Beaver have returned

  The Niobrara River through the Wohlers Ranch completely dried up because of our severe drought during the summer for 5 years between 2002 and 2009 resulting in the beaver all leaving.  The past 2 years there has been adequate rain and the river has continuously flowed.  This has been good news for the beaver and they have returned to the ranch.  We have identified 3 new beaver dams on the ranch this summer. 

animal species

I saw many species of animals in Tajikistan that I was to advise on how to make their husbandry more productive.  There were cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys and even this camel that shared the highway with pedistrians and automobiles.   We stopped our car to give this camel a drink of water.

mountain cattle

I saw a few head of cattle on the mountain hikes that I went on north of Dushanbe, these cows were in fair shape because they had a good growth of grass to eat at least where there weren't rocks and because of more moisture in this area and fewer cows in the herd.

horsemen in Tajikistan

Tajikistan has cowboys on horseback as we do in America, however most of the herding I saw was done on foot.  I thought the difference in tack (the saddle) was dramatic, I might not be a good enough rider to stay in this saddle.  This horse was stabled in a large barn left from a large collective  farm of the Soviet days.

livestock roundup

This is late afternoon in Tajikistan and time to bring the village herd home from a day of grazing in the desert, although within walking distance there was very little grass left to eat.  As the herd enters the village, livestock peel off the herd and head down the street to each of their houseyards.  This must be the ultimate in low stress livestock (cattle, goats, sheep) handling.  Arden spent a couple of weeks in the country as a train the trainers volunteer, The trainers will then train the farmers in improved ways to produce meat with the resources that they have.  Unfortunately the resources are very limited and/or restricted for the livestock numbers that they have.