Hi I’m Mike, today on the project list we tackle what around here are considered the
small things, we are going to sort heifers that have already had calves and get them
kicked out with the cows, put out some supplemental nutrition for them and start prep work on
a new pipe fence that will be going in this summer, all today on our Wyoming life.
Welcome to our Wyoming life, each week we get the chance to take you along as we explore
the ranch life and we invite you to escape the ordinary with us 3 times per week.
This week is also our livestream week and we hope you can join us on Thursday for another
Ranch Talk Q&A.
Make sure you subscribe now and hit the bell notification so that you will be reminded
not only when we put out a new video but also of our livestreams so you can join us in real
time, get your questions answered, win prizes and so much more.
Its Tuesday and that means today we tackle the project list, an ever-growing list of
things that need to be done around here.
Seems like we knock one thing off and add 2 but that’s ok, its job security and it
makes every day different.
There are large projects on the board along with small ones and somedays I love just picking
a few small projects off the board and getting them done.
The large projects can take days, but the small ones may only take hours, or even minutes
sometimes.
Getting 4 or 5 things crossed off the list is a huge moral booster.
It really makes you feel like you are getting things done and at the end of the day, you
may realize you worked harder doing a few small things, catching more small fish, than
you would have if you decided to go after a big fish.
After feeding cows this morning, we are going head into the heifer corral.
In this corral are all of our heifers, or first-time moms, that are now in the process
of calving.
Some have already calved, and there are a few calves in here with them.
They still need to be checked constantly and we are still waiting for 3 more to have their
babies and then we are done.
We had a brand new one just a few hours ago but if we can sort some of the moms and their
calves off then we will have a much easier time when it comes to checking them every
few hours.
Our goal here is to move all the heifers that we are still waiting to calve up into the
top corral, I am actually keeping them out of this corral right now, just because of
all the melting snow and run off.
It has made it a muddy mess but for now we can use it to our advantage.
I keep a list in my pocket at all times of who belongs to who and after consulting it
we can get to work Shuffling these heifers, along with 80, our
oldest cow and chaperone to all these delinquents up and out of the way.
When things do go smoothly, there is always a hitch as a heifer that has already had a
calf slips by, leaving her calf in the lower corral and mixing herself up with the heifers
we are still waiting to calve.
And while trying to push her back out, we have others that want to see what is going
on.
But after some back and forth, and back and forth
We finally have all the heifers separated off.
Moms and babies in one corral and those still waiting in the other.
But we aren’t done yet, we still have to get the moms and babies out to pasture.
After double checking the list, we can open a gate leading them into another corral, before
taking them out to the cows.
Again, we go back and forth, the cows are smarter than the calves and moving calves
is like trying to herd cats but eventually everyone gets to where they need to be and
they head out.
Now these heifers have graduated to cows, they have had their first calves, they are
good moms and they begin their lives as members of our breeding herd, and their calves trail
along.
As we head to the next thing.
This time of year, the cows are chasing grass, they still come in when its feeding time but
once they are done with the hay I give them in the morning they are moving out to pasture,
eating the grass that is just starting to grow.
They are limited to a smaller area right now but the grass they are finding is not what
they need nutrionally.
One thing that fresh, newly grown grass is missing is magnesium.
These are lick barrels, they are a combination of vitamins and minerals that cows need and
these include a dose of magnesium.
Just what these moms and expecting moms need to produce more and better milk, especially
in early lactation.
These barrels each weigh 250lbs so the tractor is here to help us move them out to the field
where we will place them out for the cows.
Loading each one into the bucket of the tractor, then out to the field.
Pastures are pretty soft and muddy as well, so the tractor is used rather than just taking
them out with the pickup and rolling them off.
We also take them to the top of a small hill because the ground is less wet here and cows
will gather around them and pulverize the are with their hooves if it is muddy to start
with.
This area has good drainage and will hopefully be less of a mess later on.
Cows are curious animals and its not long before they head our way to see what we are
doing and once they realize that its food then they come in full force.
Lick barrels contain molasses as an incentive for them to eat the minerals and vitamins
they need, to them its like candy and before I can even get the covers off they are into
them.
Soon we have a swarm and its only going to get bigger and we back away slowly before
the crowd gets rowdy.
On the way back to the shop we can stop and put up our new flags.
We normally fly both the American and Wyoming flag over the ranch at all times.
This winter, with the wind mostly has been pretty hard of flags.
We normal go through about 6 per year and we haven’t had one up for a while.
We have just got new ones and now is the time to get old glory flying once again.
This flag pole has been on this ranch for over 50 years, it needs repainted, we can
add that to the project list but for now it still works and even though the wind is gusting
a bit we are going to get this done today.
And up they go, a 5-minute project that gives me a lot of satisfaction.
Last but not least today we are going to work on some fence problems.
This area behind the shop has an old wooden fence that used to be part of a corral system
and alleys.
Before we built our house, the area where it sits was a number of corrals and there
was an alley here that lead to those corrals.
Now that there are no corrals we don’t need the alley and a portion of it has already
been removed.
This summer we will also take out the rest of this white fence and replace it with a
pipe fence that we will make from a bunch of old oil field pipe that we have but before
we get that far we need to take out what is left of the alley.
Time for a little destruction.
This doesn’t have to be pretty, if the wood was in better shape, I might try to save parts
of this fence but it is pretty beat up and although I will still set it aside if we ever
need it, after all ranching is a lot about recycling, I am not worried about keeping
it intact.
Each panel is first cut out between the posts using a reciprocating saw and knocked to the
ground.
Then we can stack them up and take them out of here with the tractor and taking them over
to a storage area for fence and wood.
The posts are buried about 3 feet deep, some are rotten and I expect them to break off
when we pull them out but others will be reusable.
There are a number of ways to pull out fence posts, from chains to chain saw but these
aren’t concreted in or anything and we can use the grapple of the bucket by carefully
lining up with the post then closing the grapple and pulling slowly.
Once done with that, then its time to clean up, picking up all the wood and splinters,
finding any nails that might have fallen out and taking them over to the wood pile as well.
Days like today do leave me feeling like I accomplished quite a bit.
The saying is don’t sweat the small stuff but one thing that I have learned is that
if you ignore the small things, they quickly become big things or rushed projects that
can be completely overwhelming.
Today we have done something that seems to be a recurring theme on the ranch, we laid
the groundwork to make our next series of jobs easier.
We sorted the heifers that have already had calves off and out of the calving corral,
this will make checking them easier from here on and if we have to sort one off because
she has any birthing complications it will be a lot easier.
We got the cows much needed minerals and vitamins, hopefully making calving easier and giving
moms the nutrition they need to make better milk for healthier calves, we got our flags
up, which not only makes you feel good but also is a tool we use everyday to judge wind
direction and strength at a glance and we took out an old fence that needs to come out
anyway and will make it easier when we get to rebuilding the fence behind it once the
cows move down to their next pasture.
All through life we are always preparing for the next thing, the next project or the next
step and getting ready for it is hopefully going to make it easier or more manageable.
Thanks for your help today as believe it or not, you help keep me motivated as well.
Lots more to do and as winter hopefully winds down, things will heat up here on the ranch.
Calving is still ramping up; Erin’s gardens are getting into production already and we
will have much much more for you on the way.
If you haven’t please subscribe and come with us and explore the ranch life and escape
the ordinary, 3 times per week right here.
I look forward to hanging out with you this Thursday for a live question and answer session
at 7pm mountain time and on Sunday morning look for a brand-new video straight from the
ranch.
Until next time, have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.