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Light shower with some cooling over the night-very helpful conditions for trailing the cows. Cows are now in SBW 1 with plenty of water, and easy tank for calves to drink. While moving the cows, the bulls escaped and miraculously we kept them from mixing with the cows. With cow pairs at good water, bulls locked in the corrals, and the young cows at Ryan’s moving daily on alfalfa fields, all is stable for a few moments. Birds have been gearing down with song. This evening at dusk, the nighthawk, house wren, Robin, and western wood pee wee keep it up as light slips away.
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Hot again. I thought we could stay one more day where we could corral the open cattle. Vidic and Snick of Vidic Drilling came to ranch to check out the solar pump. Unsuccessful. I decide to just move cows, but where? I figured the least energy spent for people and livestock, was to bring the bulls to corrals, and then trail cows to the bull water. Temperatures are just too warm to get many cows to cross the road. We will wait until morning.
HOT. We left the cows near corrals in SNG 6 with the corral water well barely keeping up with the demand. Trailed the young cows over to Ryans for better water and began splitting the West Griffith 6 alfalfa fields. We might try and move through drying alfalfa pasture with 2 moves per day. Treated the bulls with safeguard in NBW 3-moved in their 3 days ago to move bulls farther from cows during branding. Sunflowers are starting to bloom along county roads-seems early.
HOT. We branded the older group today. 233 branded calves and 248 vaccinated cows. Good crew. We still are wrestling with water problems at the solar well. I moved the young group back to west tank for better water but pump completely quit working and then the west tank was drunk down. After branding, I moved the young cows back to the other tank that was getting some water from the corral well. Things could have been much worse if the corral well had not kept up. We will move the young cows over to Ryan’s until the water problem is fixed in North New Griffith. The most fear and anxiety raising concern/event on the ranch is-bar none-the loss of water in hot weather. A cow can drop off very quickly if unable to access water every day.
Reasonable temps moving to hotter temps in the afternoon. Finished trailing the cows from WG 5 over county road to South Griffith 6. We started at 4:30 am and the move went smoothly. We went to move the young cows closer to the corrals for branding and discovered we had no water pressure at the east. This discovery, with anticipation of branding and hot weather, led to an intense effort to solve the problem. Mostly unsuccessful and barely had enough water for young cows, yet corral well held up thankfully for cows, despite a major freak out when the cows somehow turned the valve off to the corral tank. In the evening we trailed the into holding corrals in preparation for early morning work to cut the calves and cows for branding.
Woke to a surprising morning shower and welcoming cooler temps. Ryan and I moved cows from SG 7 to WG 5. We started last night but some calves went back. During the day we cut some open (no calf) cows to mix with the opens and heavies (still to calf) in WG 2. By just hanging at the water one could cut off opens with little effort and complication.
Reasonable day. I moved the cows from last strip in SG 3 to SG 7. Lost one more calf to milk scours.
More dry and heat and more of the same in the forecast for the week. Picked up the young cows at 4:30am and moved them to North New Griffith 1-first split. Moving pairs at first light is a must with the heat. I stayed with them at the new water for an hour to mother up. Pleased how smooth the move went-no calves came back. Enjoyed the birds in the sandstone pine breaks: chipping sparrows, bluebirds, cassin’s kingbird, tree swallows, lark sparrows, spotted towhee, red tail hawk, kestrals, cross bills, white breasted nuthatch, and northern flickers. I wish I had twenty more paddocks like this to ride out the heat. Moved the cows to next split in SG7. One more milk scoured calf. Clover? Pierce is coming tomorrow.
Dry and warmer today. Moved the cows into SG7 first split. Moved the bulls to next split. Gillian Bee from the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory stopped for a short visit on way to the Matador Ranch. Discussion centered around monitoring and possible partnership with CMR working group.
Summer solstice arrives and passes signaling the slow steady spiral of shorter days. Almost hot most of day, yet light showers come in the evening to refresh and cool. Passing disturbances trigger rich evening rainbows and sunsets. Following yesterday’s outcomes, we cut late-calvers and put them in a smaller more visible pasture. We loaded 6 yearling bulls that Will Juhl delivered to Blaine in Wolf Point. Got pasture set to move 2’s to North New Griffith 1. Below is a picture of a dung beetle-an important partner for soil building. From Wikepedia: Dung beetles are beetles that feed partly or exclusively on dungs or feces. They possess exceptional dung disposal capacity and one dung beetle can bury dung that is 250 times heavier than itself in one night.[1] Many dung beetles, known as rollers, roll dung into round balls, which are used as a food source or brooding chambers. Other dung beetles, known as tunnelers, bury the dung wherever they find it. A third group, the dwellers, neither roll nor burrow: they simply live in manure. They are often attracted by the dung collected by burrowing owls. Dung Beetles can grow to 3 cm long and 2 cm wide. All the species belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea; most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles). As most species of Scarabaeinae feed exclusively on feces, that subfamily is often dubbed true dung beetles. There are dung-feeding beetles which belong to other families, such as the Geotrupidae (the earth-boring dung beetle). The Scarabaeinae alone comprises more than 5,000 species.[2] Dung beetles are currently the only known animal to navigate and orient themselves using the Milky Way.[3][ Our socks now catch the sharp seeds of needle and thread (Stipa comata) – a temporary hindrance of early summer.  Dung Beetle |
Bill Milton
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