Many Modes to Moving Cattle
#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk
Over the past week I have learned the major points of branding, vaccinating, and moving cattle. This week we did all three of these things. These were important point because they are major parts of handing cattle. On Thursday, we gathered cattle and put them in a pen to hold over night until we branded the next day. Friday, we gathered another pasture of cattle and sorted them before the rest of the branding crew got there. We then started branding where my hosts’ kids taught us how to wrestle calves and hold them while they were vaccinated and branded. Friday after branding we moved the pairs part of the way to their summer pasture and then left them for the night and then came back Saturday to move them farther. Saturday, we rode horses to move the cows which I thought was fun because it allowed us to go at a slightly slower pace and keep more of the pairs together. Friday and Sunday we used four-wheelers, gators, and dirt bikes to move them which was nice because we could still go slow but slightly faster.
I would challenge the concept of how chose to gather their cows for the branding. While one pasture was closer to the branding pen and smaller than the other pasture, I think that we could have gathered both the night before and not have had to worry about bring in the smaller pasture in the morning. I think that this might have been harder though because we would have had to give the cows from the smaller pasture a bail of hay for the night because there wasn’t anything in the coral for them to eat. The first set of cows we branded were from the smaller pasture and the herd was larger to it might not have worked as well as the first pasture we gathered was smaller and their corral had a lot of grass growing in it so there was enough for them to eat for the night.
I still have questions about how they choose where to pasture their cows at certain times of the year. I specifically want to know how and why they choose those pastures and when they decide to move their cows from one pasture to another. Do they use the grass, distance from the house or other things to determine how they move their cows. I also want to know how they choose which of their bulls they put with their heifers and which they choose to put with their cows? Do they use their smaller bulls on their heifers and their larger bulls on their cows or do they look more at birth weight. I think that it would also be interesting to see what they use to decide which cows they choose to cull and which they choose to keep.
I plan to use what I’ve learned this week to help with my own operation one day. Branding with the Geis family I have learned which type of branding I prefer and which I don’t. I also learned about how I prefer to move cattle which can help me with figuring out how I choose to move and pasture my own cattle in the future. I think that these things along with the others that I learn in the future can help me with deciding how to run my own operation in the future. I think that they can also help me with running my own operation and how I choose to run my cattle and other livestock I may have.
Submitted by: Chelsea Finch
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
