Keeping Stress In Check

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This week was full of cleaning up our moves from trailing, finishing branding late calvers, and checking calves for sickness. Last week, we branded the late calvers, but there were six pairs that we were unable to trail to the corral for branding since they were newly born. My host didn’t want to stress the pairs since they were so tiny. We were able to haul them to the ranch this week where we branded and vaccinated them. My job was to drag the calves and then give them a multivitamin shot. With branding, we also banded the bulls and tagged the calves.

In the first pasture, where we put the second group of cows that we trailed, there were a few strays. This pasture is hard to get around in because there is a huge canyon in the middle of it. We walked the trails to try to find the strays but were unable to see any fresh footprints. We will have to go back and try again since they are spayed heifers, that have already been sold. This is a difficult thing about ranching, there are times when things do not go your way and you must figure out what the best option is.

We also have been riding through the pastures to make sure the calves are healthy and growing. To check for a sick calf there are a few things to typically look for: have droopy ears, are lethargic and moving slowly. There were a couple calves that were either getting sick or getting over their illness. My host explained that the vaccine we gave them doesn’t stop them from getting sick all the time but lessens the symptoms of the illness. We make sure to get the tag number of the calves that do look a little droopy, so we check them the next time.

One concept I would challenge would be to try to clean up the pastures sooner so that the cattle don’t have a chance to break into different pastures. I understand that sometimes other things are a top priority and that you might not know there are strays in the pasture until it’s too late!

I have learned so much this week with branding and cleaning up pastures, but I would like to know more about the vaccines that are given and other options for vaccinating. I think it would be great to see the difference between other ranchers and what they have found that works best for them.

In the future, I want to make sure my cattle are not stressed to create an efficient operation. My host has taught me so much about how to create a calm environment for the calves and cattle to make sure they are able to grow efficiently. One thing that really stuck out was that they want to make sure the cattle are stress free, when roping the calves we make sure that they are heeled because if you just throw the rope around their neck they are stressed and could choke themselves out.

Submitted by: Danielle Wadsworth
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team