Shipping Calves

It was about four weeks ago that we weighed our calves and found they needed to gain a little more weight. Now they've put on the pounds and are ready to head out from our isolated ranch. Three empty livestock trucks arrived yesterday morning and we followed them down to the feed yard.

As one of the truck moves into position, the calves are watching. The calves get excited anytime anything different is happening. There typically is one that will go out ahead and do the investigating while the others hang out in the background and wait for the sign that it's okay to approach.

Any time cattle are bought or sold, the brand inspector has to be present. The brand inspector is a state position started in the old days to prevent cattle rustling. Cattle rustling might sound like something from the old Wild West days, but it still unfortunately occurs.  

Here are some of the calves waiting in a pen to be weighed. The basic process for shipping calves is to gather them, weigh them, and move them onto the truck. During this process, the brand inspector checks them as they pass by.

Here are some of the calves walking to the scales. This one in the front is a black baldy, with a red angus behind. You can brush up on your cow knowledge here.

About 30 calves were weighed at a time, using the Howe scale inside the scale building. They weighed about 800 pounds each. My husband would like to point out that the Howe Scales sign is made of enamel and is at least 50 years old, but still looks like new.

After being weighed, the calves are sent up this chute to the waiting truck. The chute makes them go one by one, or at least that's the idea. Sometimes they get overly excited and try to jam in there and get a little stuck. Frequently they aren't too keen about leaving the sunny desert, and don't really want to get on the truck, so have to be prodded.

Here's a view of the chute from the side. The livestock drivers and a cowboy are doing most of the work getting the calves up the chute and into the trucks. The number of calves going on each truck is determined by weight, with a 50,000 pound maximum load. That means each livestock truck carries about 60 calves for this trip. The trucks have upper and lower levels and gates inside to keep the cows from getting all bunched up.

As the last of the calves are being loaded, it's time for the business transaction. As you can see, it's a little informal out on the ranch. No big hardwood desks are needed--the trunk of a car will suffice. 

The ranch sells calves a number of ways. Some are by contract a year in advance, locking in the current price. Others are by auction. And this bunch were sold by contacting Producers Livestock and having them find a buyer and arrange shipping. They are sold at the current market price, which is down about $0.30 per pound from last year. Ouch. With the much higher fuel and fertilizer prices this past summer, it makes it really hard to make any profit.

Next it's time to write a check to the brand inspector for his services. The truck drivers are standing on the side, chatting before they get in their trucks and drive 12+ hours to eastern Colorado.

With a loaded cattle truck in the background, Desert Boy can't resist taking the opportunity to get on Kate. He likes being up high, pretending he's a cowboy. He's gotten old enough he can stay in the saddle by himself, so it probably won't be too long until he's riding for real!

Today there are six more livestock trucks coming. The calves that are leaving were born last February or March. Just a few days ago, the first calf of this year was born--we'll be heading out to visit it soon!

Sheepherder's Party

This weekend we went to the Sheepherder's Party out on the Utah/Nevada stateline. This area, generally called the West Desert, has been a big winter sheepherding area for over a century. This party is put on to encourage sheepherders, sheep owners, and others involved in the sheep industry to celebrate their heritage and to take a break from the mundane routines of winter.

Denys Koyle, owner of the Border Inn, organized the event, which went from Friday evening to the wee hours of Saturday night. Friday night was a dinner and sheepherder's stories; Saturday was a pancake breakfast, presentation by Sour Dough Slim, a dinner, and the sheepherder's ball, with lots of good music to kick up your heels to. 

Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons opened the program Friday evening with remarks.

Some of the actual sheepherders came. There aren't so many of them anymore as transportation has improved. Nevertheless, they still do a lot of the sheepherding the old-fashioned way, living in small sheep camps, riding horses to move the sheep, and having only their border collies and sheep dogs for company most of the time. At one point most of the sheepherders were Basque, but today they are all from Peru. 

Sourdough Slim showed off his excellent musical abilities and sense of humor.

The program included those of all ages, including young Melanie singing a pretty song in her pink cowgirl hat.

This gentleman showed off a quilt his made. He explained that he wore the elbows out of his wool shirts, and they would mysteriously disappear from the closet. He wanted his wife just to cut the sleeves off to make short-sleeved summer shirts, but she used them to make this beautiful quilt--her 100th quilt!

The emcee was the hilarious Hank Vogler. His son got up to take his turn at filling the room with hot air.

No program is complete without a little cowboy poetry. Here is the Sheepherder's Lament by Jack Ingram, about the difficulties of getting a wife while herding sheep:

And then came something new for me: cowboy yodeling. I really enjoyed it. If you want to hear more, Sourdough Slim will be performing at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada the end of January, or you can get CDs from his website.

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!

The Oldest Cowboy

I'd like to introduce Lee, the oldest cowboy in this area. He recently turned 89, and although he can't see and hear like he once did, he still works and loves to ride his horse and herd cattle.

Lee much prefers to be outside, no matter the weather, than sitting in the house in front of the TV. He became a cowboy at age 13, and has been one ever since. His wonderful wife has kept him well fed so he has plenty of energy to go out and keep the cattle in line.

Here's Lee herding some cattle just a couple weeks ago. He makes riding look so easy. I hope I can be in half the shape he is at his age.

Recently KSL news ran this short clip about Lee to celebrate his 89th birthday. Be sure to check it out--it's quite inspiring, and the comments are really fun to read!

Desert Boy Meets Some Goats

Desert Boy and I visited Aunt Tana's zoo yesterday, and Desert Boy had a wonderful time getting to meet some goats. Aunt Tana keeps several goats, and during the winter she welcomes the milk they produce for her family and also for any bummer calves. (Bummer calves are calves that are abandoned by their mamas and have to be fed by bottle.)

This is one of the Nubian goats. Tana knows much more about them, but she was busy playing football so Desert Boy and I just visited for fun. In a future post I'll tell you all sorts of interesting details about these goofy goats.

The goats had lots of fun making noise. Desert Boy had lots of fun making noise too.

The goats were very interested in the little person hanging out with them.

It didn't take Desert Boy long to get up close. 

I love the eyes of this goat. If it looks a little strange, it's because it doesn't have any ears.

Desert Boy got a little braver and started petting the goat.

The goat was quite happy for the attention.

Then Desert Boy started climbing the fence to get into the goat pen. Note the goat in the background carefully observing the action.

Up and up.

Almost to the top! But Desert Boy didn't go in. He hasn't figured climbing over fences yet, just climbing up. The sounds of the goats and Desert Boy were fun, so here's a short video for your enjoyment.