Pictures, April 23, 2011

[Soapweed]

Good outfit to carry salt and mineral

Rough country

Surrounding unpopulated landscape

Looking south

Looking northwest

Pleasant early surprise in the fall calving bunch

Fall calvers up in the hills on scant rations

Jet black baby

Another surprise from a couple weeks ago

Shiny little critter

Posts on the prairie

Sandhills scene

More Sandhills scenery

The run-off puddle looks pretty big.

Geese and ducks fraternizing

Another windmill

A prairie pond

Darkness setting in

Standing ground-tied while it waits

 

[Shortgrass]

Looks like your meadows are greening nicely, your salt packer never gets sorebacked, and your surprises age doing pretty good on their scant rations. Life is good, eh? We've had enough wind to make the run-off puddles about that big, too. Supposed to be a chance of rain the next few days........We're hopin' and prayin'.

 

[balestabber]

I always enjoy your pics.
your little surprises look good.
the last time i got a little surprise was when the doc told me to dig out the darn'in needles,you're gonna be a dad again!!
i was 42 years old with our last born.

thanks Soap for another memory. 8)

 

[Justin]

looks like someone forgot to turn the lights on, on the near side of the fence. :lol:

thanks for the pictures, Soapweed

 

[jodywy]

but you didn't get to go coasting

 

[Soapweed]

but you didn't get to go coasting

The wind went down for a few hours late yesterday afternoon, which was the only time in the last several days (this morning included) when the wind hasn't been howling. Jodywy, I was thinking of you while sashaying through the hills on the Polaris Ranger. Zipping down some long stretches, the thought came to mind, "This is just as much fun as Jodywy was having and not nearly as cold or wet." :wink:

Those are good pictures of you tobogganing through the snow on Easter weeke-end. You are to be commended for being young at heart. :wink:

 

[jodywy]

but you didn't get to go coasting

The wind went down for a few hours late yesterday afternoon, which was the only time in the last several days (this morning included) when the wind hasn't been howling. Jodywy, I was thinking of you while sashaying through the hills on the Polaris Ranger. Zipping down some long stretches, the thought came to mind, "This is just as much fun as Jodywy was having and not nearly as cold or wet." :wink:

Those are good pictures of you tobogganing through the snow on Easter weeke-end. You are to be commended for being young at heart. :wink:

tho think we want to sell this eye cany country to move west of you to the rolling prarrie in eastern Wyoming, but then I think winter, development, forest service, winter, subdivisions, an a grow non ag friendly enviorment, plus you can't eat senery.

 

[flyingS]

Soapweed, do you usually have some of your fall calvers calve in the spring and what percentage is there. Did a vet preg the cow or do you preg your own. The first year we moved north of Cody, there was about 7.5% or so of the cows that were supposed to calve in the fall that calved in March and April. I wasn't supposed to calve any spring calvers. If I were to have pregged those cow myself I would have been disappointed that I missed them. A vet had been paid to preg those cows and supposedly was competent, I am not sure that I would have agreed on the competent part. I didn't have a choice as to what vet was used. I could have lived with missing a couple but 25 or so is too many.

 

[Dylan Biggs]

I could have lived with missing a couple but 25 or so is too many.

Yeah, no kidding. Dirty rotten cream of wheat!!

Soap I like your pics.

What fuel savings to you figure with the Ranger over your, pickup?

 

[Hayguy]

don't want to hi-jack the thread but i was thinking about atv fuel mileage just a couple of days ago, has anyone actually done a test? are they really cheap to run or just handy? if you want i'll start a new thread thanx.

 

[Faster horses]

The young man who leases from us has a new Polaris. He had a Yamaha Rhino.
He made the remark that they aren't very fuel efficient, but he didn't give
any numbers. You have posed an interesting question.

 

[Soapweed]

Soapweed, do you usually have some of your fall calvers calve in the spring and what percentage is there. Did a vet preg the cow or do you preg your own. The first year we moved north of Cody, there was about 7.5% or so of the cows that were supposed to calve in the fall that calved in March and April. I wasn't supposed to calve any spring calvers. If I were to have pregged those cow myself I would have been disappointed that I missed them. A vet had been paid to preg those cows and supposedly was competent, I am not sure that I would have agreed on the competent part. I didn't have a choice as to what vet was used. I could have lived with missing a couple but 25 or so is too many.

We preg check about one bunch per week October through November. I always tell the vet to call them "open" if there is any doubt. The older open cows get rechecked again before we sell any. There are always a handful that were called open the preceeding month, that are determined to be pregnant with a later check. The young opens are put directly into the fall calving bunch, and are not checked again. Any of the "fall bunch" that end up having late spring calves are just considered an extra bonus. One thing about them, they are wintered pretty rough and there is not much added expense into getting the calf. Some of the cows get preg checked early enough that it would be pretty hard to tell for sure. I don't blame the vet because he is calling them as he feels it on the day he checks. Even one heifer that was on the neighbor's pasture last summer was ultra-sounded and pronouced open. She is going to have a calf fairly soon, and was not exposed to any bulls after the ultra-sound check. In my book, preg checking is a useful tool, but is not completely foolproof. Fertility checking bulls falls into the same category.

On the subject of Polaris Rangers and their fuel efficiency, on the times I have checked they seem to get somewhere between 17 and 20 miles per gallon. This is certainly better than any of our pickups get while going through rough country in the hills. Besides, they get around a lot better and are much more fun to drive. :wink:

 

[Dylan Biggs]

don't want to hi-jack the thread but i was thinking about atv fuel mileage just a couple of days ago, has anyone actually done a test? are they really cheap to run or just handy? if you want i'll start a new thread thanx.

Hayguy, I would be interested to know the same thing.

 

[Northern Rancher]

I'd guess they'd be midteens-we got a bunch of them at the Waldorf but I try and avoid them at all costs lol. The side by sides are handy for fencing and salting-if we vehicle check we use the one ton with a deck little safer to hide on from the starchies.