#Agchat

What is Fear?

21 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I’ve heard it said that you don’t know what true fear is until you’ve been chased down by a mad mama cow. Now, as someone who’s only been on a ranch the past five years or so, I don’t have a lot of experience tagging calves or being chased down by mad mama cows. I do know, however, that according to the boys, most of the time they’re just bluffing.

Part of my lack of experience is that In the past we’ve left the calves untagged as they were born, and then tagged them at branding where they’re separated from their mamas. I have, though, done the majority of the tagging. Give me the tagger and I’m quite comfortable. This year is different as we decided to tag the calves to match the cows. And since I’m not skipping out on Winter and Spring (like when I’ve gone South in previous years) I have been here to help calve heifers and tag calves in the pasture. My experience so far this year has been that most of the time, the mama cows ARE bluffing.

Wednesday, (May 1) I was out tagging the calves of our first calf heifers. I’ve tagged quite a few of these on my own this year and it doesn’t bother me to be in there with them. Most of these heifers are gentle and nice to be around. There were four calves already tagged, and I needed to tag four more. In the early morning hours of Wednesday, #466 had had a calf . She kept a very close eye on me that night during checks and anytime I got close she met me halfway. I didn’t even get that close to her calf. I just had to get close enough to see that he was doing well.

Wednesday afternoon I headed out to tag calves, as I planned to tag them all, then go get my horse so I could sort the pairs off and kick them out to the trap. I got one of the registered calves tagged, and figured I’d just best get #466 out of the way. I wasn’t really relishing having her in that lot with her calf any longer than necessary.

I had my tag in the gun, and headed over to her calf. She was having none of it! She took to me when I got close and I was only saved by ducking around a round bale – where she promptly hit the bale with her head. I decided I might should try to catch another calf to tag, and I’ll be darned if that ol’ bag didn’t hunt me up from halfway across the pen, and pen me up against a hay bale where she kept me for five minutes. Anytime I tried to move she’d charge me again. I actually thought she was gonna come over the top and really get me. Of course, I’m standing there, in the middle of this pen, with nothing but a tagger to throw at her. I did manage to toss a wad of hay at her, but even that didn’t deter her.

It was a Mexican Standoff of sorts. After about five minutes, she went back to her calf, so I was able to slink off, drawing as little attention to myself as possible, while formulating a new plan of attack, which would involve my horse, Dino.

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The “Mad” Mama

I saddled my horse, trotted down to the corrals and began to sort off the tagged pairs. I kicked three of them out, and then figured I would need to clear the corral of her (so I could tag the other 3 calves). I set about sorting her off. She actually threatened my young horse, but he’s cowy enough to stand his ground, and call her “bluff”. I was able to put her and her calf into another pen then waited for her calf to go to sleep and put her in the barn so I could tag her calf with no fear of retribution!

Once she was removed, tagging the rest of them went pretty smoothly. Of course I was trying to do this with my horse in one hand, and the tagger in another. I got all but one calf tagged. Today or tomorrow #222 will get his ear pierced. I don’t think his mama will bother me, she’s just very attentive so I’ll either have to wait for him to be really sleeping good and her not be around or wait for help so I can rope him and someone else can tag him. I like option two the best. Anytime I get to rope it makes things better!

Isn’t this little guy cute?

Adorable, right?

That my friends, is a day in my life!

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: #Agchat, News From The Cowgirl, ranching, spring

The View From Here

7 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Few words needed, eh?

Happy Trails!

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The X Chronicles

6 May posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I was born on March 11, 2013. My mama was cow, #148/48. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t a very nice day when I was born. It’s been cold and snowy and cloudy, mostly. For some reason I didn’t get an ear-tag the day I was born.

I’m, X!

A couple days later, another calf was born to mama cow #108/8. That calf was tagged #x108 to show he belonged to that mama, and I got to wear an X in my ear because my real mama wasn’t around when they found me!

A few days later, those mamas got confused, and I ended up with cow #108 for my mama. My mama, cow #148 claimed the calf wearing #x108 for hers. I didn’t care though! Cow #108 loved me and mothered me and let me run and play around her. She took really good care of me. I got yummy, warm milk to drink and she kept me hidden in tall grass when it was cold so I’d stay warm. I was getting fat and strong even though the weather was rotten. It was pretty cold in March, and my mom liked to hang out in Scatter Butte creek. There was lots of tall weeds where I could sleep and stay warm out of the wind, and lots of tall grass for her to munch on.

As happens in the Spring, or so it seems, the sun began to shine and it started to warm up. The ground began to thaw, and the creek that flowed into the river became muddy.

One day, my mama got stuck in the muddy creek! The people who came to check on us everyday were able to get her out of the mud, but she had gotten too cold and she died. I didn’t know what to think about that.

A couple days before she died, across the muddy creek, in another part of the pasture, a nice mama cow had given birth to a still born heifer. Of course I didn’t know this at the time. Mama #39 stood vigil over her heifer calf for days, willing her to wake up and enjoy the world.

standing vigil

good mama

When my mama died, this nice girl on a pretty horse came down and roped me. I didn’t know what to think of that! Then they put me in a trailer and took me to a small pen in a dark barn.

While I was in the dark barn, that same nice girl and her horse trotted across the pasture and found cow #39. They were going to bring her to the dark barn to see if she’d want to be my mama.

It took a few hours of me pestering that mama cow to let me have her milk, but once she did, she loved me as good as my first and second moms!

I think I’m a pretty lucky calf to have three mamas that took good care of me!

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Confession, Heifer Style

24 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

I confess that since our heifers started calving the 11th of April, I have not worked out (save for a couple yoga workouts and trying to figure out how to do a “sit out“).

However, that’s not to say I’m not getting plenty of exercise. In fact, my legs may hate me this morning.

We’ve had snow, around 21 inches of it, on and off on the ground since April 13.

Now, I don’t know how many of you have trudged through snow wearing Carhartts and Muck Boots, with an extra three pounds of gumbo (the type of soil here) attached to your coveralls and boots, but let me tell you, your glutes and quads and calves (no pun intended), all get a workout.

I also don’t know how many of you have had to pick up a calf that may weight 75lbs and move them out of a snowbank, but I think you’re getting my my point – calving heifers can be a workout.

Not only do you do a lot of moving – sorting calved pairs from heavies (those that are close to calving), but if you’re me, you check on them all night, save for the weekends, when The Cowboy relieves me, and I attempt to get a full-night’s sleep. Then there’s the 9am text, when you’ve not slept a lot the night before telling you that there may be a calf to pull. So you go to the barn, without coffee or breakfast, and you’re covered in birthing fluids by 10am. There’s also the technique involving core muscles, that helps when you’re trudging through the semi-frozen sludge as I like to call it, at a 4am calf check. Sometimes a foot may sink, other times you may stay on top, and you have to be prepared for either!

Again, I find myself frustrated! Despite my increased activity, my 1200 calorie per day diet, and eating mostly clean, I’m still barely able to fit into any of my jeans – I’m down to one pair that I can wear comfortably – and I’m not losing. AT. ALL.

Lucky for me the weather should straighten up this week and maybe this weekend I’ll be able to head outdoors for some interval training. It’s difficult to find the energy to do additional working out when you spend your day bottle feeding calves, tagging calves, or sorting pairs and you spend your night trudging through the semi-frozen ground of the pens; mostly I just think napping sounds good in between all of those activities!

Even though I’m unhappy with my progress, I couldn’t be happier about spring, and honestly, aren’t these cuties worth a little set back?

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a pretty brangus influenced steer calf!

south dakota cowgirl photography, ranching, ranch photography, brangus cattle, brangus cattle photos

This girl is certainly one of the prettiest heifers born so far this year!

Taking a little sun bath!

How’s your weight loss journey going? I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Trails and Happy Hump Day!

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The 4am Check

23 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

The sky is clear, the moon is full, the heifers bellies are all full!

There’s something inherently soothing about walking through a pen full of soon-to-be-mamas in the middle of the night.
It’s peaceful.
Quiet.
You can hear silence.
You can hear the heiers munching on hay.
You can hear babies suckling on their mamas.
There’s snuggling between mamas and their calves.

It seems that all is right with the world at that moment. No bad news, no people around to wish you ill. Just you, The Creator, and Cows.

My heart is happy.

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Filed Under: #Agchat, ranching, spring

This Week in Pictures

19 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Happy Trails!

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Wordless Wednesday

17 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Tax Day View from 2:30am

Happy Trails!

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Filed Under: #Agchat, spring, winter weather

The 3am Calf Check

12 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

This makes my first year to calve heifers since being on the ranch.

Anyone that ranches knows that calving can get harried. It’s true, but it is still fun and we should still be glad we get to do what we do, and we shouldn’t complain about the weather, as life just is what it is. And in case anyone hasn’t noticed, we’re in a pretty severe drought up here, so any sort of moisture we get, even if it’s in the form of April Snowstorms, should be appreciated.

We, as a rule, don’t turn our bulls out until the 4th of July- it’s become a tradition for our Fourth of July fun- rope and brand calves, and let loose the bulls. That means that theoretically you don’t have calves until the 15th of April- give or take that there’s always a few that are early. As was evidenced this week by the snow that began to pound us Monday night, and the Winter Storm watch that began Monday evening and ran through Wednesday night, our late breeding date is a great idea. Instead of being in the thick of calving we’re just starting.

We didn’t have a single cow calve in the middle of the storm and that was a good thing. Wednesday night, our first heifer calved. Followed by two more Thursday. And one that needed some assistance this morning, in the wee hours.

I got the message that we were gonna have to help that first heifer at about 10pm Wednesday night. Bud checks them before he goes to bed. I was at home, with only the four wheeler available for transportation. We play a lot of musical vehicles on this outfit and that’s just kind of what ended up here. So I donned my Carhartts, made sure I had the proper attire on underneath (which this time included a camisole, a long sleeved henley, with a denim button up shirt over that), and headed to the corrals. It was snowing, the wind was relatively calm and it was 20 some degrees outside. I couldn’t help but smile kind of dumbly on the way there, thinking “how lucky I am that I ‘get’ to help bring a life into the world? That I get to be there. That I get to do this? I mean, how cool is that?” Sure I could be asleep in my warm bed but this is way more fun that sleep! You can sleep later!

There was a pretty heifer calf born that night, and I was quite willing to take the night shift since Bud always gets up early to help get his son and wife off to work. He can sleep unless he’s needed and now that they’ve begun calving, I can walk through the heifers every couple hours, scratching on their heads and telling them how pretty they are. (Lorelei, I think cows are cool. But that’s not a surprise to you!) When I went back about 2:30 am that morning to check through the girls, and see the new calf, she’d been up and already had her first meal (or two or three). My partner, Jake came with me to do my middle of the night check.

Yesterday morning I took the camera with me to take some photos.

Here’s a longhorn (also a first calf heifer) that had her calf a few days ago:

This heifer is getting close!

This pretty girl delivered the most gorgeous Brangus heifer yesterday. She’s registered and nice to be around. Her calf is no different. When I walked through them yesterday morning, this girl got up, laid down, partially laid down, got up, laid down, and then the contractions started. Less than an hour later we had a cute baby! And I missed the birth because I was moving replacement heifers!

#227 is a cake fiend. She’s certain anytime she sees you you’ve got goodies for her!

‘

Now, if you’ll excuse me I gotta go see if there’s girls that need some help!

Happy Trails!

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The Evening Calf Check…

4 Apr posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

This week, while checking cows I hauled the big camera out with me. I do this sometimes, though not nearly as often as I should, because inevitably when I don’t have it there’s bald eagles, or an owl, or a group of mulies that just jump right in front of what would be my lens and of course I don’t have the camera with me.

But, I did manage to catch this just hours-old newborn, bucking and jumping and playing, and then…splatting because her legs aren’t quite as stable as she thought!

And then I had to take a photo of a pretty Brangus cow, because, they’re by far the best cows…

Oh and these two pretty girls:

There you go friends! Real life on the evening calf check!

Happy Thursday!

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Let’s Check Cows

22 Mar posted by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

It’ the time of year when cows kind of rule the roost.

We typically calve our cows in the pasture, and this year that pasture happens to be about 3 miles from the house and corrals. Which, has made things interesting. Right now the set of cows calving were bought partially bred, which means we’ve been pulling more calves than normal. We always breed to a low-birthweight bull because we’d like the cows to be able to calve on their own and we believe it’s better for the cow to not have to have the calf pulled. The first one we pulled died, and so did the mama, the second calf we pulled (for which I had to call the neighbor because the boys left me here by myself) died but his mama is fine -always a good thing, the third pair pulled are happy and healthy and I found the fourth pair on my evening check last night – the boys pulled a big bull calf and are both doing well.

Checking on the girls, for us, is a twice a day deal. First thing in the morning either myself, Burt (who works for us), or the two of us, head out and see what babies decided to come overnight, tag them, (with a number tag to match their mama – in the right ear for boys and the left ear for girls – to make sexing easier in the fall) and then at about 5pm each afternoon, I head out again to drive through them and see if there were new babies born during the day, or if someone is struggling to calve, or if there’s a few that look close, so we can keep an eye on them. A few times I have had the big camera and the few times I haven’t I could have taken photos of Owls, Bald Eagles, mule deer and of course the babies. Calves are so freakin’ adorable.

The following photos are a combination of the last couple weeks, between my iPhone and Canon 7D. Enjoy the sights!