Drone Work , Ranch Hand Skills

#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk

This week the ranch gathered and trailered cattle back to the ranch. This operation started last Saturday and will continue until the herd is fully recovered. The goal of the initial phase was to retrieve significant manageable portions of the herd and drive them to the ranch. This was accomplished in two major groups, with the latter trail started today (Sunday) and will continue over the next two days. The next phase will focus on preconditioning the cattle, in addition to rechecking the forest and locating the remainder of the herd. In support of the gathering and trailing operations, I provided logistical support and performed drone operations for the first four days. I shuttled vehicles and riders to infil and exfil locations. Between shuttling, I utilized the drone for reconnaissance of the forest to identify locations of the cattle.

We also utilized satcom devices to communicate the locations of identified cattle to ranch riders. The second four days (Thursday-Sunday), I rode out and assisted in finding and moving cattle to the staging allotment. Riders averaged 10 mountain miles per day. Once enough cattle were in the staging allotment, the cattle were trailed back to the ranch over the next two days. This was performed in two groups. For the first group, I was asked to utilize the drone to monitor the progress of the drive and perform logistical support. For the second group I assisted the drive on horseback supporting the drag over the two days.

During this period, I reflected a lot on my past military experience and leadership in general. I was specifically reminiscing on a leader’s ability to plan, to communicate that plan, and its impact on personnel morale and performance. It is imperative, especially for extensive multi-personnel and multi-day operations that cover tens of thousands of mountainous acres, for a semblance of a plan to be in place prior to execution. This plan should be communicated on daily basis and to all personnel. The plan should address strategy, communications, schedules, logistics, emergency procedures, meals, weather and other items critical for success. For instance, what is the strategy? How long are we there for? What is the end state or what is the description of a completed job? Are there phases to the operation? Are meals going to be provided? Who is going where? If something goes wrong, what should you do or where should you go? How is everyone to stay in contact or overall communication plan? What if someone gets hurt, what first aid is available? Not having a plan, induces risk to success and to individuals.

The internship has been a wonderful opportunity to develop skills as a ranch hand. I have had the opportunity to advance skills in both horsemanship and stockmanship, but still have many related questions that I will continue to press my mentors with. For horsemanship, I specifically want to learn how to field-assess the health and welfare of a horse. Additionally, how to adequately address negative horse behavior. When a horse exhibits bad behavior, it can be acting out because it is lazy, poorly trained, or is in pain. As I am learning, the ability to identify the difference is very important to ensuring the animal is safe to ride and in good health to perform the task over a prolonged length of time.

As for stockmanship, I have had to learn how to gather and manage the movement of cattle through rough terrain in both small and large numbers, as an individual and with a team of riders. I have learned the importance of the different positions in a large cattle drive and different approaches to implementing them. I was also mentored and saw first-hand when one position fails and its impact. With this knowledge I know that there are still many things to learn, specifically on how to identify sick cattle and safely doctor them. In addition, every day brings a new scenario that requires rapid adaptation of prior experience and training.

I plan to continue to advance my horsemanship and stockmanship skills. For horsemanship, I plan to continue to expand my understanding of horse welfare, training, and overall riding skills. For stockmanship, in addition to items identified above, this week is preconditioning cattle. This is a new overall activity for me and I’m excited to learn more about related considerations and undertakings of preparing cattle for sale. In addition, I plan on continuing to advance the training of my personal horse who did extremely well in the mountains and during the cattle drive this week.

Submitted by: Tim Bauer
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team