More photos from the calf roundup

Here are some more scenes from the old-fashioned calf roundup and processing day. Above is a shot of the cowboy getting both of the calf's hind legs roped. Success!

Although mostly the cowboys were doing the roping, cowgirl Tana gave it a try. She got right in there and started swinging that rope around her head.

Here she is concentrating. See the rope going across her thigh? She roped a calf!

Here's Tana and her horse keeping the horse in place as the processing team goes to work. Tana said she didn't think she was going to be doing any cowgirling that day, hence she didn't get all dudded up.

Here are three cowboys wearing the "proper" cowboy attire. They're waiting as the calves they caught get processed.

Back in the truck little Aron and Desert Boy didn't really know what to make of each other. It will be interesting to see if they grow up to like what their outfits reflect. Aron may be a cowboy like his daddy while Desert Boy may prefer tractors and machinery like his daddy. Or maybe not!

Even Ashley got into the action helping, despite being nine months pregnant. I wish I looked that good when I was nine months along!

It was a busy, fun day.

Here's a mama cow checking on her calf. All the calves quickly rebounded after getting their shots and found their mamas for comfort.

Caleb and Desert Boy watching from the back of the truck. Caleb also got down and sat on calves and carried supplies.

This is a cowboy from another ranch who came to help.

Here's cousin Clay. He roped quite a few calves. Clay was the youngest roper, at age 16, while Lee was the oldest, at 90. Both did very well.

Ranchhand Tim was having a great day. He much preferred processing calves this way to the calf table in the corral like he did last year.

Here's the processing team waiting for the calf to get the last vaccination before being released.
Merlin is from another ranch. He was clearly experienced in roping and consistently brought back a calf every few minutes.

Fortunately it wasn't a very windy day, because the horses and calves did raise a bit of dust!

Definitely the action was more exciting, but the back of the truck crew had fun watching! I was glad to have the opportunity to be there for awhile on the warm spring day. This was the first time our ranch had done the calf processing the old-fashioned way, as far as anyone could remember (although I didn't ask Lee, and he would be the one to ask!). I guess it's time to go practice my roping skills so next year I can help out ;)

Lunchtime Horseride

We headed over to the cookhouse at lunch the other day and saw some horses were joining us. Desert Boy got very excited, but we told him he had to eat some food before he could ride a horse.

After lunch, his new buddy Baby Aaron rode with his dad. Desert Boy watched and wanted to get on, too. He had to be patient and wait a little bit. That's not easy for a two-year old!

Nevertheless, Cousin C got on his horse and Uncle Dave took Desert Boy over to greet the horse, Shelley.

And then Desert Boy got to ride. He was tremendously excited. 
But he still managed to mug for the camera. He's well-trained!

Desert Boy Visits the Horses

Desert Boy loves to go visit the "neigh-neighs." That means horse in toddlerspeak. We've been working on him learning to stay on his side of the fence, even though he can climb under or over the gate.

He presses up as close to the fence as he can and whispers to the horse. This is Scooter, by the way, a strange looking horse that is often friendly with kids.

Sure enough, Scooter understands what Desert Boy wants and comes closer for a friendly pat.

Then Desert Boy gets distracted and tries out some tires. Whaddya know, he fits!

After awhile, that gets old, so he's off to look for other distractions.

He finds another "neigh-neigh" and beckons to it.

The horse comes over. Even though he's small, Desert Boy knows how to get along with the animals!

Wild Horse and Burro Facility, Delta, Utah

In November I wrote about a wild horse roundup, and I figured it was time to follow up with what happens to those horses after they're rounded up. I visited the wild horse and burro adoption facility located in Delta, Utah. This is one of 23 holding facilities in the U.S., with a total capacity of 15,295 horses and burros. About 58% of the horses are between 0-4 years old, 26% between 5-10 years, 6% over 11 years, and the remainder unknown.

The Delta facility has a capacity of 300 horses, but according to the latest online monthly report about horse holding facilities, it is currently holding 320 horses. There was a well-advertised adoption held at the Delta Facility in late January, but only 8 horses were adopted. That's pretty pathetic. It's understandable, though. Most horse lovers already have the horses they can afford. With the current economic condition, feeding a horse puts a large drain on a budget. Under current laws, horses can't be killed, so once a person buys a horse they're stuck with it unless they can find someone to buy it. Many people who think about getting a horse are scared off by that.

That means that the unwanted horses are put into long-term holding facilities. There are 11 of these facilities, primarily in Oklahoma and Kansas, with a total capacity of 22,100 horses and burros. As of 2/01/2009, there were 22,203 horses in them. 

So that means that the long-term holding facilities are maxed out. Some of the short-term facilities like Delta are maxed out. Where do the horses go then?
The BLM acknowledges it has a problem--in 2008 it spent $27 million for horses in holding facilities. The General Accounting Office has made some recommendations to the BLM--largely that they work with Congress to get new laws passed to figure out ways to humanely deal with these unwanted horses.

Meanwhile, the horses still have to be fed, paid for by our tax dollars. 

If the horses are left out on the range, there will be large-scale ecological consequences, like trampling of springs, overgrazing, and possibly additional disease. 

Thinking about this issue is kind of frustrating, because there is no easy solution. But it can't be ignored just because it's difficult. 

Weighing Calves

It's that time of year to weigh the calves and see if they've put on enough weight. Our ranch raises calves until they're about 850 pounds, and then they're sold to a buyer who will finish them, or raise them until they're between 1,200 and 1,300 pounds. Because we live in such an isolated area, it's not economically feasible to finish and ship cows from here. 

First the cowboys gathered up the calves and herded them into holding pens. Then about 50 at a time were send to the scale.

Here's our oldest cowboy, Lee, working on the frigid morning. Not even cold weather keeps him away from rolling out of bed at 89 years and getting his horse ready to work calves.

And here's my sweet-faced nephew Ryan holding the gate open. He probably wouldn't like me calling him sweet-faced, seeing as how he's a college man now. You can see it's cold by all the layers he's wearing, including his thick green hoodie, work jacket, and warm wool cap with ear flaps. Those ear flaps are really nice, they keep your ears nice and cozy.

The calves run past my hiding spot and towards the scale.

The cowboys make sure none run in a different direction. The scale is huge, it weighs semis with trailers full of hay. Once all the calves are on the scale, they close the gate.

Then my brother-in-law Dave goes into the scale house to weigh the load of calves.

It's an old Howe scale, 1930s vintage, and it still works great today. The state Scales and Measures comes out and inspects it every year.

Then it's time for the calves to get off the scale and go to the next holding pen. My brother-in-law Tom tells the calves where to go. (And they actually listen!)

Once a few calves lead the way, the rest are ready to follow.

He's carefully counting as they go by, as are other cowboys. It's important to know how many calves are in each load so the total weight can be divided by the number of calves, and the average weight per calf calculated. On this particular day, the average weight was about 800 pounds.

Here's Kate, ready for the weighing to conclude so she can help move the calves back to the area they came from.

This horse was particularly friendly and let Desert Boy pet her quite a bit.

After the last load of calves has been weighed, Lee and Ryan come out, along with border collie Heidi, and they are all ready to move calves. My husband told me in advance where the next good camera angle would be, so Desert Boy and I started walking in that direction.

Only Desert Boy found a distraction and took off at a run towards this John Deere tractor.

I don't help him climb up--I figure if he wants to get in the tractor bad enough, he'll figure out a way. And he did.

Getting up on the driver's seat was a little tough, but he was determined.

What are you looking at, Mom? Of course I can drive this big tractor even though my feet don't reach the pedals and I'm really bad at steering.
Our little detour didn't let me get in a great spot for photos, but I did manage this one with Lee herding the calves on the other side of the equipment yard fence.

And a few minutes later, all the cowboys were heading back to the trucks, mission accomplished. They know the calves need to eat for a few more weeks before they'll be leaving us. At this stage, they're gaining about four to five pounds a day. I mean the calves, not the cowboys, although hopefully they all had big holiday dinners!