Vaccination day at Holmestead Ranch

Last Monday was vaccination day at home. Our neighbors Doug and Rita (best neighbors in the world!) brought their horses over after dinner and the three of us rode down to our south quarter to bring in the cows and calves. Our cows are getting pretty used to being gathered by horse and dog so they gathered easy and off we went to the corrals. Once we had them all pushed up into the small corral we started sorting cows to Doug who was "gate man" on his horse Beamer. Rita and I would cut and push cows to Doug who would let the cows out the gate and turn the calves back into the herd. The cows are getting better at being sorted while we're on horseback, and so with only a minor bobble or two we quickly had the cows sorted out, and the calves run down the alley to the crowding tub.

So....cows out - check.

Calves in the alley - check.

One quick ride through the cows to make sure we hadn't missed any calves and we could start running the calves through the alley and chute to vaccinate. Didn't I say "calves in the alley" ?? oh noooo.........the gate to the crowding tub didn't get closed and half the calves came up the alley and through the chute and were back out with their bawling mammas! :(

Oh well........whats a good cowhorse for but to cut and sort cows :o))

Round Two........gather the escapees and their mommas and head back into the sorting corral. Hey......they're starting to figure this out :o) The cows were eager to cooperate, and this time we had all the gates closed, and all the calves in the alley!

Many hands make light work and 1,2,3 shots per calf and they were soon all done and back out with their moms. A month from now we'll do it all over again, only then it will be time for weaning and a few sleepless nights until the calves quiet down.

After we were done we headed into the house for some hot coffee (the temps were hovering right around freezing with a couple of little snow squalls thrown in) and cake. Just as we were pulling off winter coveralls, we looked out the window to see another rancher in the area moving a herd home past our place. I've attached a picture of Matt and Shauna Elines cattle heading home in my next entry because I can't see to figure out how to get those particular pictures to upload into 'this' blog.............some days this learning curve is almost too steep for me :o)