Feedyard Update

What do you call a cow with a twitch?

Can you believe that summer has passed and September is already here? My, how time flies when you are having fun, or in my case, staying busy. I have been doing most of the receiving and processing tasks lately because we are short handed at the feedyard. I find myself trying catch up with life, but work seems to get in the way more and more these days.

I do believe this stock tank has earned it's keep. I filled it up this morning and half of it had already drained out in a few hours. It might be time to invest in a new tank. I use tanks like these to supplement the automatic waters, like the one in the background, when I receive calves that may not be accustomed to fresh water from a tank or trough. The more readily available supply of water helps to reduce stress and helps cattle start on feed earlier.

Like many others in the cattle feeding business, we have been taking advantage of rising fat cattle prices and have been shipping several cattle to harvest in the past few weeks. Of course this means we have been receiving just as many feeders, if not more. An empty pen in the feedyard does not pay, so we try our best to fill every pen after it empties and gets cleaned.

I am at the yard by 5:30 every morning. So as I am looking at new cattle or making a pen move, I watch the sun rise from start to finish every morning. The horizon in the Texas 'Handle seems to go on forever.

The feedyard is a busy place, and the receiving desk is no exception. I take care of the vaccine and medicine inventories, processing charges, as well as the receiving and processing schedules. After I finish coordinating my plan with the pen riders, processors, feed crew, and yard crew I'm about done in. But that makes it challenging and keeps me on my toes. I really would not know what to do with a slow day anymore.

I got a new pup for my birthday. She is from a ranch in Kansas and should turn out to be a pretty sharp dog. Already she has proved to be an escape artist; finding every hole in the back yard and kennel that the older dogs had not found. It is always interesting trying to teach a new dog tricks. Too bad we do not use dogs in the feedyard. However, I could see how one mistake could really make a mess out of things.

These are some content cattle after the 1st round of feeding for the day. Each pen of cattle is looked at on horseback and fed three times daily.

This is not really much of an update, but I thought I would share a few things that are happening. Hope you are keeping up with my other blogs. Have a great week!
--ARranchhand

Oh yeah. A cow with a twitch is called BEEF JERKY.