My First Catch & Drag
#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk
It’s been another busy week here at the ranch. Monday morning was an easy one—checking the heifers was all I had on the docket for the day until our cowboss gave me a call to see if I was up to go check the cows for calves to tag. We spent a couple hours on that before calling it enough for Memorial Day and headed in for an early night.
Tuesday started at about 2:30 for me — we were neighbor helping a branding again, so it would be an early morning to get to the gather on time. I’ve learned pretty quick that it’s hard to stay awake in the backseat of the truck and it doesn’t do you much good to try anyhow, so I caught a little bit of extra sleep on the way there. When we got there, it was a gather and then a Nordfork branding again, so I had the opportunity to get a few extra reps in on the fork. Additionally, I learned how to castrate a calf — there’s not much to it, but it was nice to have the instruction. Once we were back from that, I was sent out on the fence line again to finish up what we figured would be a small amount of light work. The fence wound up being in worse shape than we thought, so I was out a little later than usual, but I was still home in time to make dinner and hit the hay before dark.
Wednesday consisted of shipping pairs in the rain. While the other two sorted pairs in groups of five, I drove them to their new destination in the lower pastures, which allowed me the opportunity to practice my truck-and-trailer driving and to learn how to more effectively back a trailer up to a gate. Thursday brought on another branding, but this time I was able to hop on and rope. My heeling could definitely use some work, particularly when the ground is wet, but I did manage to snag one and drag him to the fire — a moment I was and am pretty proud of. We got back to the ranch around 1:00, so we set off to tag a few more calves and finished up by 4:00.
Friday was fairly relaxed. We had a long go of it in the morning looking for a cow that had gotten into a brawl with a porcupine. We never did find her, but we got a substantial number of calves tagged, anyhow. After lunch, the cowboss and I fixed a rail the horses had chewed down and put their electric fence back up; we also tubed some electrolytes to a calf that’s been sick for the last couple of days.
The week was in all full of victories and lots of learning. For someone who had yet to throw a loop over a calf two weeks ago, the experience of dragging a calf to the fire safely was a huge victory, and one that left me with a smile I couldn’t smear off my face if I tried. Moreover, the practice with driving the truck was a welcomed experience, and learning how to back it and take my time was another important lesson. These are basic skills in any hand’s toolbox, and it feels really good to finally be working on them and getting the reps in.
Submitted by: Leigh Stockton
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
