Author’s note: This blog is about a real cow – “Old Number 5” – on my family’s ranch northwest of Kaycee, Wyoming. While the cow’s “thoughts”and feelings are obviously conjecture, the day-to-day activities and movements of this cow are real. We will follow her throughout the year to all of the pastures she grazes, and she will give her “opinions” about all of them and the happenings within her herd. My family and I expend a lot of time, energy, and resources to make sure the cattle have plenty to eat, fresh, clean water to drink, and are, for lack of a better phrase, Happy Cows. Please keep in mind that my intentions for this blog are not to “humanize” cows – or any other animal – but merely to provide a look into what a typical cow here at Brock Livestock Company goes through in a given year, and her possible “opinions” about things.
First of all, I feel I should apologize for my tardiness in getting this entry out to everyone. I would try to make up an excuse that the mail runs much slower up here on the mountain, but the truth is I guess I have just been enjoying myself so much up here that I let time get away from me! September was a good month for all of us – autumn has always been one of my favorite times of the year here in Wyoming. The days are cooler, the trees are turning brilliant shades of yellow, red, and orange, and the bug population decreases on a daily basis. This fall has been no exception, and we have all been enjoying the cool mountain air, the cold, crisp water, and the abundant grass. The grass has dried out some – it always does by this time of year – but there is plenty of it, and our babies and us mommas do very well on it.
In the middle of the month, our ranchers opened a gate for us and started moving us to the south mountain pasture. I say they started moving us because it usually takes several days to get all of us moved out of one of these mountain pastures. There are enough trees and canyons for us to be in that it would be nearly impossible for them to look in every nook and cranny, get us all gathered up, and move us in one day. So, they just take the cattle they find and put us through the open gate, and if we accidentally leave our baby calves, we can go back and get them, and then turn around and head back to the fresh pasture on our own in the afternoon. It still only takes about 4 or 5 days to get us all moved this way, and it is easier on us, and easier on our ranchers; most things on the ranch usually do work that way.
My baby calf is no longer a baby anymore (at least that is what she tells me). I do worry about her more up here on the mountain because there are more predators up here. We have always had mountain lions and bears, but we have heard rumors and disturbing stories this summer about wolves moving in, and that is making all of us a little bit jumpy. But thankfully, we haven’t had any incidents in our herd this summer and fall, and our babies just continue to grow and get bigger every day!
-Jason Williams, Brock Livestock (Jason is one of the valued partner ranchers raising cattle for Tallgrass)
