 10/29/2007.

The eight head of calves that ran the furthest from my wreck the other day on their way home. They still had a couple of miles to go here and they were getting pretty tired. As soon as I put them where they belonged they stopped and rested. They were tired little critters. Taken 10/16/2007.

About a week and a half ago my freshly weaned calves got to running and tore up a little fence and some of them were in the wrong pasture. No big deal. This kind of thing happens and I didn't mention it here. We got the ones that were out back in and went about our business.

I screwed up though. I didn't go out of my way and count them. I just assumed they were all there. Yesterday we got them in and counted them in preparation to working them. Damn was I surprised. Nineteen of them were missing.

I knew right away that they went missing on the night of the wreck when they got to running. The question was where were they. I right away knew they weren't any where on my place. I had ridden or driven all of my pastures since the wreck and I would have seen a sign of them so I could discount that. That really only left one place they could be. The Padlock Ranch north pasture next to me. Not a pasture I see on a regular basis. I was not looking forward to looking around this pasture. Thirty six sections under one fence. Quite the large, rough pasture.

We started driving around the big north and within a very short time found 11 head of our missing calves. We drove around for a little while longer checking out the south side of the pasture when I decided to let the hired hand get the ones we found in while I drove around looking for the rest. I was looking around the water holes on the north side when I decided to check the corner where the north end of my spring pasture meets my northern neighbor and the Padlock pasture I was in. Lo and behold, I discover that the fence in the corner into Padlock and my northern neighbor is all tore out like my other fence that the calves tore up while running. So now I knew where to find the rest of my calves.

I went back and then we trailered out with horses to where I thought the calves were and sure enough, we found 8 calves in with the neighbors cows and they were all accounted for. We went ahead and cut them out and drove them home.

So here is how it went. Something spooked the calves in their pasture. They ran until they hit the corner probably about a 1/2 mile. They then kept going to the next fence, about 3/4 of a mile and took it out. For some reason at this fence they took a sharp left turn and kept going. About 4 miles later, yes I said 4 miles, they hit the fence on my northern end. Eight of them kept going straight and the other 11 took a sharp left turn into Padlock. How much further they ran then, I'm not sure.

I've had some calves get to running before but never this far and do this much damage. The hired hand thinks a mountain lion was chasing them. I really don't think so. A mountain lion is not a distance runner like this. I think they just ran because they were scared. Not a single calf shows a sign of wire cut or anything else indicating they had run through 3 fences. I do know I wish I was a bird or something watching the whole wreck. It would have been interesting to see.

No one succeeds without effort... Those who succeed owe their success to perseverance. Ramana Maharshi

Some of the Replacement heifer calves grazing along on a beautiful fall morning. Taken 10/8/2007.