A Stitch in Time Keeps Snot out of your Ears

In rodeo, they joke that the “Big Man’s Event” is steer wrestling because the cowboy jumps off of his horse and “wrestles” a steer to the ground, which is really just catching the steer at 40mph, digging his boots into the dirt, slowing both to a halt, and laying the animal on his side.  Once the steer and the cowboy know what they’re doing, it is a sport of repetition, finesse, and it even looks a bit staged like a WWF wrestling match as opposed to Olympic freestyle wrestling.  

Though most contestants are well over 200 lbs or at least pushing it, that isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of 5’8,” 160-pounders getting the better of an animal five or six times his own weight.  It is all about technique.  On the other hand, even a 200 lb calf can pack a punch on a full grown adult during branding time.  Lack of technique.  Going without a plan.  No attention to process will have you down in a hurry.

A Stitch Here

Strategizing and problem-solving is taking that stitch in time to save nine.  Ben Franklin said it, but a string of mothers have been repeating it for two hundred years and are only reaching their daughters.  Sons that become great big steer wrestlers like to literally and figuratively grab the bull by the horns.  Being a woman in the masculine world of cattle-ranching, this machismo attitude of muscling square pegs into round holes (or cows around 180 degree turns, for those in the know), pushed me to the sidelines like a city-folk at the county fair.  

Watching male counterparts react to issues on the ranch is like watching the cowboy jump off of a horse at a high gallop.  They seem to have little intention after that other than the automated response he has always used.  If his no-plan plan doesn’t work, he can readjust using brawn, brain, and physical presence and usually get the job done.

Usually.  Unfortunately, not every chore is like a 4 second run.  When you work with animals that have minds and intentions of their own, sometimes the cowboys triple their times, break a barrier, and end up with torn shirts and snot in their ears.  There is a herd that won’t budge, a bull that won’t load, and cows on the highway after leaning on some rusty gate welds.  What to do now?  

Save Time There

Think.  No, not rhetorically.  Think about the situation.  Think of a new method.  What is the problem?  If he can’t fix it alone, how can he reasonably, with a team of two, solve it?  

There aren’t many steer wrestler women because she wouldn’t have time to assess why a steer hung a leg, but if she did, that steer probably would fall just right every time.  Women’s need to contemplate and brainstorm before execution might come from an evolutionary and even present desire to balance obligations and multi-task, making a plan so that as few obstacles as possible have opportunity to arise.  She knows how to start the wash, account for new dirties, allocate time for family, and have a crockpot roast done while still breeding heifers all afternoon.  Let a lady, a true and worthy one, out on the field, and she will consider if it is best to swing the herd clockwise or counter, this pen “in” or this pen “by,” leave a few or gather the herd as one all resulting in different and planned outcomes.  

Put a methodical woman with a speedy and strong man out on the ranch, and witness a perfect team.

Rain Before the Drought

The old timers say that when you have lots of bull calves, you’re in for a long dry summer, more heifers means a nice wet spring.  This year, we have run out of bull tags!  Unless you’ve been living under a rock...in a lake... you are probably well aware of the ongoing drought conditions across the west.  This year’s forecast looks similar.  A map full of yellow and orange spreads indicating “Dryer than Normal,” yet yesterday was branding day except not a one has a brand.  We were rained out.  What gives?

We are in the midst of this so called “drought” but lost more than a couple of bales last summer to drenching rain.  This spring, at a time when we would normally be running the disc and preparing a seedbed, the ground is too wet.  I hear our midwestern neighbors have little to no corn in the ground yet when it should be well underway.  Spraying for weeds is left for another day while pollinating flowers encroach on our grass.  Getting cows and calves worked won’t be fun in a big mud puddle, but there isn’t a pressing need to get them off the corn stalks because working that ground isn’t coming anytime soon either.  

Spring activities are on hold until the sun and wind help dry things out, but only a fool would wish away the moisture.  While farmers are eager to get going and need the time, no one ever complains much about some extra rain; we will appreciate it later.

If You Don’t Like the Weather...

Lots of states in the west make a joke about changing weather.  “If you don’t like the weather in Colorado (or Oklahoma or Texas or Wyoming), just wait ten minutes.”  In this case we will wait a few weeks for a change. Mother Nature’s wayward inclination sure makes it difficult to plan but something whispers to me that is exactly how it's supposed to be.

We wait patiently as she exercises her prerogative because we don’t know for sure what she will bring in the months to come.  Planning is nearly impossible, but preparing is not.  Should she decide not to give us rain until October, we will appreciate the moisture that came in April.  It prepared our fields and pastures for the long dry summer.  Not having control over the weather means not having control over our livelihood, an A-Type’s nightmare.  Having to surrender to her whims teaches us a patience and ability to readjust that so many others lack; because when the rain intrudes in spring before the sun and wind dominate in summer, we realize that Mother Nature knows what she is doing even when we do not.  

If money were no object...

A close friend of mine was posed a question, “If money were no object, what would you do with your life?”  

Who can resist answering these types of quandaries in their own heads before even hearing another’s answer?  

In my own mind’s eye, I dream up more pasture closer to my family’s ranch outside of Limon, CO.  She started her answer the same way.  Having more land, more cows, and thus more opportunity.  We shared our dreams of keeping up our fences, pickups, and facilities rather than buying new ones or hiring someone else to do it.  

“No, not your husband’s dream, what is your dream?”

We laughed as we realized it was our dream too!  Despite being women, neither of us wanted a lavish house, new vehicles, or jewelry.  It took me back to listening to my father-in-law describing his retirement on an open hay meadow in the Montana valleys.  I would tease him that he would never really retire because he would spend the money he made on calves to buy more cows.  Even if he does make it to Montana on a grassy plain, he will still hay it to feed livestock!

Sounds like a nice twilight of any rancher’s life.

I wasn’t born into this life.  For those of us who weren’t, we all know it doesn’t take long for it become a part of us; not because we just love cows or wide open spaces, but because everything we do in this life is productive, life-giving and nurturing.  All of which points us back to God, His creation, and our good stewardship of it.   

Heifers in the Alley

A young, anxious heifer standing next to an older, experienced cow.

Working with Youth

Working with youth is the greatest job in the world--maybe the most difficult, but definitely the most rewarding.  Young people and animals are eager and excited, approaching every event with far more energy than adults have left.  Just the other day, we were bringing home a set of 20 young heifers, bucking and kicking all the way down the corral.  The teenagers I work with as a teacher, are comparable in a rambunctiousness that unfortunately can sometimes go awry.  

I’ve noticed that without an appropriate avenue for that zeal, it quickly becomes destructive or even apathetic in both people and animals.  

These aren’t just some kids in some classroom or angry beefalo cattle.  These are kids hired at fast food restaurants or helping with hay.  Kids avoiding questions and ignoring learning opportunities. They turn into adults that don’t submit our insurance claims correctly or lie on their taxes.  We have all been there.  We ask ourselves, “Hasn’t anyone ever taught this person to speak kindly? How could they be so negligent and wasteful? Do they even care about the work they do?"

Perhaps not.  Any accomplished and responsible adult wants to immediately reprimand poor work ethic and shoddy workmanship.  Even talking to other professionals, I want to call them out on carelessness, but what has it done?  I think about how to work with animals, especially young ones and realize yelling and frustration won’t do the trick.

Pushing Them Back

As we were tagging our latest heifers, I was pushing them through our curved alley and up to the chute.  Because they are only 800lbs, they were able to get themselves turned around in the alley.  Of course, pushing an animal into a box is hard enough, and it is even harder when they are going butt first.  I could have easily yelled and screamed, used intimidation, or a hot shot to get them to turn back around or just go into the chute backwards.  Had I done so, we might have finished sooner, but skipping out on an earlier step makes the later step twice as difficult and probably not even on me.  My husband doing the tagging would have been dealing with backwards heifers and had no chance of using the head-catch if needed.  I could have easily brushed it off as, “not my problem” and just done my job without regard to the end result.  These experiences in life with youth and adults that don’t care about the quality of their product or the effect it has on later parties, is what makes us all want to tear out our hair.

Though I might have had five heifers in the alley, if the first one turned back, I would let them all back into the tub.  I went through this about 3 times on only 20 heifers!  It was time-consuming and annoying, but it was best for the heifers to learn how to navigate the facility, best for my husband doing the tags, and best for me to treat both with patience in order to have the best long-term result. Once those heifers were on the field, they settled in nicely, taking cues from the cows around them.

There is Learning Yet to Do

Had these heifers been people, I would be wondering why they couldn’t just do what they were supposed to do.  It would be silly to scold heifers for being obstinate and rude like I would a teenager slacking off in the classroom.  I realized, what I might consider unacceptable behavior is due directly to youth.  

Youth have learning yet to do.  Many of them arrive at adulthood lacking experiences that also help them learn.  Likewise, these heifers have probably only ever been worked once when they were branded as 3 or 4 month-olds.  Being in the working facility was still new to them.  They will become more accustomed to it each time they’re treated, and the more often we treat them with soft pats and quiet whistles, they will learn acceptance rather than fear.  Young people share similar qualities; they haven’t mastered their skills which is why they’re still in the classroom, so why should I assume they’ve accomplished the work ethic I expect from adults?  Instead of a lecture about grit, or flying off the handlebars at an incompetent phone receptionist, I will show them work ethic.  I will have patience.  I will be dedicated to seeing it through.  In the end, we will all be better off giving and receiving kindness and patience in working towards a common goal.