Resting

Isaac, Joe and Blake decided to rest after a hard day of ranch work.  There could not be a better place to rest than setting on a toadstool at toadstool park 30 miles north of the ranch.  Of course they didn't rest that much with the climbing and running during the 1 mile hike through the park.

Becoming ranch hands

Isaac has joined Joe in becoming cowboys on the Wohlers Ranch as they get experience in horse back riding on Blondie and Blackie.  They made many circles of the corral and are learning how to control these untrained broncos.  Hopefully they will soon be helping in cattle roundups.

Gravel Pit

The ranch uses gravel to fill in holes around water tanks, on roads and other places that become mud spots when it rains.  Fortunately we have a gravel pit where we can access our own gravel for this purpose.  Blake spent many hours hauling gravel where needed to finish this annual task.

Haying is completed

We produced 451 bales weighing 1200 lbs giving us 270 ton of hay to get us cow feed for when there is snow cover limiting grazing. Additional protein supplements will still need to be added to the cow diet as our hay (with adequate energy) is short on protein due to putting it up about 3 weeks too late to get optimum value.  Now we need to haul all the bales into a hay yard and be ready to feed it to the cows during the winter when grass does not grow.

Haying again

The first time in 16 years hay is being harvested on the ranch.  In the average year it is less expensive to purchase hay then to own the machinery and hire the labor to run it.  However, the past 2 years of the drought hay had became very expensive and if the machinery was already owned it would have been cost effective to put up our own hay, except due to the drought there was very little extra grass to put up as hay.  Due to the past drought our cow numbers are way down and this year we have came out of the drought and have abundant grass.  We therefore have a custom harvester coming to the ranch to bale up some of the grass so it doesn't go to waste.  The swather you see is cutting the grass and placing it in windrows to await the baler that will follow in a few days.  Years ago 400 ton of hay was put up each year on the ranch, but we will probably only do enough acres to put up about 100 ton and graze the remaining acres this winter.

Next years calf crop

The task of artificially inseminating 310 cows was finished today.  The herd was divided into 3 groups so the numbers were small enough that each group could be AI'd within a 4 hour time frame on insemination day.  Before that day could occur the cows were given hormone injections 3 days and 10 days prior so the cows in each group could become pregnant at the same time.  However due to different gestation times of each individual the calves from each group will be born over a 3 week period next spring.  Moving the cows closer to the corrals the day before the first injection was given and then the sequential times through the chute resulted in us working with the cattle 15 days out of the last 30.  This has been a very busy time, but now we can return to routine ranch work i.e. fence repair, water well maintenance, weed control etc.

Temporary cowhands

Blake and Arden had help moving cattle to a meadow near the corrals in preparation for the synchronization of estrus cycle for this years breeding program.  Sharyn was there to help as well as cousin Everitt and Bev Wohlers from Idaho.  It was work easily accomplished with a good crew.  The next day the cows filed through the chute and received their first treatment in the protocol.  The job was easily accomplished with the cows being handled gently with nearly their full cooperation.