June 20th, 2015

Partly cloudy and warm, turning cool by evening. Bulls escaped due to a short in the temporary wire. Fortunately they stayed close until I got the fence straightened out. Older cows moved to next and last split (7). This was a tough day. Near the end of calving, if things are going well, our daily checks can become less frequent and thorough. Then when you least expect it, disaster strikes. A late calving heifer is missed, and she and her calf die. After not having doctored anything the whole season, two calves get scours and cannot be brought back. Part of the reason I keep this journal is for those who follow us in management can benefit from our experience and mistakes. On the ranch there is always many tasks and projects, and most are done to further the conditions for the cattle. Yet, always the most important and first daily task-particularly while calves are young, and a few cows remain to calve-is checking the livestock, their water and mineral, and the condition of their pasture. With so much life on the ranch, death cannot be avoided. Never the less, keeping loss to 1 or 2 for the cows and less than 4 percent for the calves, requires a steady consistent mindful effort. And ending on a more cheerful and sweet note, Hedoma hispidum (rough pennyroyal) is a very small very fragrant flower in the mint family, found on shallow sites, whose sweet scent far exceeds its size.

Hedoma hispidum