Going Green

Our mama cows and their babies are going green - to greener pastures, that is.

Sorting cattle is always an adventure. The sorting process is not conducive to photos. I have yet to figure out how to deftly stop a baby calf, send the mother out of the pen and take a unblurred photo at the same time. (OK, maybe "deftly" is a stretch for this cowgirl. Let's just say, "Stay upright through the whole process without breaking any bones - since I didn't even accomplish that last year.)

So just take my word for it. Nobody said "going green" was easy. 

But one recent day, our sorting job was even more challenging because we were dividing the heifers and their babies among two different pastures. So, we had to match the mama's numbers with the corresponding baby's numbers so that everyone would end in the right place. Randy had his handwritten list of pairs, and we all needed Superman vision.

They didn't always stand this still. Sometimes, they like to play hide-and-seek with their eartags, a problem for this already visually-challenged helper.

But, once we got the sorting job done, we took additional pairs to the Ninnescah pasture ...

... and to the Palmer Pasture.

It was not without mishaps. One trailer got stuck on sand that had built up at the pasture gate.

It required a trip to get a tractor to pull out the pickup and trailer and then a little smoothing of the way with the loader on the tractor.

But, better late than never, the mamas and babies were turned out into greener pastures.

Let's hope we get a little rain so the pastures will stay that way! We did get 0.15 this weekend, but that doesn't go far in our quest for "green" living.

All the cow-calf pairs will be in their summer homes this week. Tomorrow, we'll sort again, and we'll take the rest to the Rattlesnake Creek pasture.