The weekend is over, phew, and it always goes too fast. It started slow with a houseguest, on his way to a custom harvesting job and ended strong with fishing. Working a full time job and moonlighting as a cattle producer makes for some long days and sore muscles. So as it goes for spring, we split our time getting cattle bred and getting the equipment ready for hay.
While getting the cow-calf pairs split off to go into the right breeding groups I realized that my husband I had said less than two words to each other the entire time. To most couples, this may seem odd or be the effect from a fight but for us having nothing to say signifies how united we are. You see when you have 50+ cows and calves in a corral with a plan in mind it is hard to communicate through words for those people working around you. The cattle move quietly from the new lush pasture into the old wooden corral that was built years ago by my husband and his father. We do not use any horses or ATV and have conditioned our cattle to respond well to human interactions, there are NO mean cross cows who bolt at the sight of us and the calves learn to imitate their mothers (somewhat). All the cattle are quieted after they find their calves and look to us as they ask with their eyes “What do you need us to do?” As we start splitting off the pairs I realize how lucky I am to get the opportunity to work with the cattle in a setting that most people only see on TV. That combined with a untied crew makes for a wonderful time, looking over the cows and enjoying the opportunity to work together.