Blogs

My house sits not 50 yards from the corrals. Having the chute, the corrals and the cattle in such close proximity to my humble abode is not entirely without its advantages.

In Montana, there is almost always an abundance of snow at Christmastime. Our cows know how to find feed in the snow, though. We leave feed in the fields for them because we don’t have farm equipment and leaving grass for grazing is a better use of resources for us.

Somewhere in my teenagedom, I don’t know exactly what year, there came a rude awakening that I had done Christmas wrong.

In our last episode of “It’s always the bulls,” one Charolais bull had been delivered to the auction, but Charolais bull number two had refused to go anywhere near a trailer.

Working cattle is a complicated process. You have to get the cattle up and sorted. Then the facility must be in order, with the alley and chute functioning. Add to this that all the products you plan on using on the cattle need to be lined up, with syringes prepared. And, that’s just the prep work.

Alarming news articles recently divided the country into “habitable” and “unlivable” zones, based on scientists’ climate change weather predictions. In essence, as the planet and country warm, the prime habitable zone in the U.S. moves north toward the Great Lakes region and the Canadian border. What used to be colder Northern regions (too cold for a long growing season) will now be prime production areas; and the present prime Southern and Midwest farm and ranch lands will become too hot and dry for sustained production or human habitation.