Home For the Winter

Most of the cows are now home from the mountains for the winter; the rest will come home in November. October has been a busy month, consisting of getting cows ready to bring home and bringing them home.  October 8th-11th, Thur-Sun was roundup. We went up on Thursday and came home Sunday. For roundup we take our camper up to camp and stay up in the mountains through the weekend. Those days were filled with gathering cows and taking them to a holding pasture where they would stay until we trailed home; roundup went very smoothly.

Saturday, October 17th, we pushed all the cows and their calves out of the holding pen and took them to the corrals. At the corrals we sorted cows from calves. Later that day semi trucks came up and loaded the calves and took them home so that they didn’t have to take the long walk down the trail. The cows however, got to look forward to a 36 mile walk in the next two days.

October 18th, a Sunday, the adventure of trailing begin. It dawned bright and beautiful, a little hot, but hey, better than rain or snow right? It was a 16 mile trail down the gravel road and we had tired cows ready for a night’s rest.

Day two, Monday October 19, was a little cooler and perfect weather for trailing. After a good nights rest, belly’s full of hay, the cows where ready for day two of trailing, 20 miles to home. The first eight miles was on gravel, and the last six miles was on gravel; the rest of the way was on pavement. Trailing went well, and the cows made it home to pasture in the late evening. Man, is it good to have the cows home!

The next day which was a Tuesday, we vaccinated all the calves that came home from the mountains. The cows and the calves were separated so the calves could be weaned at the feed lot.  The Steers (castrated male calves) and heifers (female calves) will be fed at the feedlot until sold.  All the steers and some of the heifers will be sold.  Dad and grandpa will pick some of the heifers to raise calves.

Thanks to grandpa I have a few pictures from the trail drive. If you have any questions ask in comments. Thanks, for taking the time to read this 🙂 God Bless!

Britt

Click on pictures for larger view 🙂

Sorry but photo’s would only work small or they would get blurry.  This photo is of Grandma, Stran, me (Britt), Molly (the sweet dog on the right), and Dunny (My horse). 🙂

Cows trailing home.  If you look very closely you can see Colton on the left of the cows and Dad on the right. 🙂