(You can call her P-Widdy-Dub-Diddy-Diddy-Dub-Dub for short.)

 
We have three types of animals we run on our main ranch: cow/calf, yearlings and wild horses. We contract with the U.S. government to take care of wild horses gathered from government land out west. They contract with many different ranchers to take care of horses. In order to be awarded a wild horse contract, you have to have the ability to take care of a minimum of 500 horses and you have to go through a competitive bidding process.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency in charge of all federal land, is responsible for maintaining the horses on federal lands in the western states. When they experience droughts or when the horse population gets too large, they are forced to gather some of the horses from the range to prevent them from overgrazing it. The excess horses are kept in holding pens; the younger horses are put up for adoption in various wild horse adoptions throughout the country, but the older horses don’t make good candidates for adoption. So the BLM will put out a bid for ranchers to take care of those horses on private lands.

As you can imagine, whenever you’re talking about the government and their care of wild horses, it can be a highly politicized issue. I won’t get into the politics here, but will just explain the BLM’s process, how we ended up with horses, and how the horses work in the management of our ranch.

The BLM prefers to contract with ranchers to take care of the excess horses because it’s cheaper and obviously more in line with their natural habitat than housing them in pens. Between my brother and my operations, we currently take care of a little over 3,400 horses.

A key component for the BLM when choosing contractors is that the potential contractor must have enough land to allow the horses room to roam. As part of the bidding process, you have to describe how you propose to stock and take care of the horses on your land. You have to put together a lengthy and exhaustive document where you describe your management process and the quality of your pens, fences, land, and water. The BLM wants to see maps and charts with pastures, acreage, pond counts per pasture, water volume per pond, grass species in each pasture, and the plan to maintain those grasses with a prudent stocking rate—all documented by a qualified third party. It’s the typical government paperwork/information overkill, but it’s part of their process of weeding out unqualified candidates.

The main reason we applied to run the horses was to diversify our operation so that we would have another source of cash flow besides cattle. In ranching, there aren’t many opportunities to diversify your cash flow. As part of the wild horse program, the government pays you per horse per day at the end of every month. Another key advantage to running the horses is that you don’t have millions of dollars tied up in inventory; when a horse dies of old age, it’s sad of course. But it doesn’t cost you a thousand dollars as it would if one of your cows or steers dies.

We got our first horses in 2003. We were awarded a contract to take care of mares. The BLM puts studs/geldings and mares on different ranches to prevent them from breeding and exacerbating the overpopulation problem they are continually trying to fix. In general, the horses are easier to take care of than cattle, but the first couple of years when they are getting acclimated and many of them are bred, they can be pretty difficult.

We started receiving the wild horses in September of that year. The acclimation process takes a couple of months of moving them from the pens to small traps to larger traps, then on to the larger pastures. During this transition, we feed the horses with our feed trucks in order to get them used to the trucks. This will ensure that when winter comes, the horses will know to come to the trucks to be fed. This is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, but it’s necessary to minimize the stress of moving the horses to a new and strange environment.

 
Once we get the horses acclimated, the next challenge is weaning their foals. Since many of them arrive bred, the end of the first year they’re here, we have to gather them to the pens and wean any offspring. Because they are wild horses, this can be an interesting process that can certainly test one’s ability to handle livestock. Since we have received more horses over the years, the weaning process has been an ongoing thing—albeit on a much smaller scale than the first year. Here are a couple of Ree’s posts about weaning the colts.

Weaning Wild Colts
And I Do Mean Wild
Saturday Morning Thrills

Once we got past the initial onslaught of receiving and weaning, the horses became easier to take care of than cattle. With both cattle and the horses, you have to do your routine maintenance of feeding, putting out salt and mineral, periodic countings and taking care of fences. But with cattle, there’s much more working involved in order to keep them healthy. You have to doctor sick ones, treat foot-rots, prolapses, etc.—then you have the shippings, working the calves, processing the steers, shipping the steers, weaning calves, pregnancy testing the cows, managing the bulls, and more.

 
 
Aside from the cost of the land, the primary expense involved with running wild horses is feeding them through the winter. Here are some posts Ree has written about feeding the mustangs:

The Rest of the Story
The Days of Winter
A Day of Feeding

 
As part of our contract price, we are responsible for all the expenses related to taking care of the horses: the feed, land, salt, and all the equipment required to do our job. The government contracts with us to “keep them in good condition” and they inspect us annually to make sure we are.

 
 
They’re pretty smart about their inspections: for instance, they always do ours in February towards the end of winter when any negligence in feeding would definitely be obvious.

 
 
I like having the wild horses. Besides giving us a way to diversify our cash flow, they are fun to take care of. Watching a herd of horses run across the pasture is pretty cool, even for someone like me who has grown up around animals my whole life.

But there are disadvantages also. For one, the horses are less profitable than cattle—especially in today’s market. While you don’t have money tied up in inventory, you also aren’t seeing an appreciation of value that you get when you own the cattle. Another disadvantage is that they can be harder on the land than cattle. For me, that is the worst part.

It’s like anything, though: there are always pros and cons involved. Cattle are more profitable, but the horses take less work. The horses are harder on the country, but you also get a regular check every month. With cattle, you have money tied up in inventory, but you also can see some nice gains on that inventory when the market is good. We’re cowboys, so we like working cattle. That’s our job and part of our identity. But we also like taking care of the horses.

 
Let’s face it, they’re pretty cool. So it’s all just a balancing act of trying to do not only what will help you pay the mortgage, but also what you enjoy.

 
From this photo, I can deduce that my baby is riding a horse.

Boy, I’m good!

 
 
 
And from this photo, I can deduce that the guys were gathering cattle.

I’m awfully sharp today.

 
 
 
From looking at this photo, I can deduce that either:

a) One of these calves is confused
or
b) This cow had twins.

I’m going to have to find out the answer or it will bug me the rest of my life.

Or at least the rest of this five-minute period.

 
 
 
From this photo, it’s clear to me that some kind of confusion has occurred. Animals are going in different directions.

If I’d been there, this never would have happened!

 
 
 
Here, my deductive reasoning skills tell me that my baby is helping his dad sort cattle.

Look at all the twinkly little fairy bugs!

I mean flies.

 
 
 
From this photo, I can deduce that this cow is saying “Moooooooooooooo!”

Translation: “You have exactly twenty seconds to get out of my way.”

 
 
 
Here, it appears that my husband placed our baby up high on the fence because he realized that cow meant business.

Or maybe he was just tickling his ribs.

 
 
 
I’m not sure what I can deduce about this photo.

Someone accidentally snapped it while dangling the camera.
Or whoever took the photo is enamored with bumpers.
Or whoever took the photo was admiring the greenness and lushness of the grass.

I’m going to have to look into this one a little more.

 
 
 
From this photo, I can deduce that my girls have dirty jeans.

 
 
 
And look. Right again!

I tell you, I really should have been a detective.

We had to go to the farm in Waurika again last weekend to ship the last of the cattle we had down there. Our farm is on the southern end of the state, less than twenty miles from the Texas line. Our ranch in Osage County, is on the northern end of the state, about thirteen miles from the Kansas line. It’s about a four hour drive from our ranch to the farm, so when we go to the farm, we try to get as much done as possible.

The reason we call it “the farm” is that it is primarily a farming operation. We plant over 3,500 acres of wheat, then use it to graze cattle in the winter and spring. In the warmer climate of southern Oklahoma, the wheat will grow almost all winter long, providing an excellent source of pasture for grazing and fattening cattle.

Grazing cattle on wheat during the winter is common practice for many wheat farmers in this area, but most of them will pull the cattle off in February or March, then go ahead and let the wheat grow so they can harvest a crop. Our wheat farming operation is strictly for grazing cattle. In the spring, when the wheat really starts growing, we just add more cattle. In the fall, you can stock one steer per acre depending on the size of the cattle; that can increase to one-and-a-half to two steers per acre in the spring.

Steers can gain 2.5 to 3 pounds a day on good wheat pasture.

In an earlier post, I’d explained raising calves as part of the cow-calf operation. The farm, on the other hand, is used primarily as a yearling grazing operation, which is the next stage of the cattle cycle. Yearling or “stocker” operations will take calves that have been weaned from their mamas, then grow them. This is the stage where the calf will go from the 400/500 pound range to 700/800 pounds. This is a large part of the cattle business, and there are many ranchers and farmers that specialize in just this aspect. There are also ranchers and farmers like us that do both cow/calf and yearling operations.

We do yearlings both on the farm and on our home ranch. We use our own calves from our cow/calf operation and we will also buy calves from other ranchers. You can buy cattle at sale barns, through video auctions, internet auctions, order buyers or directly from other ranchers. Most of the calves are from spring cows and are weaned in the fall, so we buy and receive them in the fall. The hardest part of a yearling operation is receiving them—getting the calves in and keeping them healthy.

When they first arrive, we process them. This means we brand, worm and vaccinate them. Then they are kept in traps (smaller pastures) where they are trained to come to a feed truck and monitored every day to make sure they don’t get sick. (One of the many skills you need as a cowboy is the ability to identify sick cattle; the earlier you can identify and doctor one, the better it is for them.) Any sick cattle are gathered to the pens and doctored. If there are just a couple of sick animals, they’re roped and doctored (which just means given a shot of antibiotics) right on the spot. After a week or two, when the cattle have begun coming to a feed truck, they are moved to larger pastures. But they will still need to be monitored daily for a month or more to make sure they stay well.

The great part about a wheat-grazing operation is that the wheat is ready to graze in late November or early December. So as soon as the cattle are straightened up and ready to go, there is pasture ready for them. The hard part about a wheat grazing operation is stocking it right so that you don’t run out of pasture or let the wheat get too big. It’s a balancing act to keep the right number of cattle on the wheat. The hard part about the yearlings we run on our main ranch is that they have to be kept and fed through the winter until the grass starts growing in April. The good part is that they are usually sold in July or August, which is typically a good time to market cattle.

Personally, I like having the benefit of running yearlings on both wheat and grass. It provides a little financial diversity. The cattle on wheat will be sold from March through May, so it gives you come cash flow in the spring of the year when you can use it after a long winter of expenses. It also spreads out your marketing window to help weather any market blips that might otherwise hurt you.

The hardest part about running cattle for both types of operations is getting enough cattle in the fall and being able to afford buying the cattle. We will typically buy around ten thousand calves in the fall, and in today’s market that’s not cheap. As is the case with most ranchers, all of our equity is tied up in land, so we don’t have cash sitting in the bank at any given time. Fortunately, we have a good banker we have worked with for over twenty years. One of the first lessons my father taught me is that you need to have a good, longterm relationship with a lender who understands agriculture. Ranching is a capital-intensive business, and one of the keys to being able to make it in the long run is to have good banking relationships.

Most larger yearling operations, will borrow the money needed to buy their cattle. This introduces an element of risk. When you borrow money to buy cattle that you’re going to sell within 4 to 8 months, you take a risk that if the market goes down during that time, you can not only not make money, which is bad enough, but you could also lose money, which is much worse. The other side is that if the market goes up during that time, you can make really good money. The key, like any business, is that you have to be in it for the long haul. There will always be ups and downs, but if you’re in it for the long term, they will hopefully even themselves out.

Saturday was a good day. This year has been an up year in the market, which makes shipping much more fun. (We’ve had our share of years where shipping wasn’t as much fun.)

We shipped 1,564 steers Saturday.

 
We gathered them from two pastures. In this one, there were about 900 steers.

 
 
I know I’ve said it before, but early morning gatherings are the best.

 
 
One thing about shipping is that after you line up the buyer and the trucks, there is no calling it off. So even though it was supposed to rain that morning, we didn’t let it stop us.

 
 
See, here comes some more trucks. There’s no putting it off until tomorrow.

 
 
It wasn’t a hard rain, so it was actually kind of nice. It kept the morning cool and made it easier on the cattle. We had our usual crew of kids (Our younger daughter had a soccer game, so she got a pass for the day.)

 
 
We also had some day workers. A little extra help is always nice.

 
 Man, that pink jacket stands out. But she was quick to point out that “It took eight of them to watch the other side, but just me and my pink jacket to watch this side.” Here, we’re gathering them from a 640 acre pasture into a smaller trap that leads to the pens.

 
 
Once they’re in the trap, it gets a little easier.

 
 
They just follow the feed truck on to the pens.

 
 
Except this time, he got a little too far in front of us and because there were so many cattle, the front part made it to the pens and turned around before we could get the back part up there. Here, Miss Pink Jacket, Josh, and cowboy Todd are stopping them from running off.

 
 
We got them turned around now, back towards the pens.

 
 
Once in the pens, I usually weigh and Pa-Pa handles the loading of the scales, but I left him some of our very top hands.

 
 
After a while, some of them abandoned him—they wanted to go in the house and dry off. But these two stuck it out.

 
 
Actually, I told them they had to stay and help.

 
 
It doesn’t look like it bothered them much.

 
 
Todd, our cowboy at the farm, counted them off.

 
 
Tim helped Allen (the buyer rep) go through the cattle after we weighed them.

 
 
Oh, and while he usually stays on the ranch, we brought Josh to the farm on this trip. He and Colt loaded trucks after Tim and Allen had gone through them.

 
 
On they go.

 
 
We were finished by 11:00 AM. It was like a well-oiled machine…or trailer gate.

What kind of country kids have they been, anyway?

Anyway, they’re officially obsessed now. They get up in the morning and race to the pond to see who can catch the first fish of the day.

 
 
 
Josh took them fishing at our pond a few days ago. This is part of what has ignited the fire.

On another note, I almost entitled this post “Josh in Shorts” since Josh is…well, wearing shorts.

Cowboys in shorts: Not exactly a sight one sees every day.

 
 
 
Oh, were my boys in heaven.

 
 
 
Josh gave the boys some pointers about how to cast and how to reel it in.

 
 
 
And how to give the line a little yank when you first feel that nibble.

 
 
 
Kitten Kitten was very interested in this new fishing business.

For obvious reasons.

 
 
 
My older daughter eventually joined the fun that evening.

At least she tried to.

 
 
 
Have you seen Animal House? The part where Flounder goes up to the poker players at the rush party?

 
 
 
“Hi, guys! You guys playing cards?”

 
 
 
“Guess they didn’t hear me.”

 
 
 
He caught one!

Then he threw it back.

Eventually, the girls joined in and before the evening was over, they’d all caught one.

And they’d all thrown them back.

 
 
 
Much to Kitten Kitten’s chagrin.

 
 
Oh, what a beautiful day!

 
 
I’ve got a beautiful feeling…

 
 
That calf is going to stay.

(Photos snapped by Marlboro Man from atop his trusty steed.)

And finally, from my then three-year-old boy who’s now nine, and who will be eighteen tomorrow:

Have a beautiful day, everyone!

Love,
PW

1. Unpacked.
2. Completely rearranged the furniture.
3. Gave myself a hernia.
4. Cleaned out my desk and found three important things that are no longer important because back when they were important, I couldn’t find them.
5. Placed tomato cages onto some tomatoes I planted a couple of weeks ago.
6. Cleaned out Charlie’s ears.
7. Donated the contents of his ears to science.
8. Washed my hands.
9. Made pork chops.
10. Made pico de gallo.
11. Made cookies.
12. Didn’t exercise.

Today I’m cleaning out the mud room and I’m so very afraid. Hold me.

And while we’re on the subject, I wanted to tell you a quick story.

 
On Sunday, I appeared on QVC to feature my new cookbook. It’s the fifth or sixth time I’ve been on QVC over the past three years, and it’s something I really enjoy doing. QVC is like a planet unto itself, probably the most well-oiled machine I’ve ever seen next to my household. Just kidding on that last part. The people at QVC are upbeat and positive, the place is immaculate, the producers are calm and organized, and David Venable, the host of the show on which I appear, is someone I’ve really grown to like.

When I go to QVC, I feel like a complete dodo bird. Last time I was there, I ran into a stairway. You can read about it here:

Ree Runs Into a Stairway

This time, I showed up to the studio all dressed and ready about 11:00, and my segment, it turned out, wasn’t until 1:15. So I spent that time making sure all the food was in order and my forehead wasn’t overly reflective. Then I placed an extremely large Velcro roller on top of my head, rolling up a strategic section of my hair so as to give my hair a little height and offset my jowls for my segment. Then I set about figuring out what I was going to wear. I also watched QVC in real time on the TV in the green room, trying not be sucked in by the offerings. Never in my life have I wanted a facial steamer or set of sparkly stacking rings so much.

Around 11:45, the producer came in to let me know that they would need me to come out on the set and do a tease at noon, which just means I go out and say hi and they introduce me and say I’ll be on the show later in the day. I said, “Okay, great,” then sat back down and resumed reading The Godfather.

If you have not read The Godfather—if you’ve only seen the movie—please add it to your summer reading list. I’m going to write about it on PW Entertainment soon.

Oh, that reminds me! I need to plant those two rose bushes near our rock wall today.

And I can’t forget to put the roast in the oven!

Wait. What was I talking about?

Oh, yeah. QVC. So just before noon, I walk toward the set and wait outside the door for them to call me because I don’t want to be in anyone’s way. Then I hear in my earpiece, “We need you now, Ree!”

Thirty seconds early. I think. They’re really on the ball today!

I swing open the doors and begin walking on set. The producer, standing in the wings, looks at me as I walk past and says “You have a roller!”

“Okay!” I answered nervously and took another step or two toward the cameras. I didn’t really know what he meant. I thought maybe he was saying that I was going to be featuring a rolling kitchen cart like the one they’d featured earlier in the show. Never mind that this made absolutely no sense.

“You have a roller!” he repeated, only a little louder this time. Like when people repeat something to a person who doesn’t speak their language, and they think raising the volume will help.

“Okay,” I answered again. Then I started thinking he meant a lint roller. I guess I’ll be featuring a lint roller on my segment along with my cookbook? Never mind that made even less sense than the rolling kitchen cart.

I took another step toward the set. My tease was seven seconds away, and I didn’t want to be late.

“YOU HAVE A ROLLER IN YOUR HAIR.” The urgency in the producer’s voice was undeniable.

It all suddenly became clear to me. The Velcro roller, which happened to be the size of a medium-sized propane tank, was still proudly and violently perched on top of my head, a good chunk of my hair rolled up in it. I felt like a crazy lady who’d left the beauty shop a little early and who’d accidentally worn her bra over her shirt that day. I was two steps away from being in the camera’s frame, so I froze, ripped the roller out of my hair, plopped it in the producer’s outstretched hand, and breezed right up to David Venable, who graciously welcomed me to the show and most likely wondered why the top of my head was frizzed out and hectic.

On my way to the airport later that afternoon, Marlboro Man texted me from home. Our conversation went something like this:

How did it go?

Great! I almost walked on the set with a roller on top of my head.

I don’t understand.

Neither do I.

But here’s the good news: I didn’t run into the stairway when I left the building!

So when you think about it, I’m actually making progress.

Note from Pioneer Woman: The above photo has nothing to do with this post. I just wanted to post it.

After six weeks of off/on travel, I’m finally home to stay and probably won’t shower for a week. (Wait…what?) More regular posting will resume now that I’m permanently unpacked…but meanwhile, my beloved Marlboro Man has been picking up the slack for me, writing posts about agriculture. If you’re not the least bit interested in reading about the cattle market, cow-calf operations, bulls, land management, burning, and artificial insemination, I do apologize.

However, if these topics pique your interest, here is the full archive of the posts he’s written so far:

Cattle & Agriculture Posts by Marlboro Man

As for today’s post, Marlboro Man answers many of your questions relating to last week’s post about Cow-Calf Operations…and about ranching in general. Thank you all for giving him an opportunity to talk about his favorite subject next to football.

Q. If you keep heifers back as replacements, do you need keep them in a different pasture, with a different bull, for genetic diversity? Or do you AI the heifers and keep them in a pasture without a bull?

A. We don’t AI (artificially inseminate.) All of the heifers that are being bred for the first time will be kept in pastures by themselves. The bulls used on heifers their first time are usually younger, low birth-weight bulls. We use younger bulls because they weigh less and it’s easier on the heifers. “Low birth-weight” means the bulls are expected to sire calves with a lower birth weight; this is preferable for heifers being bred for for the first time. It makes the calving easier.

 
 
Q. Is AI used in the cattle industry as well? If it is, what are the pros/cons of AI use?

The main advantage of AI is that it allows you to dictate specific genetics. The biggest negative is the time and management required to synchronize the heat cycle of the cattle being bred—then manually inseminate each animal. On a commercial operation (“commercial” just means we are raising cattle for the production of beef, versus registered operations that are trying to produce superior genetics) it is more cost-effective to let the bull do his work. He can easily identify which cows are in heat.

 
 
Q. Aside from sheer number of cows, have you considered artificial insemination to reduce the number of empty cows?

A. Trying to manage the heat cycle of 1,000 cows spread out over 12 pastures would make AI impossible for us.

 
 
Q. How do you keep track of which animal is used for what purpose? Do you have several herds of cattle grazing on separate parcels?

A. Our ranch is fenced and cross-fenced into many different pastures. Part of our job is to stock the pastures at a manageable rate and to keep track of what is grazed in each pasture. Usually in the fall and spring, we’ll shape (gather to the pens and sort, or sort in the corner of a pasture on horseback) our cows and yearlings to put like cattle with like cattle. Incidentally, we’ll be doing this in the coming weeks. I will try to do a post with photos about this process)

 
 
Q. How in the world do you keep track of all your cattle, down to which one was bred and how old this one is and when it’s time for that one to go…and tell them apart?

A. We keep the cattle separated by pasture. Most of the different types of animals we run are easy to differentiate. Fall cows have babies in the winter and spring cows don’t. Steers and heifers are easily determined by their sexual identifiers. Steers and heifers aren’t nearly as big as cows, or as small as calves. The only difficult thing to immediately identify is a cow’s age, but they aren’t generally separated by age except to keep the first and second calf heifers separate. (This is so that you can breed them with lower birth-weight bulls, and so that you can keep a closer eye on them during calving season.)

 
 
Q. How do you guard your cattle against coyotes?

A. We take care of some of them ourselves. Also, our state trappers will come assist us with decreasing the numbers. Coyotes are part of the wildlife in our area, so it isn’t as much about totally eliminating them (which is impossible to do) as keeping their numbers under control.

 
 
Q. How much do the kiddos contribute?

A. Our kids are now vital to the operation. They know how to do the work and they are getting to be pretty good at it. This doesn’t just happen overnight. Tim and I have spent lots of time working with them. In the earlier years, taking them with us was more work than it was helpful, but that is what you have to do if you want them to learn. There were many mornings when I would rather have slept until 5:00 am instead of getting up at 4:30 to saddle those four extra horses. But now I’m so glad I did it.

 
 
Q. Two questions from a non-cow person: How would a cow get injured by an oil pump jack? And hypothetical — how do you think you would handle it if one of your kids said he/she hated the outdoor ranch life and didn’t want to help with any of the cow/horse type chores?

A cow will sometimes rub on the panels around a pump and knock them down or loose, then it will stick its head in there and get injured. It doesn’t happen very often.

As far as the kids go, it wouldn’t bother me at all if they said ranch life wasn’t for them. When I was growing up, I actually didn’t like it all that much. It was a lot of work and I would have much rather sat at home and watched cartoons on Saturday morning. Thankfully, that wasn’t an option. I want my kids to know how to be good cattlemen and to know how to do the jobs of the ranch. But more importantly, I want them to learn how to work. If they learn how to work, then they can accomplish anything they want.

 
Q. I’m assuming part of producing the best calves is managing the land usage – how much is grazed over when, and when/how long that land is rested or turned to another use before being used for the cow/calf portion of the operation again?

A. You are correct. The key to any ranching operation is managing your land. It is your most important responsibility. How you stock your pastures and what you stock them with is all part of that process. We don’t do any rotational grazing, but we do alternate what we run in certain pastures through the years. You might run cows in a pasture for two years then go to horses for two and then do yearlings for a couple. They all graze land differently.

 
 
Q. What pasture management practices do you all use? Good grass has got to be good for fat and happy cows, so how do you insure that your pastures remain lush and fruitful? Burn? Fertilize? Weed control?

A. We burn and weed spray. Usually we will burn whatever is big enough to need it, then we try to weed-spray (using an aerial sprayer) half the ranch each year. We do not fertilize, as you don’t see much benefit from it on the native grasses in this area.

 
 
Q. Do you save some of these bulls for your own meat? Or do you have to purchase meat in the stores?

A. We do both. I am very comfortable with either option. I have no doubts about how the cattle that enter the general food chain are handled or treated. I only buy choice or better steaks in the grocery store, so they are usually the equivalent of what we raise at home. I do like home raised hamburger better but that is usually because the fat content is a little higher, so most people probably wouldn’t like that.

If you want to purchase a steer outside of the usual food chain, one way to do it is to go to a local 4-H show. You don’t have to buy the grand champion, just select one of the middle-of-the-road steers. This is not only an excellent way to buy a good steer that has been fed and raised with care, but also to support your local youth who are learning about agriculture,.

 
 
Q. I am curious how you pick the cows that you feed to your family. Do you finish them on grain or are they strictly grassfed?

A. We usually only fatten one or two at a time for our own use and we will do it on a grain ration. Personally I like the flavor of grain fed beef better than grass-fed. Cattle only need to be fed a grain ration for about 90 days to be considered grain-fed.

 
 
Q. I’d be curious to know what the early indicators are that one cow is better than another for using as a breeding cow?

A. We do it based on confirmation and size.

 
 
Q. Did you major in business at university? Or agriculture? Or…?

A. Business. When I first went to college, I wasn’t coming back. It took a few years for me to miss the ranch.

 
 
Q. Can you address the subject of twin calves?

A. We will leave them on the cow if she accepts them and both are doing well. You need to watch them closely and if one of the calves is struggling, you need to bottle feed it or try to get another cow to take the calf. (Unfortunately you always have a small number of cows that have recently lost a calf.)

 
 
Q. Please write about succession planning and passing the ranch to the next generation. Your family has obviously been very successful at this.

A. I’ve thought about doing a post about how a multi-generational ranch works. I’ll put that on my to-do list. The cliff notes version goes like this: You need a lot of hard work, a good education, and a good family.

But most importantly, you’ll need a good measure of faith in God. As anyone in agriculture can tell you, so much is out of our hands.

 
 
Q. Are the cow/calves more profitable than growing a crop like corn or something else?

A. Row crops are much more profitable than cattle. However, this area (the Flint Hills) is too rocky, which is why most of it was never plowed. But that means it still has its native grasses, which are excellent for grazing cattle.

 
 
Q. How much water do cattle drink – and how do you supply it to them, other than ponds.

A. All of our water comes from ponds or creek. We get plenty of rain to make ponds work in our area. As you get further west and the rainfall decreases, people will use some sort of well water, usually with a windmill.

 
 
Q. How difficult is weaning? I had a great grandma on a farm in Leavenworth, Kansas and can remember going to sleep some nights to the sound of baby calves. I was told they were being weaned and were crying out for their moms.

A. Naturally, calves are going to bawl the first couple of days they’re separated from their mamas, but by the time we wean the calves, they need to come off. A big calf will drink so much milk per day that it can be hard on the cow. We always joke that some of the cows seem ready to go to the pens. It’s like they are saying “Alrighty, he/she is all yours, I’m ready for a break.”

 
 
Q. Is a steer the primary kind of beef that people eat? Do you sell the calves for veal?

A. Steers and heifers are the primary types. We do not do any veal. I personally don’t know anyone who does veal.

 
 
Q. What other courses do you recommend to anyone to take while in college if they want to be a farmer or rancher?

A. You need basic Ag Classes but you also need business, finance, marketing—and in today’s climate, probably communications.

 
 
Q. I was curious how your family got started ranching and how you work the business with your brother. Does he live on your ranch too, and do you share all the duties equally?

A. My brother and I have separate operations, but we work very closely together. He has his ranch that he’s responsible for and I have mine, but we help each other and work together a lot. One of the advantages of having a father and brother in the same business is having a built-in consulting team. Together, we make better decisions.

 
 
Q. What is the average time you keep a cow for breeding, and also the steers? AND, do the breeding cows get sold for market or sent somewhere else?

A. Usually you will breed a heifer at 1 to 1.5 years of age. Cows are kept for their full breeding life and then they are sold, usually to a packer that specializes in older animals.

 
 
Q. If gestation is 9 months and calves are weaned at 8 months, what’s happening for the other 7 months before they go to market (since things were laid out as a 2 year/24 month operation). Is it purely “extra” time for the calves to increase in size? I’m curious because I wonder whether it would ever be possible to decrease the cycle or condense the overlap in the event of a missed breeding slot. Or are the cattle always going to be purchased October-December?

A. The cycle has been compressed as much as possible. After calves are weaned, they are sold to the next phase, which is a yearling operation. I’ll cover this later, but basically they are run on grass or wheat and grown from the 400-500 pounds to 700-800 pounds. Then they are sold to a feedyard or similar operation.

 
 
Q. Speaking of, is purchase time frame something that the ranchers or the purchasers set? Is there a reason you couldn’t have a similar cycle of spring-calves with the purchases happening in June/July a year later?

A. The rancher sets the time to sell his calves. The weaning season is determined by the growing season of the grass on the ranch the cattle come from. You want the primary growing time of the calf to coincide with the time when the grass has the highest and best protein content.

 
 
Q. Is part of the reason you prefer fall-calving that you live at a latitude/climate that will allow very young calves to live in the winter? Is that something that a rancher further north would need to consider in their cost-benefit analysis?

A. Yes. The farther north you get, the harder it is on the calves in the winter. If you’re calving when a blizzard hits, it’s not good for anyone. Also in areas where your grass is dormant in the winter, fall cattle require much more feed to get them through the winter. So southern climates are more conducive to fall cows.

 
 
Q. Here’s a question not quite related…have you been surprised by the fame and fortune this blog has brought?

A. Everything about the blog has been a surprise. As far as fame and fortune, I always tell people that it’s impossible to be famous in Pawhuska. Everyone here knows everyone else and to most of them I’m still just the guy they went to high school with or my father’s son or my grandmother’s grandson. And Ree is my wife or the kids’ mother. And the cows and horses really don’t care. The only one who has really been affected by all the change is Charlie. His ego is getting a little out of control.

 
 
Q. It’s very clear that you take excellent care of your animals, but I’m curious if it’s good for the cows to be bred back to back like that? How many years of breeding does each cow do? Seems like it must be tough on them to be pregnant and nursing all the time??

A. As long as we do a good job of taking care of them while they’re pregnant and nursing, they do fine. It really comes down to making sure they have proper nutrition and care so they can stay healthy and happy.

 
 
Q. Can you tell a little more what causes some of the baby calves to die?

A. There are lots of ways for calves to die. Sickness, problems with birthing, and coyotes are the primary problems we have. That’s why they take constant management and monitoring.

 
 
Q. Is the protein cubes you mentioned, the same as “cake feed” PW talked about in prior posts about feeding? Also the supplemental mineral, is that what might be also called “salt licks?”

A. Yes and yes—although in our area we use salt and mineral from bags, not large blocks. We put them in tubs that are placed in strategic areas of each pasture.

 
 
Q. How in the world do you keep track of all your cattle, down to which one was bred and how old this one is and when it’s time for that one to go…and tell them apart?

A. The short answer is when you work them in the fall, you separate them by groups and keep them in separate pastures. The reality is, it’s constant, non-stop work. Sorting and shaping cattle to keep them straightened out is a huge part of our job.

 
 
Q. I’ve got a question! You mentioned that steers are worth more, and that you assume a 50/50 split between steers/heifers. I was reading an interview with a dairy farmer who mentioned that they use sperm sorting and artificial insemination on their dairy cows – this lets them have mostly heifer calves that will stay on the farm and get milked once they’re grown. Is it practical and/or cost effective for you to do something similar, to get mostly steers?

A. See above. It’s not practical or cost effective right now. It may be in the future, but that still feels like a long way off.

 
 
Q. What is the difference between steers/heifers?

A. Steers are male, and heifers are female.

 
 
Q. How did you learn to do all these processes? Did your dad teach you? Did you get schooling for it?

A. I learned just from doing it. There is a lot to know, but most of it is just common sense gained through years of experience.

 
 
Q. So is there really any such thing as a grass fed (purely) animal?

A. Yes. They are just cattle that have been raised on strictly grass. There are people that specialize in raising only grass fed beef.

 
 
Q. Is it just me or does that calf have an irritated or evil look on its face?

A. He does look a little annoyed.

 
 
Q. I know that there are only so many hours in the day and work is work, but are chickens too much extra work?

A. Yes. Chickens are evil.

Note from PW: I’ll be getting chickens soon! Heh heh heh.

 
 
Q. What breed of cattle do you raise? Crossbreds?

A. We raise mostly Angus cattle but we do have some Brangus and my brother has his Herefords.

 
 
Q. And do you keep back all the heifers to breed, or do some of them get shipped off with the steers? Also, what’s wrong with a Brahma influence?

A. Most of our heifers will get shipped off with the steers. Only the best of the heifers will be kept for breeding.

Some buyers don’t like Brahma’s. Brahma’s have a thinner hide and will not handle the cold as well as pure Angus or more English type cattle. The flip side is, they do handle hot weather better, which is why many people in the southern states have cattle with some Brahma influence.

 
 
Q. Are there a bunch of bulls intermingled among the herd of bachelorettes? If so, do the bulls fight amongst themselves to get a “date?” If the bulls do fight, is there ever a concern they will harm one another? And finally, do bulls really go cookoo when they see the color red?

A. Yes, the bulls will fight among themselves and occasionally hurt each other. That’s another cost of doing business.

A bull is either cookoo or he isn’t (some bulls are just crazy ) The color red isn’t the problem.

 
 
Q. Can you talk more about grass fed, organic, grass finished, etc… beef and what the various terms mean to the consumer.

A. This is another topic I need to post about. I’ll try to do that sometime soon.

 
 
 
When I was forty-three with a cowlick and love handles, and I had kids of my own and a husband I loved, and my sister had her own baby and I grew tomatoes in my garden, I had a Basset Hound.

 
 
 
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Amen.

(And woof.)

Love,
P-Dub

I’ve missed you.

Have you missed me, too?

 
 
If someone had told me when I was eighteen that I would one day miss cows, I would have uttered the following phrase:

“Say wha?”

Then I would have scratched my head, looked at them with confusion, and run away.

Oh, how life changes.

 
 
Wait, cows. Where are you going? Did you not miss me, too?

It appears that when it comes to human-bovine separation, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” does not go both ways.

Oh, and they’re not cows, Ree.

They’re steers.

I just love it when I get to correct myself.

 
 
Hello, road! Oh, how I’ve missed you, too.

 
 
Hello, cattle guard that leads to our homestead! Thank you for welcoming me with open arms.

I mean an open gate.

 
 
Hello, homestead!

I can’t wait to hug you and kiss you and squeeze you.

And call you George.

 
 
 
She liked it.

Raise your hand if you love Enchanted more every time you watch it.

I think it’s Amy Adams’ very, very, very, very best role.

And the chemistry between Amy and Patrick? Especially toward the end when they’re dancing? Someone throw ice water on me.

 
 
 
Flying into Los Angeles is quite the experience.

The phrase “urban sprawl” comes to mind.

 
 
 
Look! There’s my dorm!

That was a fun little bonus.

 
 
 
Bets and I stayed in a really pretty hotel and we’ve never had more fun sitting on a sofa in a hotel room in our lives. We cracked up and solved the world’s problems and cracked up and reminisced about things and cracked up and reverted and regressed to adolescence and it was positively wonderful.

Sisters are…well, there’s just nothing like them.

 
 
 
After a couple of days in Los Angeles, we flew to Phoenix and met Marlboro Man and my two boys and we all had dinner together.

My baby took this photo.

That’s why I have a look of mushy love on my face.

 
 
 
I ate this for dinner. It was actually an appetizer, and it changed my life. A cold lobster tail with garlic aioli.

It was one of the most earthshattering things I’ve ever put in my mouth.

The next day, we all went to my book signing and met the kindest people. As kind as the people had been in Pasadena, and as kind as the people had been in Seattle, and as kind as the people have been in the places I’ve gotten to visit over the past six weeks.

After the signing in Phoenix, Marlboro Man and I went back to the same restaurant in our hotel. We sat in the bar and I ordered the same lobster appetizer and we watched Thunder beat the Mavericks and I yelled “Yay!” involuntarily.

When we got back to the room, Betsy and the boys were watching the new Muppet movie, and Betsy and I started reminiscing about the original Muppet movie and how I used to have a Miss Piggy poster on my bedroom door. Then we started crying and the boys asked Mama and Aunt Betsy what in the world was wrong.

“The Muppets,” we said. “They just…they mean a lot to us, boys!”

Then the boys went and found Marlboro Man and asked them what the Thunder score was. They wanted no part of our nostalgic meltdown.

Marlboro Man, the boys, and I had all day before we had to leave so we spent the afternoon driving around and looking at sights. While we were driving down the road, I saw a sign that read “Extraordinary Doughnut” and I got really excited.

Then a few seconds later, I looked again and realized it read “Culinary Dropout.”

I think I need to get my eyes checked when I get home.

 
 
 
I love succulents.

 
 
 
I tried not to look at them. They’re so glorious and bizarre and beautiful…but I just can’t grow very many of them on the ranch.

It hurt my horticultural soul.

I’ll tell you what else hurt my soul, but in a different way: We were walking through a hotel lobby and I saw an elderly gentleman (probably in his late eighties) sitting alone at a small table. He was holding a pen and very, very slowly writing on a postcard. Three blank postcards sat on the table, too. He clearly had plans for them all.

Whom was he writing? His daughter? An old friend? His grandchildren? His neighbor?

In this world of cell phones and laptops and iPads—a world I reside in happily, I should point out—it touched me to see the man writing the postcards.

Then I started missing my grandmothers.

I’m going to send Ga-Ga a postcard today.

 
 
 
Marlboro Man, the boys, and I flew to Albuquerque last night.

Tomorrow we’ll be home on the ranch.

 
 
 
This reminded me of the Twilight Zone movie. I kept watching. Watching for that little…man creature. Whatever it was.

What was it, by the way?

I’m not really sure I want to know.

And one last thing: My older boy lost a tooth in Phoenix. When we arrived at the airport, he handed it to me and said “Here, Mama. Take my tooth.”

“What would you like me to do with it?” I asked him.

“Just hold it for me?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said. “Okay.” And I stuck the tooth in the tiny third front pocket of my jeans.

I’m just sharing this story with you to let you know that the tooth did not cause me any trouble at airport security.

You know…just in case it ever comes up in your life.

Love,
Pioneer Woman