Tag: cowgirl

Quarterly Corral–Cow Collars, Drought, and Change, Oh My!

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My BlogLeave a comment

Hello my friends!

Time goes faster the older you get. My mom used to say this and I remember thinking that was the strangest comment, but now I understand it with full clarity. Life gets fuller the older you get and that’s a good thing, but boy does the time fly!

WHAT IS THE QUARTERLY CORRAL?

I’m going to aim this year for quarterly updates, thus the name Quarterly Corral. In between, I’ll be writing in the faith sphere on Substack, so feel free to find me there. I’d love to connect with you. I also have a website for my kidlit work that you’re welcome to check out if that appeals to you.

As for the ranch, life has been interesting the past few months!

COLLARS

We implemented virtual fencing this fall with our cattle herds. A group of Montana State students came out to work with us and learn as well. We love working with students.

We chose to use Halter for our collars, and they’ve been great. There are three towers on the ranch to work between collars and cell phones. We can now create virtual fencing with an app on a phone. It didn’t take the cows long to respect the collars. The collars buzz or pulse when cows get close to a boundary, and they don’t cross that boundary. It takes about 12 minutes to implement new pasture fences.

This doesn’t mean that the phone does everything. The cattle need to be checked. They still are guided when moving big distances. Boundary lines can be adjusted and they’ll often gravitate to new pastures if it’s close by, but cattle moves still happen. However, the collars can be used during moves–you can set them so the cattle move down an invisible lane.

The cows don’t seem to mind their new necklaces. Many tossed their heads for about 10 seconds after coming out of the chute with their new collar, but that was it. We did put collars on the heifers, which we check regularly as they continue to grow. We don’t want them to get tight. A few have lost their collars, but not many.

It’s been a learning curve with software–mostly for my hubby since it’s on his phone–but it’s been an interesting process to see the cattle adapt. It’s also been great to graze pastures along the river bottom where fencing is difficult, but grass is plentiful. The river usually gorges each winter and takes out fences, but this winter has been too warm.

DROUGHT

As for us personally, the drought has impacted our leased land. Irrigation options were decreased. Here it is the beginning of February and we don’t have snow. With only one dusting all winter so far, we are praying for precipitation. Even now, the drought impacted us and we sold our personal herd. It’s a good time to sell, prices are up, but it’s weird to have them gone. The ranch where we live and work is also downsizing this month to accommodate for drought. Here we are feeding our girls one last time before they got on the truck…

CHANGE

This past Christmas season we spent some time with each of our kids, which is always great. We love spending time with them. Our oldest is in her 3rd year of vet school at Kansas State, our middle one is in the process of moving to Texas, and our youngest one proposed to his girlfriend, so we’ll be gaining a daughter-in-love in August! Phew! I’m so thankful that the Lord is working in their lives and leading them to places and situations that He has for them.

QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Feel free to drop me a line if you ever have questions or comments. I love connecting with you!

GETTING INTO THE CATTLE BUSINESS

On By Marci WhitehurstIn My Blog2 Comments

Having cattle is a business, but it is also a lifestyle. You don’t clock a 9-5 and head home. You’re on call all the time. You live where you work. You work where you live. And you have to learn to relax and play so you don’t go crazy.

My most recent article in Progressive Cattleman included a questionnaire. Have you ever seen the questions asked to see if you’re ready to have kids? It goes something like this…

  1. How do you handle vomit and poop?
  2. Do you value Friday and Saturday nights out on the town?
  3. Can you step on a building block and not cry?
  4. Do you handle finances responsibly? Do you have room in your budget?
  5. Do you know how to hold a baby?
  6. Are your houseplants dying?

The idea is to get people thinking about how their lives will change once they have a child. These quizzes make me laugh because there really isn’t anything that can prepare you for it.

The same is true for owning cattle. You can be prepared as much as possible, but you’ll still find some surprises. To check out the entire article, please click HERE.

Owning cattle is hard and rewarding. Just like parenting.

There’s poop involved. Just like parenting.

And the hours are unpredictable. Just like parenting.

While there are obvious and major differences between owning cattle and parenting–the adage stands: You don’t know what you don’t know…

Until you do it.

Ultimately, if you’re interested in learning about cattle, do it. Read, study, but most importantly, spend time around people who have cattle and be teachable. One of the most annoying things about people starting anything is pretending to know everything when they don’t know much at all. It’s okay to have a starting point. Just be willing to learn and grow from it.

The agriculture industry needs newcomers. We want others to join us. So come!