A Day in the Life - Part Two

(We left "The Kid" as she was finishing Field 4 and, R, another farm worker, has already gone on to the Main Stackyard to start setting out bales.)

Winter stackyard in Field 3. Each of the five stackyards contains about 5000 bales. Each bale weighs between 1200 and 1500 pounds.

By the time I get to the Main Stackyard with the unit, R has set out three bales for me. In all, he will need to get 21 bales ready for NQ, the next field we will do. (NQ = North Quarantine.) I load and head into NQ, which is adjacent to the Main Stackyard. NQ is not very big, so "Leroy" has plowed the frozen manure into piles, so it's not too terribly bumpy. We are usually done the field feeding by 11:30 am.

The cows in North Quarantine.

While the two of us have been out in the fields, one or more of the other hands (depending on what day it is) feed the feedlot. Since cowboying has slowed down on the ranch (for the winter), it's up to the cowboys to feed buckets of grain to certain pens. "Sanchez" (another co-worker) in driving the JD 7210, the smallest tractor on the ranch. His job is to feed East Quarantine, South Quarantine, Meadow One, the colts, Pen One, and the two horse pens. He takes bales from the Bottom Stackyard. 

East Quarantine - cull and open cows - meaning those that have no baby in them.
South Quarantine - the bulls.
Meadow One - replacement heifers.
Feedlot Three - colts
Pen One - sick calves, which are doctored by the cowboys, as needed.

One of the mares.

Every pen does not have to be fed every day, so it's somewhat of a memory juggling act. It only takes about 2.5 hours to feed the feedlot, even though it sound like a lot of animals to feed.

Sanchez does not have a hay buster. Instead, he has a knife, a very well used tool on the ranch. He can bring in only one bale at a time from the Bottom Stackyard. He has to get out of the tractor, cut the twine all the way down one side of the bale, pull off and wrap up the twine, and stuff it in his tractor. It's not good for the cows to eat twine. About the same as getting string in your salad. Not very tasty, I don't think.

After Sanchez is done feeding, he takes all the twines to the burn pit. He is always done before we get back to the yard.

After I'm done in NQ, I head to the shop. There, I burn all the twines off the "flails" of the bale buster with a bar iron. A bar iron is an electric bar, kind of like a straightened oven element.

After the twines are all removed from the flails, R takes the twines to the burn pit. I open the shop door, and when R returns, he backs his tractor unit in first. Sanchez's tractor is already in. Then I put my unit away. The hay buster unit is last into the shop, and first out in the morning. The hay buster is greased every day, and the tractor loaders, every Monday. Equipment breakdowns can be costly.

We are done by noon. Just in time for lunch!

In the winter, the main job is to feed, and once that's done, we're finished. Three thousand animals fed and happy. Sometimes, the "Roughrider Fan" (hay trucker) comes in with a load of bales (38 bales to a load) and "The Cowboy" will phone whoever's around to grab a tractor and unload the bales in the desired stackyard.  Everyone carries a phone, as you never know where anyone is. That is how we communicate. 

We also use hand signals a lot of the time when in the tractors. It's fast and easy.

Oh, and when I talk about the tractors we use, it's ALL John Deere!

GO GREEN! 

A Day in the Life

One of the farm crew here on the ranch came up with a brilliant idea. Why not acquaint my readers with an average day working on the ranch. So, I'd like to introduce "The Kid," as the other workers call her. Yes, The Kid is a "her." A lovely young lady with a hankering for being in the outdoors and working close to the earth. Yet, lest you think a girl working on a ranch is maybe not so feminine, I've seen The Kid with her hair done up and wearing a splash of bling. She's a spunky, hard-working, and beautiful girl.

Here, in her own words, and with her own photos, is a typical day. 

At dark o'thirty, the crew meets in the shop. We have coffee and talk about what's to be done. Pre-check the tractors. The buster-driver decides when it's time to head out. (Hay-buster--an apparatus used to de-twine the 1500 pound bales of hay and then "bust" them up into finer-sized feed.) Get to the stack yard by the barn, place one bale on the grapple, back up in pitch-dark to the second bale, lift it into the buster, and pick up a third bale on the buster forks. Head out. Factor in any wind the night before, blowing the road in and driving through big snow drifts.   

Field 5 blown in. The Cowboy had to
clear the way before the tractors could
get through to feed the cows.

Depending on the wind is which way we drive, so the dust from the hay doesn't clog up the radiator. We've been feeding  between 19-21 bales to the cows in Field 5. It takes a little over an hour for that field, if I don't have to stop to unclog the hay buster. If I do, I turn off the PTO (power take off), idle down, put the tractor in park, put on my gloves, and go 'round the back of the buster, get underneath the shield, and haul the clogged hay out with my hands. Wet bales are foul smelling and sticky. Disgusting. On windy days, it's blown right into my face, down my shirt and jeans, and makes the rest of the day itchy and uncomfortable.

Resume busting.


R, one of my co-workers, drives the feed wagon, which can be hitched and unhitched to his tractor. Therefore, he can load and unload (with the unhitched tractor) the desired amount of bales the buster driver has asked for. He sets them out a certain way: one bale, then two bales, about 50 feet away. That gives the buster driver room to maneuver when reloading. I pick up the single bale first, then the two, and away I go again.

Oh, and don't forget to close the gate after leaving any field or pen!
The only wildlife I've seen lately are a pack of 'yotes and numerous ravens.

By the time I'm done Field 5, the sky has begun to turn pink, yellow, and orange. Lately, the sunrises have been pretty good!

When R has unloaded the correct amount of bales for Field 5, he heads to Stackyard 3 (there are five stackyards) and loads up for the next field. The haywagon can hold 14 bales. Heading into Field 4 now, the sun is starting to shine through the tall trees. I always enjoy Field 4. On the downside, Field 4 is very open and has very deep snow. Sometimes, I get R to plough lanes through the snow so the buster won't get stuck, as it's very low to the ground. And sometimes I get good and stuck!

Tractor and Hay Buster. Had to get pulled out. 

If it's a cold or blizzarding morning, the cows are reluctant to come out of the trees until I've completed about the fourth row with the buster. If it's warm, they are already coming to greet me, and I have to lift the bucket so I don't clobber any as I go through.

After a few days of feeding in the same spot in the field, the field gets very bumpy from frozen cow manure. Slowly, I make the feeding ground bigger, to find not-so-rough ground. Deep snow is hard to go through, let alone backing up to a bale in 2 - 3 feet of settled snow. The Cowboy or Leroy (the farm foreman) plough roads into the fields, and in some places, the ploughed-up snow is taller than the tractor wheels. (Picture below, Road 2. The ploughed snow is taller than the truck.)

By 10 am, I am done Field 4, and R has headed off to set up the hay for the next fields.

(Come back for "The Kid's" Part Two of "A Day in the Life.")