Ranch Work

We had a successful ranch working day yesterday.

The cowboy (Bo) arrived right on time

at 8:00 (instead of 7:30)

(amazing how just 30 minutes makes

such a big difference!)

He unloaded his horse and 2 of his dogs

and we headed out into the WAY back

pasture so he could round 'em up

and bring 'em on in.

Kyle left me in one of the pastures

and ran back in the CanAm to open/close

gates as needed.

Good thing he did, Bo ended up needing

2 more of his dogs and Kyle was able

to get them out of the trailer and 

bring them up to him.

These are his 4 working dogs.

The light one in the back right corner

got stepped on and cut her foot,

but she was walking on it, so its not broken,

just gonna need a wrap for a couple days.

That was our only casualty for the day.

Which we were very happy about.

Bo brought the cows in, and then unlike 

the other two cowboys we have used,

didn't just tie his horse up.

He used him to cut and sort and

brought the cows through the chute

in 3 smaller groups.

It was all very calm, quiet, efficient

and IMPRESSIVE!

We loaded up the alley way with as many cows

as we could stuff in there at one time.

Keeps them calmer and doesn't give them

enough room to do any damage with those horns.

He walked along the catwalk and

pulled seeders which he then handed to me,

I traded him the seeders for the gun.

He then walked the length and gave each

cow a quick shot in the neck

and then traded that gun for a 5 gallon

jug of fly spray and gave each cow

a long squirt along her spine.

DONE.

So slick, efficient, and IMPRESSIVE!

Pile of pulled seeders.

After doing 3 groups, I looked over

to see how many we had left to work and

realized we were all finished!

He had seamlessly cut all the calves

and they were standing in a bunch in the corner.

We had a new calf (the last one) born on Saturday,

she needed an ear tag, 

so he hopped on his horse and roped her.

She was SO tiny that when he "heeled" her

(caught her by the back leg)

the rope wouldn't pull down tight enough

to catch her tiny little leg.

He ended up roping her around her middle,

hopped off his horse, I handed him the

ear tag gun, he popped the tag in her ear

and that was that.

We pushed the babies out through the

holding pen and out to their Mamas

who were waiting just on the other

side of the fence.

We got started just a few minutes after 8 and

finished just a few minutes before 10.

We were expecting delivery of a rental bull

at 10:00 so we were pretty pleased!

If you are interested, here is a little 4 minutes

video I made for Rod since he hasn't

been out there since Kyle made his modifications.

The bull guy ended up having an issue

(he thinks coyotes got in his heifer pasture

which resulted in a bunch of downed fences

and loose cows....)

so the bull didn't show up.

In fact, Kyle drove over this morning and

picked him up.

He is now safely in the back pasture with

Kyle's cows.

Kyle is sitting on his CanAm with his Kindle,

"supervising" since the neighbor also put HIS

cows out with his bull.

This morning.

In an adjoining pasture.

The bulls are each walking the fence line

(there is a 20 foot alley, 2 square wire fences,

a barbed wire fence and an electric fence between them)

making noises and faces at each other,

but we imagine they will settle down and get

to work pretty soon.

The neighbor's bull is MASSIVE

and Kyle's rental is a much smaller, much younger 

little guy. He'll get the message pretty quick.

Fingers crossed.