Welcome! Our family is interested in visiting Australia, too. Not sure we will ever actually do it, but my husband has dreamed of it 'forever'! We do have two families from our part of SD who emmigrated there years ago, but are not well acquainted with them. My brother and his family spent a year there when my (now ex, still my good friend) sister-in-law did a teacher exchange. They loved the experience.
We are a pioneer ranch family near Midland, SD. Our fifth generation has joined us, his grandparents, his parents, and the family of one uncle. We have transitioned, over the generations, from being a steer outfit selling 3,4,&5 year olds, to a cow/calf/yearling operation, to background feeding our calves for a few months on a mix of hay, dried distillers grain and corn in rations tailored to achieve the growth rates we want for various end-product calves in our 999 head feedlot.
We grow no grains, farming minimally to raise some hay on our dryland ranch. We need at least 30 acres to maintain a cow and her calf year round. Some who farm can get by with less by utilizing their crop residues, and in favorable grass growing years, we can, too. All our pastures are native grasses, much of it Western Wheat grass, Bluestem Grasses, Gramma, Buffalo, and many more. Introduced (by state hiway dept.) grasses are invading and we are fearful that is not a good thing, tho cattle do like them. Our cows graze year round and are fed some suplemental protein/energy rations in coldest weather and if pastures are short. We are 'sort of' (we hope!) coming out of 8 years of drought, so have better grass going into winter this year than in a LONG time. Our cows calve out in pastures.
We (the men, that is, I'm the ranch cook and errand person) ride nearly every day during the 45 day calving season to see that there is no difficulty, and calving problems are rare. The guys also tag new calves as soon as they are found. We start calving cows in April, with hiefers a couple of weeks earlier. Would like to get a little later, maybe during May into June, but is hasn't gotten worked out yet. We do most of our cattle moving and working horseback, branding with a wood fire, roping and holding the calves down to brand, neuter, and dehorn if needed. Breeds are Angus/Red Angus based, descended a few generations back from Limousin. Lim cows got too big for our resource base. We are trying for about 1100 pound cows or smaller, and have a distance to go yet to get them down there. My husband is age 72 and has no plans for retiring, but sure would like to slow down a bit and maybe travel a little more. That's more my idea than his, tho he does like to see other 'ranch country', and we have done a fair bit of it enroute to cattle org. meetings the past 50 years.
Average precip, in form of rain and snow is about 14" coming mostly in the growing season, about April thru Oct, if we are lucky. Generally don't have a lot of snow, but can get a pile of it when conditions line up against us. Temperatures can go as low as -55%, but don't often get below -30%, tho we usually do have a few nights of -20-25% in an average winter. It also can get to +40% or more many days in Jan. which is usually our coldest month, with Feb. sometimes about the same. Winter can set in with a vengeance late in Oct. or early Nov., but often does not do so until late Dec. or early Jan. Usually gets decently warm in April, but will usually have some freezing nights well into May and a killing frost in June or Aug. is not unheard of. July and Aug. usually are the hottest months, often in the high 90%, but can hit 120%. Not much more 'fun' than -50%! I've seen -40% at 6:AM and +60% by noon the same day in Jan.! We can have lots of strong winds. Whether it is cold or hot! Last Sunday, it hit 70+ miles per hour. Wasn't cold, but sure miserable! When it is 90% and a wind like that blows, it just wrecks lots of plants in the yard and can be destructive to field crops if the life cycle of the plant is in the wrong stage. Of course, if too cold when such a wind hits, it is life threatening to anyone caught without shelter, such as when a vehicle quits and one is far from a house, etc. And all the worse when it is snowing. Fortunately, that doesn't happen often.
Guess it is time to fix some food before our early bed time. Up by 5:AM tomorrow, as our crew is going to help a neighbor work cows. We did the same today, so we 'elder' members of the family are ready to call it a day!
I didn't mention that both daughters-in-law have off ranch jobs and are living during their work (and school for the granddaughter) week in apartments in towns 30 and 65 miles from the ranch.
More than you probably want to know, but I was resting at the computer after cooking the noon meal for the crew today.
mrj
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