“Looks like the A team today,” the vet said, as he and his assistant set up the chute. “You bet,” my son replied. Five college students from the University of Wyoming put up horses and got ready to push cows up the alley for preg checking. The one who’s nursing an injury got out the notebook and pen and settled her dog on the flatbed with an order to stay.
One of my granddaughter’s friends, who hails from South Carolina, was about to learn the ins and outs of fall work. Never been horseback before, but game for all of it. She’s a pre-med student, so Dr. Steve had her come up to the chute for a lesson in ultrasound. “See, here’s the leg bones, that’s the skull. And there’s the heartbeat.”
The day progressed quickly, with good numbers, and only one mild wreck when an open knocked down the panels and mixed with the bred cows. Watching the sort, I noticed my grandson sits a horse just like my dad did.
There’s a lot of work on ranches in the fall. Pre-conditioning shots for the calves, weaning, applying insecticide on the mothers that stay, and checking to see what percentage are pregnant. Generally, the ones who aren’t will be sold. Calves will go to market, or the feedlot to put on more pounds before selling. On our place, most of this work is done horseback, or afoot in corrals, and is just part of seasonal routines that have gone on for generations. But some of it looks a lot different now.
Back in the day, our corrals weren’t set up to work cattle in the manner they most prefer so it was common for one or two helpers to get run over, or at least put on the fence. Or for cattle to find a weak spot and break out of the pen. The permanent chute was wide enough for a determined critter to turn around, making it necessary to let the whole string out and start over. Always the first in line that turned around, of course. It took strength and quickness to work the head catch, and sometimes a critter got clean through. Keeping the chute full required placing a post behind the legs of the first couple of cows in line, and pulling it out to let the followers advance. I got a broken leg from not moving quickly enough to avoid the post a cow knocked loose as she turned around. Finished the day and limped for a time, but never knew the extent of injury until years later when a doc asked how my leg got broken.
The vet’s job was labor intensive too, and involved a long plastic glove and strong arms. I recall more than one preg checking day with six inches of snow on my hat and mud up to the knees. The vet has a full schedule in fall, and you don’t change your appointment on a whim of weather.
We used to have a city friend who liked to come and “help” with that kind of work, and one time he said, “Someday, you’ll be keeping track of these figures on a computer and technology will make the work a lot easier.” I was too polite to argue with company then, and today I’m sure glad he was smarter about the future than I was.
Meet me here next week and meanwhile, do your best. Somebody might like it.