Working Ranch Blog

Welcome to the Cattle Business by Brett Haas
Apr. 28 2010, 9:56 PM

What can I say? It's been a busy week. In between brandings, moving cattle, chasing some ornery calves while trying to move cattle, getting ready to A.I. (Artificially Inseminate), listening to horseshoer stories, and putting a neighbor's bull back (again), I managed to sneak in a cattleman's meeting, some family time, and some sleep. Today, though, other than putting the neighbor's bull back again (Oh wait...Did I already mention that?) was kind of an easy one. We were gonna move some cattle, but for a reason that evades me at the moment we had to hold off a day. It mighta had somethin' to do with a certain someone's wife needing his horse, that's broke, to go to a Parelli event, because her horse isn't? I don't know. I'm just saying. By the way, wouldn't it make more sense to take the horse that needs training to the trai...Oh, nevermind. Let's just say our horses needed a day off, except for the fact that we had to go pull the neighbor's...oh, wait. Did I already mention that...again!?

So, anywho, onto what I really wanted to talk about. It was a sad day for me today. Kirk had a check for me. Now, I know what you're thinking. Why is that bad? Well, let me tell you.

The day after my birthday (of course) Kirk called me about 7 p.m. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, except that my birthday is in March. You all know what that means. Yep, we were calving. Calls in the evening at calving time usually aren't good. And, of course, this was Wednesday and my wife had just left for prayer group. So after Kirk called for my assistance, I called for her's. Oh, the sacrifices the ranch wife also makes for the critters. She came home with the kids and off I went. And, of course, when I got to the pasture, the cow was way off across the pond dam, in the muddiest, sloppiest part of the pasture. And, of course, it was mine. Are you feeling sorry for me yet?

For those of you who don't know, Kirk gave me one of his yearling heifers three years ago. Oh man, I was officially in. I had myself a beev! Wow, my own herd had begun. I almost went out and bought a baron hat, but thought maybe I'd better hold off a bit. I A.I.'d her myself and got her on the first try. Kirk calved her out, and with a little assistance I had a nice looking (even though it was black ;) bull calf. I was a proud poppa. I weaned that calf in the fall, and sold him with some other steers, and got my first seller's check. Not only that, but the old gal had bred back. Not bad for a fella's first heifer, huh?

Oh, the good old days! This is the steer calf I got from my heifer. Hey, I got a good price for him, plus the market is hot right now, so I did good on mom too. What the heck am I complaining about anyway?

So, Kirk used to tell me all these wild stories of the only cattle who ever got snake bit, hit by lightning, or were involved in some other freak of nature incident, always, what seemed like for years, had his brand on 'em. I just used to sit there and listen and laugh. I thought all those stories were pretty funny. Well, sitting out there in my truck with Kirk and staring at two huge calf's feet sticking out the business end of my entire herd through the binoculars, believe me, I wasn't laughing. The good news was we saved the cow, even though she turned into Johnny Weismuller, and started doing the 100 meter breaststroke across the pond after we got the calf out. Don't worry, she made it to the other side, but I was just sittin' there watching her go and wonderin' if a bad day was gonna turn worse. The calf was huge. Hindsight got us to thinking that I should have maybe culled her last year after we pulled her first calf, but she was a heifer then, so that's perty much S.O.P. with them. Kirk was feeling kinda bad and was saying he shoulda maybe got to her sooner or shoulda done that, but I know he was just trying to make me feel better. Shoot man, that's just the way it works sometimes. After we got the calf pulled and were cleaning up, he just looked over, smiled, and summed it all up by saying, "Welcome to the cattle business!"

Tell me your sad, sad, cattle stories at thekansascowboy36@gmail.com. Or you could just look me up on Facebook and Twitter and we can complain about the neighbor's bull together. If you do, though, just make sure first that we're not neighbors.