Saturday, December 26, 2009

Moo-ving Day

As the seasons change, we rotate our cattle to different pastures. Beginning in February the cows are kept in to pasture closest to the house in preparation for calving. In June, mommas and babies go out to the south leases, where they stay until harvest is done. Then they're trailed home and turned out onto the barley and hayfields to clean up anything the combines and hay balers missed. The next move is clear north, to the pasture that runs right up to the Canadian border.

That was today.

Greg took the lead with the tractor and a hay bale. Vegas and I brought up the rear to keep everyone in line. And I do mean in line:



The cows don't normally string out that way. The snow was anywhere from six inches to two feet deep, so they were following the trail broken by the tractor.




Lookin' just like one of those movie cowgirls!


I guess you could say our cows have a room with a view...of Chief Mountain

9 comments:

Janet Reid said...

What the heck do those cows eat out there? Thai take out? Pizza delivery?

MitMoi said...

Ha! Thai in Montana ... lol

Anonymous said...

How do you feed them so far from home? What is there to eat up there?

Heidiwriter said...

Some gorgeous country! Thanks for sharing these photos of my home state.
Heidi

Kari Lynn Dell said...

Janet: It's pretty much like Thai, except their delivery guy drives a big green tractor.

Cyndi: Look at the last picture. If you follow the fence line all the way to the bottom, that dark, block-shaped thing at the end is a haystack.

Heidi: One of these days I'll get some good pictures of the Sweetgrass Hills for you.

Sandra Cormier said...

I love the smell of sweetgrass. Do the Sweetgrass Hills smell like that?

Kari Lynn Dell said...

Sandra: Hate to admit it, but I don't actually know if sweetgrass grows on the Sweetgrass Hills. They do smell like open prairie and sun-baked grass, though. And pine, in the spots that have trees.

jazzabelle said...

Love the photos, it looks so cold up there on horse back.

Kari Lynn Dell said...

Jazzabelle: It's not too bad as long as the wind isn't blowing. It was in the mid-twenties that day, and with the sunshine I stayed nice and toasty.

The day I nearly froze was when we shipped our calves in mid-November. Forty degrees, rain, sleet, wind. Nothing worse than being wet. You can read about it in the post called Ranchers Gold in the November archives.