A Feeding Frenzy - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

Come on Home, Little Doggie

May 14, 2014 by Allison

Ah, spring turn out time. One of the most wonderful and stressful times of the year. Wonderful because it means that the cows are out, the calves have been branded, and they only need a little maintenance for the summer. Ok, we move them like every week, check water, and doctor as needed… its still a lot of work but it doesn’t seem like its so hard.

We probably are happy for it to be over because that means the stress of the spring turn out it gone too. Right now we are separating our cows into 3 different groups- some to be run on the BLM ground, some to be on the Forest ground (it really shouldn’t be considered Forest though, there are NO forests out here!) and some to other Forest ground. The stressful part about all of this is that when you start separating the herd, you have to make sure that you get all of the babies with the right mommas. Or that none of the momma’s forget that they have a calf (oh ya, it happens…).

The worst thing that can happen is the pairs not pairing up once they get to the new pasture. A baby without a momma isn’t going to survive. Sure they can steal milk every once in a while (funny thing about cows, they will only nurse their babies… but I roll like that too), but they aren’t going to get enough nutrition to grow. So we do ALL that we can to make sure this doesn’t happen.

But every year it seems that we have a few doggie calves. Do you want to know the best way to pick them out? They have poop on their head. All of the time. The best way to steal a bit of milk is to come from behind. The hazards of that are getting pooped on… poor huggers….

But back to our doggie calves. We just bring them home. Leaving them to die is like throwing money away. And its just not very nice. So we do what we can to make it work. Like have a milk cow or two around to nurse them. These cows are kinda funny, because they love to mother these babies! They stand by the barn waiting for feeding time. They sit by the gate and talk to them during the day (well, I don’t know if they really talk to them… I just think that sounds like what a momma would do). And no matter how many calves, they mother them all.

Its rough being a doggie-ed calf, but come on home. We’ve got a momma that will love on ya!

Suckling a Baby Calf

March 4, 2014 by Allison

A rancher takes on a lot of jobs on the ranch. That includes being the on-call lactation consultant.

There are a handful or reasons that calf has a hard time nursing. Some problems come from the cow not realizing that they have a calf to care for (you would think with all of the work they did to get that baby here they would stick around for the rest!). Others times momma just doesn’t want to let the calf suck and pushes him away (or kick and head butt).

But sometimes its the calf that is having issues. It could be because he doesn’t have the energy to do it. And then there are times the calf just doesn’t know what to do or where to go to get the milk.

This is when The Rancher comes to save the day!

Once again we head to the maternity pens and get the cow settled since she might be there for a bit. Our approach to help the calf depends on who’s the weak link (obviously). Just getting momma and baby in the pen together could be enough. But when its not we will put the cow in the head catch and hobble her legs to make it easy for the calf to nurse (without the hard love kicks).

If it is the calf not knowing how or not having the energy to nurse it means that there is a little more work for The Rancher. A good place to start is just pointing baby is the right direction and squirting a little milk in his mouth. If he doesn’t take the cue to start nursing… then we just keep trying.

One of The Rancher’s go-to strategies is to start the baby sucking on one of his fingers. Once the calf is sucking hard, he will slip in the cow’s teet. If he keeps sucking, we are good to go. But sometimes baby just doesn’t get it. And as the last resort we just milk the momma, bottle feed the baby and leave them in the maternity stall. There are times that doing less and giving them space is all they need.

Who new that The Rancher could be such a terrific lactation consultant?!

Wintertime Horses

February 25, 2014 by Allison

Every few days The Rancher takes a bale of hay out to the horses. The last few times that he has gone to feed he has a slight issue… the horses have been getting out! He pops the gate open, drives the tractor into the pasture and then once he has cleared the gate out they go.

But being the ever vigilant ranch wife I’ve been there to the rescue. I mean, you can’t really miss eight horses running down the road. I feel guilty admitting this, but I do love to see them run. Its like back in the day when bands of horses would run wild, free… and crazy. Ya they were crazy, but still beautiful!

It really only took a minute to get the horses back to their pasture on those few days they were out roaming. Giving a good cowgirl whoop and holler is just the trick to get those horses to turn back. Do you think it would work to get my kids to come back like that?

One fine morning we had the privilege of helping The Rancher feed the horses and we must have been good luck. Not a single horse ran out! They must have known that I wanted a few photos. I love a winter shot of the horses in the snow. Their long, thick winter coat is its own kind of beautiful.

Hauling Cows to the Calving Pasture

February 18, 2014 by Allison

The Rancher has sighed a big sigh of relief last week. All of the cows that were home (about 500) have been hauled to the calving pasture in Locomotive.

It took 3 days to get them all moved down and we jumped in to “help” take them down

Now that we have all of the cows moved we will be making the trip down to check them, but Locomotive is a great place to calves out our cows!

Feeding Cows With The Rancher

February 15, 2014 by Allison

I love going out to feed the cows. Maybe that is because it gets me out of the house or it gives me a chance to play with my camera or maybe its just being back to my cowgirl element. Whatever it is, I love to be out feeding cows.

The Rancher… ah… not so much. He’s not a fan of those things that he has to do over and over, repeating it everyday (read that in a bored, droning voice). It always makes me laugh when he reminds me of how he doesn’t like those jobs. I am the queen of doing the same thing over and over- breakfast, dishes, lunch, dishes, snacks, dishes, dinner, dishes, clean, laundry… repeat. Its a good thing that I’m the house wife and he, well… isn’t.

But back to feeding cows, something The Rancher’s does everyday- that’s what we were talking about. We have a pretty handy system- I cut the net wrap on the bale, he rolls it out to the cows. Then repeat, about 8 times. We have the big group of cows, the bulls and the first time heifers.

I’ll admit that The Rancher has some pretty awesome tractor skills. He makes it look easy to pick up, drop, roll, nudge, or tip a bale. But I know different. I’m not completely inept with a tractor but I certainly couldn’t do it with such finesse.

Out to Feed

February 12, 2014 by Allison

The cows are heading to Locomotive. They are due to begin calving within a few weeks which means it is time to get them to the calving pasture.

Locomotive is such an ideal place for our cows. We hardly get snow there (or at least enough to matter) so it makes for a dry, warm place for babies to be born. NOT to mention that they are so spread out, that one momma doesn’t take another baby by mistake.

Ya, we really like calving out in Locomotive.

And since the cows are leaving, the kids and I have been taking a few mornings to go out and feed with The Rancher before we missed our chance. There were even a few days that he actually needed me to be the one to cut the net wrap! Oh, the things that make this rancher’s wife happy…

Pavlov’s Cow at Feeding Time

January 25, 2014 by Allison

Once upon a time there was a great psychologist named Pavlov and he had a dog. He trained his dear pooch to drool whenever he would ring a bell. At the beginning of his experiment, Pavlov would ring the bell each time he set out the dog’s food. Soon enough the dog learned that when the bell rang he would get food and of course would drool profusely when the food arrived. Eventually the dog would start drooling just when he heard the bell, even before he would see the food.

We have cows much like this dog. Ok… no… not really. They don’t drool and there is no experiment happening on the ranch. But over time they have learned that when the feed truck drives through the gate it means feeding time. Its cool to see our cows come running when ever the feed truck goes through the gate!

More Than Just a Bale of Hay

January 16, 2014 by Allison

Feeding cattle can seem to be a simple thing. Just spread some hay out there and the cows will be good, right?

Nope. You have to realize what hay is- it is energy and nutrition. This is how our cows get all of those essential vitamins and minerals and the calories for energy. There are things that will affect the quality of nutrients in our hay, things like the soil it is grown in, the amount of water it gets while it grows, and lots of other stuff.

After we grow our hay we (or our friend, The Cenex Man) usually take forage samples and have the hay analyzed to determine its quality, especially the quality of the vitamins and minerals. This is like our baseline for what our cows are getting and then we can know where we need to supplement.

About a year ago we really kicked in the supplementing game and oh boy it has made a difference. Our cows are in great condition and bred up better than they have in a while.

The nutrition of our cows is HUGE because it directly influences our calf crop- a healthy momma is more likely to get bred on her first cycle, which means she will calve earlier in the season, giving our calves a longer time to nurse. Her milk will most likely have more nutrients to pass to her calf to help him be stronger and healthier.

Ya, nutrition is SUPER important! ‘Feeding’ is a lot more than what it used to be when you consider that it includes putting out mineral, salt, and liquid protein.

And lets not forget that it is a great chance for this momma (that gets cabin fever WAY too often) to get out of the house. I guess I have my own reasons that I support the extra nutrition we give the cows!