COWS, COWS, COWS

Another day, different herd.  Today we got ready to check the Gonder Herd.  You'll notice that our herds have different names.  Like this one, the Gonder herd.  They are named this, because they come from the original Gonder cows and Gonder ranch and homestead.  We have our cows divided up according to where they go to winter range, or summer meadows, by the breed and by where they originated when we got their ancestors.

For example; the cows we wanted to keep in this herd had to have a little yellow ear tag in the right ear.  We rode through them and the ones without the tag were pulled and taken to the appropriate herd.  And when I say little, notice, it is little.  It is the one in the cow's right ear.. So as the wind blew it made dust and spotting the tags got more difficult.

When one of us would find a cow without the tag, we would cut her through the gate, away from the others.  This can be difficult, because cows don't like to be alone or leave the herd.  It is kind of fun though if you happen to be on a good horse.  And I happened to be on one.  Taking pictures while she was cutting was a little dangerous.  I managed one of her ears while cutting a cow out, See how they are pinned back. She watches the cow, anticipates it's move and keeps it from getting back with the others.  It is way fun,

We also looked for lame, sick or poor cows that won't be able to do well on the desert range for the winter.  We cut these ones out and they will be trucked home to the main ranch in Baker.

Today we preg checked these cows at the Davies Ranch corrals.  This is a ranch we bought several years ago from a wonderful man named Ladd Davies.
The cowboys were able to bring the cows up to the chute on horseback here.  They prefer to do as much as possible horseback.  The cows prefer it too.

There are some pretty cool buildings and machines at Ladd's.  It is fun to wonder around and look at them and imagine what life was like way back when.  But, I wasn't supposed to be wondering.  There was still work to do.

We took the cows that were in the Ladd meadows and moved them to another pasture. Yes, this is the Ladd herd.  Then we loaded up our stuff, took the semi with the cows needing to go home and went back to Baker. 
I forgot to mention the highlight of my day.   A neighbor brought us a treat.  I was so excited. Definitely made my day