From a Visit to the Doctor to a Visit from Home

#bfrdpwy #aginternship #RightRisk

Five weeks down, with only five weeks left of this internship. These first five weeks have flown by faster than I had imagined. Coming into this internship I was worried I wouldn’t fit in. Last summer I did an internship at a feedlot, it was not a pleasant experience and really had me torn on what my future might look like. The livestock industry has been a passion of mine since I was a little girl. During my last internship that passion was muffled by unpleasant experiences, I am glad I pushed through those experiences and decided to keep pushing to pursue my passion. This internship has been a huge 180 from last summer. I am able to express my opinions and learn something new everyday.

This week was definitely the hottest week of the internship so far. Even though it was hot that doesn’t mean the work stops. We still had plenty of projects to complete and cattle to check. Michael and I finally got to finish the continuous paneling we started last week. Michael did all of the welding while I held the sickle rod in place for him. When we had finished the fence we were very proud of what we had accomplished and the way it looked was very impressive. Monday and Tuesday nights we had some pretty bad storms with hail come through the ranch. Nothing was damaged, thank goodness.

Wednesday I spent my day mowing around the ranch to keep everything cleaned up. Later that night Morganne and I were sent out on a mission to try and find number 68. 68 is a bull that is supposed to be with 3/4 years olds. He made his way across three pastures to the old moms. When we moved the old moms to their new pasture last week we had left him behind in hopes of moving him back to the right pasture. When we went to catch cows the next day we couldn’t find him. We haven’t been able to find him since, so Morganne and I went in hopes of finding him. We looked for over two hours in every holler, badland, trees and even on top of every hill. We had no luck in finding him so the search is still underway.

Wednesday night once we returned to the bunk house, my hand was so swollen and painful. I had believed it could’ve been sun poisoning or an allergic reaction from some type of bug bite. Thursday morning when I woke up my hand was huge and the swelling was starting to creep up my arm. I told my hosts about this, and they sent me to the doctor right away. They didn’t want to take any chances of it being something else. I found out at the doctor it was just an allergic reaction, so I took allergy medication and iced my hand the rest of the week.

When I returned from the doctor’s office work resumed as usual. I am not the type of person to sit around and watch others work or sit inside, so I was glad when they let me get back into action regardless of my hand. It was very painful but I didn’t let that stop me from completing the work that needed to be done. Morganne and I also were able to help Miranda (our hosts’ granddaughter) shear her show lambs this week as well. I enjoyed this because I used to show lambs as well so it was great to get back into sheering and being around the lambs.

Mike and I were having a conversation about weaning calves, and how hard weaning can be on the calves. Weaning calves can have lots of side effects on the calf. Stress, acute illness, impact on performance, and suppression of the immune system are just some of the side effects calves can go through when weaning. I asked Mike if they do anything in part to prevent some stress on the calves. He said they try to make it as stress free. In high school, I raised 57 bottle calves with some help from my dad. I would wake up at 4 in the morning before school to bottle feed each and every calf, then I would do it all over again at night. During this experience my dad and I found out about a medication called FerAppease. This medication helps prioritize your herd’s welfare and helps them respond better to stressful events while improving profitability. We used this product on my bottle calves and we could see an tremendous difference in their stress levels from weaning and being sold after we used this product. Mike said he would have to take a look into this product.

At the end of this week my two sisters Tristan (22) and Trasa (15) came to visit me. They arrived Friday evening. On Saturday morning they came to the ranch to help me catch cows and pick up some pipe. The rest of the day I was told to take them somewhere fun. We ended up going to Fort Robinson State Park. We walked around the park and saw the museums and experienced lots of firsts. We also attended a musical (Newsies) Saturday night at the Post Playhouse at the Fort. Sunday morning we made the trip back to the Fort for a breakfast tour. Our tour departed at 8 a.m. and we saw more of the park and had breakfast before they headed back home. This was an eventful week with more to come.

Submitted by: Tamryn Klein
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team