Hi I’m Mike.
The bulls on the ranch have one job, and today, well they get laid off.
Its time to give them a break and get them moving on their way to their winter home,
which is usually, easier said than done on our Wyoming life.
My plan was this morning to head out early and start sorting bulls off of the cows and
their calves.
The weather however had different plans and doing it in the rain, doesn’t really sound
like a whole lot of fun.
But that’s ok, gives us a bit of time to clean the shop and talk about the dirty side
of the ranch.
If you haven’t already, take a minute to subscribe, we are headed into the busy season
here on the ranch, in just a couple of weeks we will be taking calves to auction and the
ranch will receive its main paycheck for the year as our calves move into the supply chain
that goes from local producer to feedlots and finshing producers and eventually to packing
houses, then to your home.
Before we can get that far, we have a few housekeeping things to do, cleaning the shop
wasn’t one of them, in fact the first fall task that usually needs done here is taking
the bulls off of the cows.
Taking them off is a simple way of saying that we will be removing them from the herd
of breeding cattle on the ranch.
This will stop any breeding that may still be taking place and allow us to control our
calving season a bit better.
The bulls have been with the cows since July, in that time, they have had just about all
the fun they can, and hopefully have impregnated the entire herd.
We wont know for sure until we bring them in next month for their ultrasounds but our
usual success rate in breeding is about 92 to 95 percent.
We have 5 bulls out with the cows right now, and its time to start the process of bringing
them home.
However, with the current rain, we are stuck in the shop for a bit, but that isn’t a
bad thing, cause it gives me some time to think.
In the past, we have always sorted the bulls off and walked them home, it takes a couple
of days.
We don’t like to walk the bulls too far in one day and although the journey is only
about 5 miles, its better to let them take it easy.
They are pretty wore out, those girls really work them over.
So over those two days, we make them walk the five miles, then we put them on a trailer
and take them to their home across the road for the winter, that we call the bull pasture.
You might ask, why we don’t just leave the bulls in with the cows all year long?
And I would tell you that its in order to control when calves are born.
That’s the main reason, if moms are only with the dads for a couple of months of the
year, then they will only have calves for a couple of months.
Then when its time to sell those calves, they are all closer to the same weight, and bring
better prices at auction, what some buyers call an even herd.
The other reason we take the bulls out of the main herd and put them off by themselves
is for our safety.
You never know what a cow is thinking, and that goes doubly so for a bull.
Most of our bulls weigh right around or a little over 1 ton, or 2000lbs, over 900 kg,
or get this one, almost 150 stone.
By the way, if you ever wondered, one stone is 14 lbs and the measurement is still widely
used in the UK and Ireland, mostly for human body weight.
I’m guessing a bull would much rather say he weighs 150 stone as compared to 2000lbs,
its just more slimming and looks better on your drivers license.
Alright, back to the topic, Mike.
A bull can mess you up pretty quickly, and my personal preference is to always know where
they are.
Mixed up in a herd, you might not see one until hes right on top of you, sometimes literally
and having them in their own pasture for winter is a much better way to control where they
are.
Plus I think they kind of like it, they can compare notes on which cows are the hottest
and which ones, well might be a bit cold.
With the shop cleaner, and the rain letting up, its time to go to work.
We know why we are moving the bulls out of the breeding cow herd, but I can tell you
from experience, you never know how its going to go.
We have 5 bulls to find in a herd of 150 or so cows or so.
With the weather, I’m hoping the cows are bunched up but it doesn’t surprise me when
we see cows scattered over the few thousand acres that they call their summer pasture.
The only way to get find the bulls is to get right into the herd and since we are going
to be moving the bulls toward home, the closest ones are the easiest to move first.
The first bull we find is a young red Angus bull.
This guy is 4 years old.
This is his second breeding season on the ranch, and when we have been checking bulls
and cows over the summer I noticed that he developed a bit of a limp on his front leg.
I can tell you a few weeks ago, it was much worse.
And although I can’t tell you what happened to him, I can speculate.
Bulls aren’t very graceful and I have seen a number, when they come down off of a cow
after breeding, land wrong and injure, sometimes even break their legs.
Bulls also fight, that can cause injury, and yes we do have rattle snakes.
Bites have been known to cause a limp as well.
The good news is, this boy seems to be getting better and we can start moving him toward
a little vacation from the girls.
Along the way, we pick up a couple of other bulls that are close buy, another red angus
bull who seems agitated already and a black angus bull.
When it comes to breeds of bulls, I like red angus bulls, they usually seem a little more
laid back and easy going than the black angus, but today, it seems like this one has something
up his craw and just wants to be a pill.
As we move toward the fenceline, usually the plan is to walk bulls or cows along it.
Letting the fence work for you as a barrier to the cow, then once they figure it out,
its just a matter of finding a gate to the next pasture.
As luck would have it, we have an old gate just ahead of us, where we can push these
guys through and into a separate pasture from the girls of the ranch.
I don’t think I have ever opened this gate, and its definitely got an interesting latching
system, it looks like an old lawn mover blade has been repurposed to hold his panel closed.
Kind of ingenious if you ask me, but also holding this gate closed is some sagebrush,
that has had the last few years to grow up and through the gate.
With bulls and now cows and calves coming along with me, I better get this thing opened
or give up and move to the next gate down the line.
Sagebrush has insanely deep roots, 12 feet deep under the soil, so pulling it out is
probably out of the question, but by finding where it holding on, I can fish it back out
from the panel and eventually get the gate open.
And after all the prior interest, now the bulls are bored with me and moving on.
But eventually with a little coaxing, we can get all three of the boys through and they
take off to check out their new pasture, as their girl friends say goodbye at the fence,
And we can put this gate back up and lock it again, like the lawnmower man.
I have no clue where the other two bulls are, I do know that one is red and the other is
black.
And its just a matter of finding the cows to find them.
So we begin scouring the pasture, with absolutely no luck.
Mile by mile we travel from here to there and each and every black dot, or red dot for
that matter is worth a look.
I’ve been through this before, searching for hours and never finding that missing bull,
and then the next day, he just shows up, so I’m not to worried when I cant find either
one.
But when I travel over a hill and see a black body in a pond, that catches my attention.
I think this is our missing black bull.
It looks too big to be just a cow, and although I was just over here the day before yesterday,
he wasn’t here, and this pond, didn’t have this much water in it.
This storm might have dumped more rain down here, this pond is in a wash out area and
maybe he got stuck in the mud, we have seen it happen before and its never something you
want to deal with.
Here in the next few days, I will have to come down and pull him out, and take care
of him, get him buried and thank him for his years here on the ranch…
With that, its time to head home.
Our missing red bull will turn up, I have no doubt and I’m cold and wet, and for now
the bulls can rest, as they start their trek toward home.
Triumph is usually followed by tragedy, or sometimes it’s the other way around but
here on the ranch, its no different.
That black bulls fate really couldn’t have been changed by anyone, and that is the risk
of having cows on summer pasture and it being so far from home.
We check cows constantly, but with the vast amount of land that it takes here in the plains
of Wyoming, I’ll be honest with you, you can’t be everywhere at once.
I absolutely hate losing any animal on the ranch, and it does affect me personally, at
the same time, I know there are hundreds more that need our help as well.
But death is something that I never want to get used to on the ranch, I’ve lost cows
while in labor, I’ve had sudden cases of bloat and yes, we have had cows drown before
and we will deal with all that over and over again.
It’s a part of ranching, there’s a saying that says if you have livestock, you will
have deadstock.
Doesn’t mean you have to like it.
Next step for the bulls will be moving toward home, after we find our missing red bull,
who I am sure will turn up tomorrow, probably with a big grin on his face.
Thanks for subscribing, hunters at due here today for this years antelope season, opening
on the 1st and as you know we always have a lot of fun with those guys and coming up
next week will be replacing the engine in the gator, so that should be an adventure
in itself.
Follow on Instagram and facebook, as we continue to bring you along, and explore the ranch
life and escape the ordinary.
I’m going to go and warm up a bit, but until I see you again, have a great week and thanks
for joining us in our Wyoming life.