Shipping

It’s what the ranch works toward all year long. It’s why there are long hours in the hay field, long hours irrigating, time spent calving, herd health checks, water hauling and lots of meetings. Shipping. It is how each ranch makes their money. The babies are born from February to May, branded, sent up the mountain, brought down, weaned, vaccinated and then shipped off. It means money.

Our shipping days came and went with little trouble. The first of the steers shipped out to Nebraska. The next set of heifers went out to Riverton, Wyoming. Everyone is chipper, happy and works well together at shipping. Then there’s food. Lots of food.

The first day of shipping the menu:

Breakfast: homemade sweet rolls Lunch: Chili, cornbread, broccoli salad, dump cake, cookies

Day two of shipping: Breakfast: biscuits and gravy Lunch: Braised Beef Brisket, hash brown casserole, country lima beans, homemade yeast rolls, chocolate pound cake, sweet potato bars.

I also had snacks, waters and cokes at the scale house for the workers.

After the calves shipped, dealings done, it was time to pregnancy check the cows.

The vet runs his hand in, feels around, and shouts YEP or NO, then brushes a bleach solution on the back of the mama to show if she’s preg or not and she gets some shots. One cow takes less than a minute. The vet checks, someone vaccinates someone records numbers and others are pushing up the rest. With over 400 to do each day, they were working like a machine. Some of the work is done on foot and some on horseback.

I LOVE shipping days. It’s loud, fun, and PEOPLE. It’s nice and refreshing to have people on the ranch that aren’t usually around. The drivers/buyers from Nebraska are always fun. They stay in one of the guest houses on the ranch and treat us to a meal the night before. There’s always fun, food and laughter.