Mountain Time

This week has been filled with all sorts of activities.  We are baling hay when the weather allows us, irrigating around haying, and we gathered our steers out of the badlands on Wednesday.  Those steers will be sold on a video auction this week so it's a very important week for Greet Ranch.  Today I was afforded a little time to go up and check on the Big Trails Beef herd.  They were taken up the mountain a couple of weeks ago and have been grazing and enjoying mountain life, mostly on their own, since.

As you can see, they have plenty of beautiful, green grass.  The mountain provides a cooler environment than the valley and grasses grow until later in the year.  The showers that have been passing through in the afternoons over the past couple of weeks (and making it hard to hay) have kept the ground wet and plants growing.  Unfortunately, the tank wasn't working (they also have a pond to drink from) and our bull and the neighbors' had decided to fight and break a hole in the fence.  They managed to keep on the correct sides of the fence and a little patchwork got it right back up.  I did have to come back down to get tools to fix the tank, but once I was back up the mountain, it didn't take long to fix that either.

Even though this grass looks simply beautiful, the cows do desire something else.  They eat more salt and mineral when they are up there.  I brought them both today and they were happy to have it since they had run out.  I am hoping to discuss mineral a little more in the coming weeks, but basically it's just how it sounds.  It gives them minerals that they may not be getting from the grasses.  One particular cow must have wanted it quite badly because she followed me away from all the other cows to eat mineral by herself.

This week is looking to be busy, too.  We will continue to hay in full force, Quinlan is getting his tonsils out, and our steers will sell this week.  After that (while continuing to hay, irrigate, and fix fence), we will ship the steers, blood test our heifers (for pregnancy), then take the heifers up the mountain among other things.  There will be plenty going on to tell you all about.  I hope that your summers are filled with happy activities and we will talk to you next week.

by Brandon Greet