Learning at the Livestock Sale

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Over this past week I have learned about ditch irrigation and how it works. You need a tarp, a triangular piece of wood, and a shovel. The triangular piece of wood is placed in the ditch with the point down in the ground and the tarp is placed over it. The shovel is used to push the tarp into the bottom and sides of the ditch so the tarp is catching all of the water and it is resting against the wooden triangle. This is done in order to block the water and cause it to overflow from the ditch into the pasture and water the grass. The triangles and the tarps are put strategically in different places in the ditch in order to flood the pasture in spots where it needs it. I also learned about equipment maintenance. Before using the tractors for haying it is important that the oil is changed and that all of the joints are greased using a grease gun. The joints on the rake should also be greased before it is used to rake grass. This maintenance is done in order to make sure everything will be working properly when you need the equipment.

We went to Montana this week as well. We moved the cattle into different pastures and put them out minerals. We moved the cows onto a new place where they would have lots of grass, while giving the place that they were on a rest. We also counted the cows and the bulls to make sure that they were all there. I attended my learning event this week which was the Superior Video Livestock Sale. They were selling over 300,000 animals at the Sheridan County Fairgrounds. I went to this event with my host and I was introduced to a lot of other individuals who were either there to sell or buy cattle. While there, I gained insight on how to buy and sell livestock animals.

They will show a ranch and their animals up on a screen and it will list the weight, the amount, and what type of cattle they are, such as heifer or steer. It will also display a number of tags on the screen for if the ranch has vaccinated, weaned, or meet certain qualifications for having an all natural operation. Each ranch was represented by a different individual. I learned about the different types of prices that were given for the cattle. I discovered that some ranches made more money than others depending on what cattle they were selling, the type of breed, and if they had met certain qualifications or not. The prices fluctuated a lot and it was interesting to watch the bidding and to learn how the process worked. I also enjoyed meeting new people and talking about what was occurring at the sale.

I would challenge having cattle on a lease in two different spots, especially if it is a long commute between the two places. If your cattle are quite a distance away, it makes it difficult to keep an eye on your herd and to move or treat them when they need it. I would also challenge that the cattle on the lease in Montana did not need to be moved as soon as we did. I understand the concern of overgrazing, but when we traveled to Montana there was still a lot of grass and I was surprised how large the pastures were. I would also challenge using such large pastures for cows. It makes it difficult to find the cattle and if the pastures were broken up into smaller areas, you would be able to rotate the cows more often.

I have questions about ditch irrigation; I was wondering how the ditches were arranged on the pasture in order to irrigate it effectively. I was also wondering if there was something else that could be used for the tarp to rest on besides the wooden triangle. The wooden triangle can be tricky to place in the ditch if it is really wide and I also had issues with the pointed end of the triangle floating back up to the surface and not staying still to support the tarp. I was not present when the oil in the tractors were changed so I was also wondering how to change the oil in the tractors.

I plan to use what I have learned in this past week in the future. I recently was offered a job to work on a ranch in Montana. I hope to use what I have learned in this internship and apply it to the ranch I will be working on. They do irrigation so I will be able to use my knowledge of flood irrigating. They also cut hay for their animals so I hope to use what I have learned about equipment maintenance in order to help keep their machines working properly. I also have experience working with horses and herding, so I plan on applying that while working with their 1,100 herd of cattle. If I end up owning animals of my own someday I plan on using what I have learned from this internship in order to properly care for my animals, the property and the equipment. I hope to keep things running as smoothly as possible.

Submitted by: Leiana Andrade Stout
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team