Shipping Day, Part Two

At long last. It has been quite a few days since shipping day, and I realized I didn't tell you what happened! Here goes...

Before sunrise, #1 and his brother started gathering the cattle from the fields. They were pushed into the corral system to be sorted off. There were at least seven of us working in the corrals, then another four or so around the scale. Not including truck drivers. It takes a lot of people to sort this many cattle.

You know it's going to be a good day when you encounter Old "Eyebrows" in the corral. She is gettin' some age on her, and she is pretty wild, but what she lacks in compliance she makes up for in looks. She has two matching eyebrows, one over each eye. That is the best shot I could get with my little digital--can't take my good camera when I'm working in the corrals.
And here is Broker J., surveying the herd. J., #1 and I herded cows from this corral into the alley, where they were sorted off. First heifers (girls) and steers (boys) were separated into separate pens and the mother cows were let back out. Some of the calves didn't get branded this year, which means there were also some young bulls in there. Those got separated off first with the steers (castrated), and then each group of calves were sorted again.
Here comes #1 to help us out.
After we got the alley filled, I helped close the gate, then I climbed up on the fence. It was my job to make sure the cows didn't pack too tight against the gate and bust back through. So basically I got to yell and make noises at them, and poke at and/or hit them if they didn't listen. In addition to this, I got to climb up and over fences all day long, relaying messages and whatnot to the folks at the scales. Whew.
There were so many cows here I have no idea what the final numbers were. And even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you. It's a kind of ranchers code: you would no more ask how many cattle an outfit runs, than you would ask how much money a person has in the bank.

I can tell you this:

it was fence-to-fence cows, as far as you could see.

Once the heifers and steers were separated, we sorted through each group to get the ones the Buyer wanted. Those cows went down the alley, onto the scales, and then into a holding pen until they were ready to load the trucks.


I snapped this shot from my fence-top perch. #1 and J. would be at the front of the herd, shouting out what cow went where. Essentially, they were at the front of the herd, unintentionally pushing them back toward the gate and my post. And I would try to keep the herd from pushing too hard against the gate. The cattle get pretty jam-packed in the alley, so it can be stressful, not to mention dangerous, if a cow is too wild or decides to try to bust through somewhere. Thankfully, no one got hurt today.




This little muddy calf was one who was constantly playing in the sprinkler--one of the risers that supply water to the cows was broken, and sprayed out. Some of the little ones enjoyed playing in the spray!
And here come the trucks!

It gets kinda dusty. We haven't had rain in a while. And occasionally the guys on the gates miss a cow or put it in the wrong pen. RanchHand was working a gate, and was getting a bit testy with the Buyer at one point, which is a definite no-no.
Luckily, RH asked me "who is that man" and I explained.

I told him, "RH, you can't yell at the Buyer."

RH said, "But...but he yelled at me too. And sometimes they won't say what it is until it's too late."

I said, "RH, you just have to be nice, and pay attention. And move faster."

There's the Buyer and Broker, looking for one of the calves who got into the wrong pen.

See the black one? Trying to escape.


You can't tell by looking, but those trucks are full of cows. Three semis, all headed to the Colorado/Kansas border to feed lots. From there, to your table as BEEF.
You're welcome.