Spring Trail Drive March 12, 2010

[gcreekrch]

As the facilities are pretty tired at the Morrison Meadow place we opted to calve everything at home this year. We moved the cattle that wintered there home yesterday. It was cold and windy.

Ready to leave the corrals. One of the old skinny cows just had to be photogenic.


Out the driveway.


Stringing out.


Lower end of Mud Creek Flat, not quite half way home. Our friend Roy's youngest son just got his learner's permit so he drove and I had a nap after this was taken.
If I had been a real cowboy I could have froze my butt in the saddle for 3.5 hours. The heater was quite nice thank you.


The last two miles climb about 450 ft in elevation.



It's downhill when we get to the timber.


Dog's Day Afternoon. They were bored because the cows never made a wrong move.


Trail Boss keeping sharp vigilence.


Home stretch.


Supper was ready when they got there.

[Grassfarmer]

Didn't learn much looking at your pictures gc but the captions looked enticing Will check back later

[Soapweed]

Nice pictures, Gcreek. I don't blame you for doing it the "comfortable" way. Glamour only goes about so far. How many miles did the cows travel in the three and a half hours?

[gcreekrch]

[per]

Still looks like winter. We will likely see some more but for now it is nice here. When is your due date?

[miocene]

holy cr-p you still have SNOW .this is the first year i can remember having bare ground for calving ,and i have a good long memory.

[gcreekrch]

[Grassfarmer]

Good pictures gc, worth the wait You still have snow and it's deep ours has sunk down considerably although it is still a complete cover unless it's been disturbed by the cows.

[Silver]

Your cows look to have wintered well gcreek. Your trail drive at this time of year reminds me of the one we used to do when I worked at the neighbouring ranch out of high school. We would trail the pregnant cows from the winter feeding grounds to a couple of different fields for calving starting in april. As the cows got strung out over a mile or so, we would take the first 800 cows past the first calving grounds to one a couple of miles further on. The last 800 or so would end up getting the shorter trip, about 9 miles. It was interesting to see how the two groups progressed through calving season. The cows at the back of the pack tended to be the first to calve, the cows that walked the farther distance seemed to have a better success rate. I always thought that was interesting.

[katrina]

Great pictures.. Thanks for taking us along... It's so peaceful when cows line out head to tail to travel..

[WyomingRancher]

That's definitely the warmest way to trail cows, and I bet the dogs didn't mind riding in the pickup next to the heater either .

Welcome to the calving party, I'm finally getting to the 3/4 mark. Keep posting those pics .

[Plumberbutt]

I absolutely LOVE seeing the pictures on this site......they are the BEST!!!! It just makes me smile seeing all the cows and how they are in such good shape. Keep the pictures coming folks and thanks!!!!