To The Rescue
#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk
Holy moly, another week in the books. Summer always goes by fast but this year it is moving at an incredible pace. This week’s lesson was “how to be a rancher whether you like it or not”. I faced many new challenges this week but reflecting upon my lessons, it’s just a part of this lifestyle. Ranching and agriculture is hard and I dont think I’ve scratched the surface. Even with the challenges I still love the excitement of new adventures everyday. There’s something freeing about being in charge of such important tasks and being in this beautiful country.
My week started out with more fencing. I sure have learned that with land and livestock comes lots of fences. Fencing isn’t hard or very complicated but it’s the decisions that are the most challenging. For example, if there is a loose wire you need to make a decision about where, what, and how to fix it. This gets complicated because you want to fix it so it lasts and doesn’t mess anything up down the line. Problem solving and ranching are best friends but also the worst enemies. Problem solving is a great skill to have but one that needs to be practiced, which sounds crazy because it’s technically just thinking but it’s actually much more. It’s hard to explain but I’m grateful that I get to practice and obtain this skill.
This week I quickly realized that the weather is not going to stay at a perfect 75 degrees with a light breeze. The sun and dry heat have started to rule the Wyoming plains and let me tell you it’s not forgiving. I learned the hard way that sunscreen needs to be applied many times a day. The scary part is it’s getting dry. Being from Wyoming, I know how bad a drought is and its consequences. The hay harvested this summer feeds the cattle all winter and will determine how many head get culled. So far we have been blessed with some rain but we can only hope it continues.
Friday was my favorite day because we moved the cows and calves to a new pasture. It was not all fun and games because my 4:00 am alarm clock was not welcoming, but I soon shook off the tiredness and was so excited for the day. I have moved cows many times but it never gets old. I love looking at every animal and just taking in the details. I won’t lie, it was freezing when we started and blistering hot by the time we finished, but I still had a great time.
Well moving the cows we ran into a big problem. Everything was fine until the cows got to a small reservoir of water. To no surprise the cows and calves were very thirsty and flocked to the water. As soon as they got to the waters edge you could just see every cow sink into the deep mud. We quickly urged them to move around the pond and up the hill but there was one problem – one cow decided to move into the deepest and muddiest part of the pond. It was obvious she wasn’t going anywhere as she just exhausted herself trying to get out. We decided to leave her and hoped she would get herself out.
She in fact didn’t get out when we came back a couple hours later. This meant that it was time to intervene and pull her out. This was no easy task because she was stuck up to her neck in mud and was obviously exhausted. We collected the needed tools and began to assemble a rig to pull her out. After trying to get a loop around her head for several minutes with a pole, it was obvious that someone needed to go in the pond. After offering, Gerry handed me the tow rope and I began taking off my shoes and anything of value. The mud quickly crept up to my knee and was very sticky.
This was a perfect example that ranchers and stockmen will do anything for their livestock. Ranching is such a crazy concept because you fight everyday to keep your stock happy and alive. Doing so in Wyoming adds another challenge because of the numerous unknowns. The weather, landscape, and predators make it so hard at times. Even so, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I hope one day I can be apart of a ranch in Wyoming.
Submitted by: Maggie McStay
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
