WEANING

The other morning we got up early and headed out to wean our largest bunch of calves.  There was fog sitting over the field.  It looked kind of cool.

We headed South to the Davies Ranch.

The day started out cool and nice. But it got HOT very quickly.

We had the help of our youngest buckaroo.  

We moved all the cows and calves out of the meadow and into the corral.

Into the dust again.

Once in the corral we let the cows out and put the calves in a separate pen.

It is kind of fun to sort the cows from the calves on our horses.

Once they were sorted we put the calves on trucks and hauled them to the feedlot in Baker.  It was about 7 truck loads.

Once in Baker, we sorted steers from heifers, counted them and weighed them.

They were put in pens for the night and the next morning we ran them through the chute to give them the necessary shots and deworm them.

There were about 700 calves in this bunch and it was really really hot out.  But we got through it.
Before we weaned this bunch we had already weaned and vaccinated around 350 calves.  Then the other day our cowboys weaned a bunch of 350 or more.  It is a lot of work and we have more to go.  It will great to get this job finished.

Calves on the way to their pen.  They will cry and walk back and forth for a few days.  I always feel a little sad for the babies and their mommas.  It is all part of the cycle.  The cow is already pregnant with her next calf and she needs the nutrition for that one.  They all settle down and become happy again.