Calf Crop - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

Eliason Branding 2015 Day 2

May 15, 2015 by Allison

I love rainy days! For so many reasons… Of course because we need the rain- we need the rain SO badly. But I love the rain because then we slow down a bit and I have time to go through the HUNDREDS of pictures that are calling to me. So… without any further time… here are some long overdue pictures. Pictures from our second day of branding.

There’s a funny story that goes along with this day…

Since we were branding out on the range and camping out that night we had a lot to take out and a lot of rigs hauling it all. We all eventually make it and get to starting. The early comers had already started gathering the cattle in so the late arrivers started pulling out the equipments. We think, “everything looks good…” We have half the cows we usually have to do, all day to do them, and lots of good help. This should be a great day!

The herd comes in, the cows go back out and we get the fire started. The Rancher and Rancher Sr. start pulling out all the stuff that they carry around and need for each calf. They sharpen their knives, I fill their syringes, they grab their taggers and tags… No tags! We had no tags! (actually we had like 22, maybe- but still not enough!) Kinda an important part of the day!

We just kinda twiddled our thumbs about it and got started anyway. But uh… no tags, fellas! Eventually we decided that we would tag all that we could and kick them back out to the mommas. Then we branded, vaccinated, castrated, marked- did EVERYTHING except the tags, to the rest of the calves. We held them all until had more tags, which only happened because The Ranch Boss had graciously volunteered to drive home to grab tags to save the day!

The cowboys didn’t mind too much that we had a kink in our day. It meant that we weren’t pushing too hard, which gave them a chance to do a little extra fun roping. They pulled out their fancy big loops once in a while and headed and heeled a satisfying amount. We got the work done, ate some good grub and marked another day down in the books!

Click “read more” below to see more photos!

Eliason Branding 2015 Day 1

May 10, 2015 by Allison

This last week I had the scariest thing happen… I thought I lost my external hard drive! It stores all of my photos and if it was gone I was gonna be in big trouble. And heartbroken. Mostly heartbroken.

But I found it!! This means I can finally share the many MANY more pictures I have.

Today’s tale and pictures to post- our branding!

With having so many cows at home to calve, we had so many calves to brand here on the ranch. We made a weekend of it, inviting cowboys and cowgirls out to help. Day one consisted of all the calves on the ranch- two heifer groups and 3 cow groups. The nice about when we did these was that they had already been tagged, castrated and given one shot. We sailed through these calves! For most of the day I was giving shots on my own and I could barely keep up! It also meant that there wasn’t a lot of down time to take pictures. So not a lot of day one… Mostly a shot here and there between groups, set up, clean up… But stay tuned for day two!

Click the “read more” link below to view the complete post…

Becoming a Real Cowgirl

May 1, 2015 by Allison

Ever since I married my cowboy I have wanted to rope. I grew up riding and working cattle, but we never got into roping. We were more on the cutting end of the cowboying. In fact, I still get cranky when I see a cowboy miss a good cut or turn because he was looking for a better shot to throw his rope. However, I do want to be a real cowgirl and learn to rope.

Over the last couple of years I’ve taken a swing or two with a rope at a dummy- some really intesnse cowgirl stuff. But more recently my husband and his brothers have taken it upon themselves to finally get this roping thing down. They have taken me out on some of their less intense branding days, where there wasn’t too much to get down that I could either slow down or get in the way. Actually that’s not true… I know not to try roping on the busy crazy days because I want to get home before dark or we run out of fire!

It was all good and fun but I wasn’t really figuring it out… Until just a few weeks ago!

I was honestly ready to give up and say that I just didn’t have it in me to be a roper. But The Rancher brought me along to one more branding. He gave me the experienced horse that would take his time (maybe he is slightly lazy…), put on my brand new saddle and I strapped on my new spurs. I had everything I needed to rock this branding. Oh wait- I didn’t have a rope!

We show up to our good friends where we were roping. There were 160 calves to brand and we were ready to get going. The Rancher just grabbed some old rope out of the trailer and we headed out. And I was terrible. I couldn’t hardly even keep my coils straight, couldn’t swing the rope to save my life, and missed every calf I tried for. For as many times I threw that rope I should have caught one by accident, even snagged one as it walked over my loop… but I didn’t.

I was ready to turn in and promote myself to the ground crew when one of the cowboys rode up to me, took my rope and traded it for his. He said there was no way in … that I could catch with that thing! He rode off and I figured I oughtta give it one more go, just to humor him. And guess what happened- I caught!

The very first loop I threw caught a calf! I just about forgot to dally because I was so surprised and so elated. I got my horse turned to the fire and drug my first calf in, get congrats and hoorays from everyone along the way- you would have thought I had just won the lottery for as excited as we were! They slid off my rope and I was out for another calf. I had to try again to make sure it wasn’t just luck, although I was sure that my friend must have rubbed a bit of luck on it. But as I kept going at it I kept catching. It was like I was really figuring it out! There was one time I had my arm up just right, rolling my wrist just right, and threw my rope just right. The rope landed right in front of those back feet just like it was supposed to. I was so excited that I totally forgot to pull my slack and actually catch the calf before he stepped back out…

I went home that day floating on clouds. I wasn’t a perfect roper or the best roper, but that day I finally became a roper. Now that I have my own saddle (because one day The Rancher said, “We need to get you your own saddle” and no good cowgirl says no to that!) some sweet new spurs and my own new rope (full of calf catching luck) I am on my way to being a real cowgirl.

*** I don’t have any picture roping that day, but I do have a few from a few weeks later taken by my sister in law, The Montana Girl.***

Association Branding- Day 1

April 15, 2015 by Allison

We ad our first glorious day of branding our BLM cows with the association over the weekend. It was pleasantly a typical day with no surprises. The wind blew, the food was great, we all returned home covered in dust and we got a lot of branding done.

In between giving calves shots (because that is my specialty) I had some time to take some other awesome shots! (I guess I really am specializing in one thing!) There were some fun moments for me to capture- like a pair of pants that just didn’t last the day and are beyond repair! Of course my little boy always has his rope in hand ready to attempt to rope a calf.

I even had a new memory to capture… There were a few boys with a grocery sack they passed back in forth throughout the day as they were collecting all of the testicles. Why? I dunno… Maybe to give to their dog or cook up for themselves. But I wonder if they kept them… Cowboy E kindly fried up a rocky mountain oyster for them. They weren’t impressed with the taste… AT ALL! In fact I think one boy said that it was absolutely awful.

Then there were the classic moments to capture… I always find a face or two grimacing at the stink of the singed hair or carefully placed quick the calf just gave. The cowboys always turn out to be photogenic and ready for a photo shoot.

Brandings have to be some of my favorite ranch life moments to take. There are the cows, the calves, the horses, the cowboys, the newbies, the oldies, the cooks… So much to enjoy. And now that I’ve rambled enough you really can enjoy!

A Little Cattle Character

March 27, 2015 by Allison

I like cows… And I like them for more than eating. I actually think they are really funny to watch. They have their own funny quirks and personality. I may humanize them a bit, ok a LOT bit. But it keeps things interesting.

The Rancher probably thinks that I am crazy and he probably gets tired of my cow watching, but he just gets to deal with it. I’m sure that he gets sick of me taking the cow’s side when I say things like, “I wouldn’t want to run if I was 9 months pregnant!” as he is chasing cows. Or when he frustrated with a cow that just won’t hold still as they preg check her, I tell him I wouldn’t want someone’s arm up my huh-huh and would DEFINITELY squirm. I may even occasionally tell him he deserves some of the mean-mommy-attitude because he is messing with their babies and the inner momma bear just isn’t ok with it.

Having so many cows at home this winter has given me lots of subjects to watch. They turn into a bunch of obsessive old ladies when it come to feeding time. They have to be the first one to the hay and if another cow starts munching on the wrong flake they sure tell them. They get to head buttin’ and kickin’ and eventually push them right out. “You’re outta the herd!” You can hear them saying that, right?

The babies are their own kind of cute and fun when it comes to watching them. The first attempts at getting up are so wobbly and even funny! Is that mean of me? (I’m sure someone laughed at me when I first started walking, so its all ok…) It doesn’t take long for those babies to get strong and fast and they race across the fields. We’ll be out feeding and you see dozens of calves just take off running. Usually there is one old cow babysitting all those calves and she starts bellering (is that a word?) for them to come back… Darn kids…

I’m sure I give these critters more personality than they may have, but I love the bit of cattle character we see. With so many of the blasted things around, why not change it up a little?

So Many Calves, So Many Tags

March 20, 2015 by Allison

Having tripled the number of cows that are calving on the ranch that means we get to spend a significant more time tagging. And if we don’t spend a good chunk of tagging every day the number of calves needing tagging really piles up. In fact, we did have a few days pass by where we didn’t get to the tagging, which meant The Rancher and Rancher Sr. spent nearly the entire morning getting caught up.

The hard part isn’t necessarily that there are so many to do. Yes, it takes more time from their day, but they just expect that in the midst of calving and tagging season. What really stinks about missing days of tagging is that the calves get bigger and faster in such a short time. If we get to them within the first day of being born, they don’t really take off or aren’t too fast on those new legs. But give them a few days and they get a little stronger and a little wiser and take you for a chase! I tease The Rancher that its the best way he gets his running in. If he really wanted to go running so bad, he could just come in the mornings with me rather than letting the calves get too old. As you can imagine, he just rolls his eyes at me…

Tagging for us is pretty simple. With the heifer calves, we match the momma’s number to the calves. That’s mostly because they tend to forget which calf is there and need a little help (I’m so funny…). But its helps us to make sure everything is pairing up ok. With the older cows we are tagging the pure bred calves with an orange tag vs the sem-angus cross calves with a black tag. We differentiate which ear heifers and steers get tagged. Just a few things for us to see about the calf when we look at it. They all get their first round of shots and then the boys get castrated with a rubber cheerio.

When I write it all out like that, it seems like a lot more than what we do in reality. It only takes just a minute. And that sure is a good thing with so many babies and so many tags!

Late Night Babies

March 16, 2015 by Allison

Life would have it that whatever crazy that could happen, will happen at just the wrong time. I mean, we all live a life with Murphy stopping in for a visit. Some even have a spare room for Murphy… Calving always brings good ol’ Murphy along for a stop in, but fortunately for us it hasn’t been too frequent!

Really our calving is going great! (but now that I have spoken it out to to the blog world we are doomed, I’m so sure…) These first time mammas are doing terrific. There is always an occasional issue of one heifer trying to claim another but that’s easy enough to handle. And not too many have needed help birthing. Only a handful have had calves big enough that the cowboys have stepped in to pull it. And then all of the babies are doing well to jump up just as soon as they splat on the ground. We really can’t complain.

But there are those couple of times of craziness that keep us from letting our guard down. There was a freezing, moonlit night that particuarily comes to mind. It was a cold night, but I’m sure that it seemed so much colder because as late as it was, I was all so cozy and ready for bed. But every calving season we need one bed time calf pull.

The Rancher had gone out for a meeting just as dinner was ending, promising it would be quick- only like a half hour or hour at the most. I knew better but it wasn’t a big deal because I would just put the babies to bed and have some time to myself. The kids bathed, we cleaned up toys and settled in the chair for some stories before bed time. It didn’t take long for sister to fall asleep and I was left to snuggle with The Rancher’s Sidekick. We had just finished Curious George when The Rancher came home, two hours later! He said a quick hello, grabbed his flash light and headed out again, this time on the 4wheeler. It was his week for the late check, so it wasn’t a big deal. It turned out to be a big deal when he came right back home. A check that quick means something is up and required icky clothes.

My suspicions were confirmed when I heard him on the phone calling Rancher Sr. asking for help to pull a calf. The heifer had started before he had left and it had been long enough that it was time to get the calf out. Of course she would need to be pulled just after I had pulled on my pjs and was minutes from getting The Rancher’s Sidekick to bed. But the ranch girl in me wouldn’t miss a chance to help. So we bundled up, pjs and all, to help dad pull the calf.

Getting the heifer in the maternity pen proved to be an issue of itself. They generally go in pretty well when they can see where they are heading, but getting them in during the night has its own issues to be dealt with. Just imagine a cow in labor running while you chase her having only a spotlight to help you see all while still trying to drive the 4wheeler… fast… When the chase gets that intense, I opt to sit out because experience has told me that The Rancher can get a little crazy. I choose life, thanks… I think that they traipsed across the heifer hill so many times that they hit all for corners, nearly went out the gate, and then finally made it in.

Looking at the heifer we were pretty worried because things did not look normal. There wasn’t a bubble showing or feet poking out. It just looked weird. Lucky for us, everything was going fine but it was just a huge calf. A LUNKER of a calf. After some intense pulling and pushing and groaning (from the cow, not just me) we had a baby. Having babies of my own has made me quite sympathetic and I think that every time I watch those heifers calve I push right along with them. Its tough work!

The happy arrival of this baby heifer wasn’t the end of the night. Yes this story had a happy ending, the momma licking the baby and baby struggling up. But while The Rancher and Rancher Sr. were getting this momma in, they noticed another calf. A hardly licked off teensy baby without a momma. Abandonment is not really conducive to survival. Kinda common sense, but not all heifers have it. We buzzed around what seemed like forever until we found who we figured was the mom. We tried chasing her over to the baby. We trying just letting her go over to it herself. We tried getting her into the maternity pens. And all she would do was run. If it were me, I’m pretty sure I would park myself and not move- going for a run after birth doesn’t sound good to me! But this cow had something else on her mind and just did not want to take care of her calf.

At that point there wasn’t a lot we could do but wait and see. The calf was in a good place for the night so we opted to let them play things out and we would just keep checking in on them. We headed into the house to thaw our frozen cheeks. Come morning the darn cow STILL hadn’t claimed her calf. And with the morning came more attempts to get her in and get the calf on her. At that point we opted to just take the calf and put her on the milk cow.

Now why couldn’t all of this craziness have happened in the sunshiny day rather than the freezing night? I dunno… There must be some sort of quota those cows have to fill of keeping us up in the night. On the plus side, at least we only had to go out once. And we got to finish Curious Gorge before our wild night began!

Bringing in the Babies- The First Look of the 2015 Calf Crop

March 11, 2015 by Allison

There are so many babies at our house! I love it! In fact, I almost don’t know what to do with myself… Actually… sadly, I haven’t run out to frolic with the new babies as much as I would like. But I still get to drive by them every day and see them enjoying the hot sun. Occasionally I’ll get the privilege to run through the cows to check for any newbie (that really means that everyone else is gone and I’m the all they got to keep an eye on things.. HA!).

And when I do go out I grab the kids and the camera and we enjoy a few minutes in the nursery. There are a few fresh babies we have found, some very protective mommas that we have kept our distance and lots of cute squeals from my babies about the new cuties!

A Midnight Bust

January 30, 2015 by Allison

I was looking back over the posts from last year. Sort of reminiscing about what was happening this time last year and then just kept scrolling. As I was going through, I realized that there are some stories that I never shared. These are the stories that are worth telling. You know that because they are the stories that I can still remember after so much time having past…

I live by the theory of better late than never (you know that already for all of the times I’ve taken you back!). Looking back this was a crazy, comical night but at the time it was frustrating, nerve racking and … I guess any issue that begins after dark at the end of a long day is doomed to be a hair puller

We had just gotten out of the shower (I say we because we everyone had to go through my shower that night… Why do we have 2 bathroom when we only use mom’s?) when I heard the 4 wheeler buzzing around. People usually don’t go for a moonlight ride so I knew something was up. The Rancher slipped into something more fitting for the ranch then his jammies while I put the babies to bed. Finally when I made it out to see what was happening (because The Rancher had been gone long enough for me to know that it was bad news- whatever it was) I learned that the most recent batch of weaned calves had escaped the corral and were heading in all sorts of directions. They went up the highway, down the highway, to the shop, to the haystack and to the alfalfa… awesome…

The Rancher and Rancher Sr. were buzzing around bringing in what calves they could find. You see, finding black calves in the dark of a moonless night is tough to do. You hear them before you ever see them and unless you have GREAT hearing you just might think you are getting around them but really you are heading straight out them. When I first showed up I just waited for orders from the cowboys. It was a long wait… So long I gave up waiting for their instruction and took it upon myself to guard the gate. It didn’t take long for me to see that as many calves got brought in would wander out. Not very productive…

So I guarded the gate. And it seemed to work. The boys would whoop and holler and bring the calves and I would keep them from escaping. Every so often there would be a handful that made their way to the gate and I was able to get them in (so proud of myself! Earning so many rancher’s wife stripes!). But the handfuls started getting bigger and more frequent and I began to realize that the blasted calves were hopping the fence and walking back to the gate. I had been putting the same calves in over and over! GREAT… Rancher Sr. came in and as soon as I could I explained that we weren’t keeping them in… Making no progress. So we got what calves we had and pushed them in the corral. Finally safe. Locked in. j

We did this dance of getting the calves in the back pen, running to open the small man gate to the corral, pushing the calves to the gate avoiding the holes in the fence, and trying not to pee my pants every time they scare me as they come around the hay stack.

Eventually the calves stopped coming and we figured we could call it a night. All was left to do was lock the gates up good and PRAY that nothing spent the night in the alfalfa to bloat or on the road to get hit. Come morning we found we were blessed to keep the calves in for the remainder of the night and the couple of strays that spent the night roaming didn’t die.

Looking back on this Thursday night I remember what an exciting eventful fall night we shared when the calves had their midnight jail break. You could almost say we had a romantic night with the only lights of the starry sky (and the few flashlights and 4 wheeler headlights) but I’m sure that’s not how The Rancher looks back on it. A little anxiety and a lot of relief. Maybe he won’t want to relive this Throwback Thursday memory!

The End of a Satisfying Year

November 14, 2014 by Allison

The first week in November is always a big week for us. Over that week most, if not all, ranchers in the valley sell and ship their calves. We calved out these babies, grown them over the summer, and then put the weight on them since weaning. I’ve said it over and over-this is the day we work for. Sale day is the day that makes every other day possible. And when its over we can finally relax (its only for like a day until we start thinking about the next year!).

We have had amazing growth over the last two months and it really showed on sale day. They were chubby, so chubby that we weighed in heavy! Seriously, fantastic! When we contract our calves, we contract less than what we have (mostly to hedge our bets because occasionally we contract before the calves are even born!). When we weigh heavy and have more calves than in the contract, that means there are more we can keep and sell on the side. Its like having two paydays! We do keep back anywhere from 90-115 heifer calves to keep for replacement heifers the next year.

The morning of sale day we bring the calves, already sorted into steers and heifers. We weigh all the calves, getting an average weight. Based on that weight, our broker will pick out any calves that he won’t be taking and then we reweigh those (to make sure we have the MOST accurate weight down). After the work of sorting and moving and weighing and reweighing its time to load the trucks. Once those trucks are full, they drive off into the sunset and we all live happily after. Ok, not really… It was noon so more like driving into the sun…. And its not all sunshine and roses, but having another year behind us is as sweet and satisfying as any fairy tale ending!