Yesterday we shipped our calves to their new home- the feedlot. This was the third time I have experienced the chaos of shipping calves. Like everything on the ranch, if all goes smoothly, it can be fun, but if something goes wrong, it can take hours to correct the problem. We had a couple of snags, but we got all the calves onto the trucks, so I'd say it was a success.
By 7:30 we were on our way to the north corral ('krell' is how they say it up here). It was cold but clear. First we had to gather the cows and get them into the 'krell'.
The cows came in (to the krell) pretty easily, but they did not want to be sorted. The in-laws had quite a hard time.
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| A cowboy on his cell phone, moving calves into the scale area. |
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| My mother-in-law and our hired man sorting calves. |
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| Baby liked the fresh air. |
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| Having fun with Baby and the camera. |
After sorting, we weighed them and loaded them onto the trucks.
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| We weigh about 10 cows at a time. |
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| It takes four trucks to haul all the calves. |
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| The excitment proved too much for some. |
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| I guess I should have cleaned that donut icing off his face before he went to sleep. |
The kids and I went home about 2 so we could properly nap in the bed. My husband got home around 6. It was a long, hard, dusty day, but it's how we make our money.
3 comments:
I have enjoyed reading your blog posts. "John Deere" is my favorite color! :)
I've got to be honest, I'm thinking veal.
I don't think any of these calves will end up as veal. I think veal is a pretty young calf. Actually we don't eat veal. We prefer to eat meat that's been able to run around free and have a pretty good life. We're such animal lovers ya know!
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