By Jade Meinzer
September usually marks the start of fall works on many ranches. Cows are gathered and the calves receive their pre-weaning shots, neighbors come from all around to help one another and there begins to be a crispness in the air. It’s a time of year that marks the beginning of the end of the ranching cycle. See ranching is one of those seasonal jobs that everyone talks about. When the winter winds blow and the snow piles up, that’s ice breaking and feeding season. When the grass is just starting to bud and the snow and ice begin to give way to hurricane force winds, that’s calving season. May and June are the season of branding calves and taking cows to grass and if you are lucky, there is about a week’s pause before haying season starts. Haying season will run all summer long. Between mowing, raking and baling, there is water to check, cows to move from one pasture to the next, kids’ baseball, rodeos and the county fair. Haying season seems to go by the fastest, though we really aren’t sure why. From haying, we go into the fall works and weaning season. The calf crop that we worked hard to keep alive in March and April has grown big on summer grass and is now ready to be weaned and begin the next chapter in their life. By the time the trucks roll into the yard to haul calves to their next home, we’ll be chopping ice and feeding cows again.
Ranching is largely about preparing yourself for the next coming season. Every step that you take to make the next season easier will only help you later. Buying bulls that are known for calving ease and turning them out in the summer will make you be thankful come April when cows can have calves unassisted and get them up and going before a spring snowstorm chills them out. Spending the winter months updating and maintaining your hay equipment will likely keep you from pulling your hair out in the hayfield the following summer. Fixing leaky hydrants is never a pleasant task, but it is better to do in the warmth of summer than it is to get an icy bath in the winter.
It is impossible to plan for every scenario. Life has a way of throwing curve balls at you. The best that we can do as stewards of the land is to plan the best that we can, so we aren’t in panic mode when something upsets our apple cart. Fire, droughts, floods and sickness outbreaks are all a part of ranching. If we plan ahead, we can likely solve most of these problems without too much fanfare. When you think of all the projects, tasks and problems to be solved on the ranch it is an overwhelming thing. I was once told that you eat an elephant one bite at a time. That’s the same way that you tackle huge projects. One step at a time.
Aside from the business of ranching and the demands of the job every day, don’t let yourself get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. It’s ok to not be busy every day. It is perfectly fine to take a family vacation occasionally, and it’s just fine to say no to some things. Theres only so many hours of daylight and working in the dark is for hoot owls and coyotes. That’s all for this time, keep tabs on your side of the barbed wire and God bless.
If you would like to purchase a book written by Jade full of all his ranching stories, please email mysideofthebarbedwire@yahoo.com for a signed copy or they are available online at Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, etc. These make great gifts for the upcoming holiday season.