One At A Time

We told you earlier this week, it's Weanin Time!

The calves have settled, for a few days.

It's now time to work them.

Our number one ranch hand is a bit busy with his senior year, of high school, and life.

Flower Boy and I flew solo, on this cattle workin, too.

I fear this is all in preparation of when Drewman heads off to college...

He did, however, help pen the calves.

Thanks, Drewman!

We've told you before, our cattle aren't wild and crazy.

Working them wasn't a hard thing to do, with just the two of us.

We don't like to rush the cattle.

This only stirs them up and upsets them.

We take them slow and steady.

Doing our best to remain calm and not raise our voices.

We have seen other operations and folks work their cattle by pushing, yelling and screaming.

This, however, DOES NOT work for us!

 

 Problems started when the welder wouldn't stay running.

We use the welder as a generator, to run the branding iron.

Let's just say, it is not a good idea for equipment to set without being used.

After time was spent attempting to fix the welder, we decided we were wasting daylight and needed to move forward with what we could get done, for the evening.

Flower Boy laid out the ear tags and prepared the medicine.

 This would normally be my job, but with Drewman having other commitments, we had to do what we had to do.

My job, for the evening, was to keep pushing the calves up the alley towards the chute.

 I would bring in a few calves at a time.

 One at a time, I would line them in the alley.

 Note the poles behind each calf?

This keeps them from backing out of the alley.

Flower Boy would give each one a shot.

He also cut out the old ear tags, replacing with new tags.

 The old ear tags match their mommas tag number.

This makes pairing up momma and baby easier when they are in the pasture.

It's easy to see if you have a momma or a baby missing...

The new ear tags are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4...

Heifers are tagged in the right ear and steers/bulls in the left.

This way, if one goes missing, we know what number we are looking for and if it is a heifer or steer.

 

Slow and steady...

One at a time...

I pushed each calf up the alley...

 One at a time, they went into the chute...

One at a time, shots and new ear tags...

One at a time, all were released...

And driven back into the large catch pen...

They will have to have another round of shots in 10 days, before they will be turned to pasture.

Between now and then, we will get the welder fixed.

The calves still have to be branded and the bulls have to be banded.

This will happen when we give the booster shots, hopefully with the help of the number one ranch hand!

That, my friends, is all in an evening date with a Flower Boy and a Rancher Girl!

I did a pretty good job of taking pictures too.

Don't you think?