An Evening in the Swather

Most Sunday evenings we play softball, but one Sunday evening my husband wanted to get some oats and wheat cut so it would be ready the next morning for the crew to chop. I wasn't feeling particularly ambitious, so I thought sitting in the swather (also known as a windrower) would be just fine. Plus I had an ulterior motive--the evening light on the ranch is absolutely beautiful. And sure enough, I couldn't resist snapping a lot of photos. So this post is rather long. Just warning you.

We all loaded up into the swather. Desert Boy sat on Daddy's lap, I sat in the passenger seat, and Desert Girl stayed in her car seat on the floor. We weren't going more than ten miles an hour. I feel like this is where I should say something pithy, like The family that swathes together stays together. Ack, that just sounds dumb. Maybe you can come up with something better. My excuse is that it's pretty early in the morning and my mind isn't fully awake!

I want you to notice the size of the swather. It's huge, it takes up the whole road. Keep this in mind.

We went out past the alfalfa fields, with some good clouds in the background adding a little extra drama to the scene. It's especially nice to have clouds in summer, because they signify a little shade. Considering that we have sunshine about 363 days a year (really, there are usually only one or two days a year that I don't see any blue sky), we appreciate the clouds.

A little bit of the field had already been windrowed and then chopped, the yellow part my husband was walking on. There was still about half a pivot left to go.

Here are two rows done. The swather cuts the oats and wheat, then they need to dry for at least a few hours, then a chopper comes and cuts the grain into about one-inch long segments and blows it into a truck that runs alongside the chopper. The truck delivers the chopped forage to the silage machine (which is not the correct technical term, but it makes sense to me, so I'm going to use it), and that puts it into the long, white silage bags that keep everything nice and moist and keep out the oxygen so it can ferment. Yes, fermentation is part of the process. It's supposed to be, even though it sounds wrong. It helps break down the silage so it's more digestible to the cattle.

The swather is ready to charge the field. You can see that the light is getting better and better.

The textures of the field fascinated me, from the stiff, bristly recently cut grains, to the long stalks now lying on their sides, to the still-standing oats and wheat gently swaying in the breeze.

Here's Desert Girl. She watched for awhile and then fell asleep. The rumble of the swather was good at soothing her.

Desert Boy had fun steering. He said things like, "I'm a big boy. I can drive now."

To my surprise, we saw some sage grouse out in the field, picking up dropped grains in the area that had already been chopped. Sage grouse are getting rarer and rarer (despite that, the state still has hunts for them in some localities, go figure). We don't see them all that often, so it was a real treat.

My husband still wanted to do two more rows, but Desert Boy and I were ready to get out. Admittedly, the swather does get a little boring after awhile. And even though it's a huge machine, it seems small in such a large field.


Virga (rain that doesn't hit the ground) started coming out of the distant clouds, making them look a little more threatening.

Desert Boy went over to inspect the oats and wheat, which were taller than him. We had a little safety talk about never going into a field when a machine is running in it. He listened well and was eager to back away.

Here's a closeup of some of the oats. As the country goes from being more rural to more urban, more and more people forget where their food is coming from. My husband laments this fact a great deal.

The swather was making its way back around the half-pivot in the last rays of the day.

All done for now.

The swather gets to rest. It needed to rest. It was having trouble cutting and running the air conditioning at the same time (which I will now admit is also part of the reason Desert Boy and I wanted to get out--it was getting quite warm in the cab!).

Good night, field.

Good night, deer eating in the field.

And good night, skunks.

Cattle Drive

We heard about a cattle drive the other day and went out to investigate. Off in the distance we could see a bunch of dark shapes with dust rising here and there. We cautiously approached, not wanting to get in the way or make the cowboys' job any harder.

Right away we could see some action. A calf was making a mad dash away from the group, and a cowboy and his horse galloped after the wayward young'un.

The calf had spotted open country and decided to make a run for it. It obviously wasn't thinking about other consequences, i.e. it would be lonely and hungry without its mama. This calf was living in the moment.

But the calf didn't have its freedom for long, the horse caught up and turned the calf, all at high speed.

The calf sprinted back to the rest of the cows, the horse urging its quick return. Dust rose as hooves pounded the dry, hard ground.

It was such a high speed chase that the cowboy's hat even fell off!

They're still running.The calf had strayed far from the herd. The cattle were being moved from winter range to summer range, and it was the calf's first time to see this terrain. I can feel it's curiosity, crossing over the pass and seeing so many different things. And sometimes a kid just has to run, to stretch his legs.

Hurray! Back with mama and the rest of the cows and calves. A couple of cows used the distraction to take a snack break.

Then it was time to get the cows moving again. Four cowboys and some dogs kept the cows walking most of the time. It's a fairly slow process, but with steady pushing they can cover a lot of ground.

It was a beautiful day, with pleasant temperatures and beautiful scenery. My brother-in-law Dave came over to ask a question. I took the opportunity to get some close up photos.

He still has a wide smile at this stage of the trip! He knows that it will be many more miles and hours to go.


In places a lot of dust is raised. Being a cowboy can be quite dirty work.

Now the cows are moved along the little two-track road. These cows aren't quiet as they walk along. In fact, they have quite a lot to say as they tell another cow to get out of the way or comment on the brown cow's butt or share calf-raising tips or cuss out the cowboys. You can hear a sampling in the video below. What do you think they are saying?



And then away they go, slow and steady, the sound fading as the distance increases. Quiet returns to the desert, interrupted now by grasshoppers whirring from one bush to another, horned larks chirping, and the wind rustling the squat vegetation. The moment of excitement has passed.

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 ;)