We gathered cattle Saturday afternoon and put them all in one pasture and then Sunday morning we drove them down 2 miles to the corrals. We separated cows, steers, heifers and strays. Branded and ear marked a couple of head that were missed last winter during the branding round up and everything was run through the chutes for vaccinations and doctoring of minor wounds. We shipped out the steers and most of the heifers to market and some of the heifers went to another pasture for three months to dry up the cows before coming back as replacement brood stock.

Today three of us went back to the corrals and drove all the cows back up the 2 miles to their home pasture.

All of this was done in 103 - 106 degree heat so that I get to shoot ground squirrels, rabbits, hares, coyotes, etc. on the 1800 acres the rest of the year.


Yes, it's worth it!

I had a similar arangement years ago when I lived in Grand Junction Colorado.Besides moving cattle we also had to bail! My rancher buddy than provided all the gear and horses and guided us for bear, mule deer and elk in the Avon ,Edwards area. Today condos at 9500ft. Great cow man,terrible shot. Nice memories. roger

Fjold: Well at least its behind you for this year!
I have fallen into these type situations "many" times!
I have done the cattle drives and seperating the calves from the mothers and such but I dread the most the "branding" parties where my rancher friends castrate, innoculate, brand and then inject growth hormosne "tubes" in the calves ears! These are a "bunch" of work and distasteful work at that!
It almost makes me want to become a vegan!
I have taken the VarmintSons on several of these "branding parties" and they got right in the mud and the cow dung and the flies and the heat and the squalling and held their own!
It served - if no greater purpose - than to impress upon those VarmintBoys that their chance at a college education will keep them from having to bust their humps all day in the heat and dust of manual labor!
And secondly that yes their hamburgers and steaks don't just appear at the local Safeway store without work and endeavour and money investing by humans, along with the fact that those steaks used to be alive!
The worst "trade off" I ever got involved in was a fencing project for a Mule Deer Hunt inorthern Wyoming!
Two elderly brothers who had split the family ranch after the passing of their parents got to feuding!
And I mean feuding!
Among other things one hired a surveyor and found out that one of the other brothers fences was 100 yards into his land. The 100 yard infringement ran for 2 miles! My mission (and I am so sorry I chose to accept it!) was to help the one brother move the fence the 100 yards! In other words we had to take down one fence and the posts, roll up the barb wire dig new holes 100 yards over and put up the fence again. I went through one pair of heavy leather gloves EVERY DAY! And it took 8 days for 4 of us to move that damned fence! We had to deal with sweltering heat (mid 90's each day - high 70's each night!), ticks, Rattlesnakes, dust, rusty barbed wire wounds, slivers, sunburn, windburn and poor water - the whole time!
Well I earned my free Mule Deer Hunt and got a dandy Mule Deer that fall but I would not go through that ordeal again for anything!
I knew the ranch owner charged $1,200.00 for his 7 day Mule Deer Hunts on that ranch and like I say I would not go through that ordeal for $5,000.00 cash pay AND a Mule Deer Hunt!
Additionally that particular strip of land the offended brother gained was such poor grazing land that I am sure it would not support 2 cow/calf pairs! Most of the ground in question was gray badlands gumbo!
The one brother that was friendly to me asked me to come and shoot some Prairie Dogs a couple years later and I "carefully" felt him out about the "invitation"! Yeah, it turned out he had more "chores" in mind for me. I declined!
Good luck next year on the 1,800 acre spread!
The Ground Squirrels here are about to go under for the rest of the summer (starting August 5thish).
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I used to work Cattle in AZ when I was young and dumb. 110 in the shade and there was no shade range steers who though they were really wild cactus and snakes, scorpions and flies that bit anything. I do not miss that at all mostly except somtimes late at nite when I think back on my life. I got to do just about every thing I ever thought I wanted to do.
From Cow boy to cop I done it. My Dad said I was crazy, but I sure would not do any of it over. Or maybe i would like to do it all over again, it really sucks getting old.

quote:

Originally posted by blinddog:
it really sucks getting old.

roger

quote:

Originally posted by blinddog:
I used to work Cattle in AZ when I was young and dumb. 110 in the shade and there was no shade range steers who though they were really wild cactus and snakes, scorpions and flies that bit anything. I do not miss that at all mostly except somtimes late at nite when I think back on my life. I got to do just about every thing I ever thought I wanted to do.
From Cow boy to cop I done it. My Dad said I was crazy, but I sure would not do any of it over. Or maybe i would like to do it all over again, it really sucks getting old.

I went from swinging my feet (horseback) for a living, straight to Submarines in the US Navy. Talk about culture shock!