Spring Work

Sunday afternoon we got a crew together and worked the cows and calves. Every spring the cows get vaccinated and wormed and the calves get vaccinated, branded and the bull calves get castrated. We did have one lucky purebred bull calf that was fortunate enough to get away with staying a bull that day. The rest are now steers and will be ready to go to the auction in the fall when they are weaned along with a few of the heifers.

We had lots of help. We had my Dad (Lee), Ben's Dad (Randy), Randy's cousin and his son, Lynn, Austin, Ben and myself. My Mom was busy playing with Hannah. Our friend's Carrie and Garret came to watch the excitement.

I do have to admit that we don't really do it in traditional cowboy style. We don't rope or have cow dogs that are trained to help, and there wasn't a horse on the place. We even have a branding iron that plugs in to an extension cord. We have Powder River working facilities with a squeeze chute (for the cows) and a calf table. So really cowboy doesn't describe us...I think we are just people with cows from the looks of it. Would we like some of traditional items? Yes, there are definitely times when they would help. Like when the wild calf escapes out of the calf table and Austin basically has to ride/bulldog the calf back to the alley. Some days I think, "I really should learn how to rope better."

Erika vaccinating a calf.

Erika castrating a bull calf.
Did we have a rocky mountain oyster fry when we were done? NO!! The dogs had some good eats though.

Ben and Garrett (Son of Randy's cousin)

Working with a bull calf in the calf table.

A bull calf that was really glad to get out of there!

(All above photos taken by Mary Cheyne)

Garret and Hannah playing outside.

(Photo courtesy of Carrie Guthrie)