Moving Bulls to Wrap Up My Internship

#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk

I finished my last week of my GrowinG-WY Internship at the Nelson Ranch, pulling bulls off the herd. A problem we faced was when we were moving the bulls into a holding pasture. There were other bulls currently in that pasture and fighting between them occurred across the fence. It was very difficult to pull seven bulls back that were in the pasture, and get them off the fence. There were several times that the bulls almost went through the fence, so our main focus was to keep them moving.

Another problem we faced occurred while we were hauling a skid steer; we blew the tread off one of our trailer tires. That day I learned firsthand the importance of placing the load you’re hauling in a certain position/location on the trailer to make sure the trailer is balanced by the weight distribution and that the pressure on the tires is not too much.

One thing I would challenge from this week is the watering system at the ranch. As I know how expensive and difficult it is to put in, I would argue that the benefits out way the costs. The cost may be significant, however, the benefits include no need to check water every other day, wasting diesel, the wear and tear on the water truck, and the time it takes to go out to several pastures to fill the tanks.

Something I plan on doing with the information that I have gained throughout this whole summer is to take into consideration every time I work at a ranch, to make sure to ask questions and try to learn even more. As you know, this summer did not start out how any of us intended, but the outcome was great. The amount of knowledge and experience that I have gained from working at both places and the ability to question why they do things the way they do it and to hear if it was based on science or based on “that’s the way our family has been doing it for years.” As school starts and we get back into classes, I am excited to tell my peers and new students about the GrowinG Internship opportunity and how it is the best route to take to get hands on experience and to learn more outside of a classroom setting.

Submitted by: Mckenna McGraw
Edited by: GrowinG Internship Team