Weaned the calves and preg checked Sunday.

[deff]

We managed to scrounge up a crew to get the calves sorted off and cows worked Sunday. My wife, our three adult sons, daughter in law, 8 year old grandson and a nephew all put in a long day. It was cool and sunny which was as close to perfect for working cattle as I've ever seen! Preg check results were OK, we ended up with 20 late or empty out of 245 head checked. That was about twice as many as usual for us, but it's still a pretty good breed up! We woke up to about an inch of new wet snow this morning which made the roads slick and the trip to the sale barn hauling the culls interesting, but we got them hauled in OK. Tomorrow is the last auction sale of the year here. I didn't want those cows just standing around eating hay for the next three weeks!

 

[Nicky]

Good job, sounds like there are more opens everywhere. Have to wonder why. We are blaming ours on wolves.

 

[deff]

A year ago, the neighbor right next to us had his replacement heifers keep breaking out and getting wilder and wilder. His son trapped a wolf and that seemed to solve the problem. We have had a couple wolves killed by hunters in the past, but other than spotting a track once in a great while, we have been blissfully ignorant of any problems so far. The opens were evenly distributed between all the pastures, so it must have just been the year. We did have quite a bit of rain throughout most of the breeding season, that may have contributed.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

We had a package pastured close to town. I swear town dogs harassed them as we could barely handle the 20 yet 2 riders and Tippy moved the other 150 handily .

Heard another theory about all the open cows today.
All the smoke we dealt with all summer.
I don't know.......

 

[Faster horses]

It was stable flies in SE Montana and nothing fazed them.
I heard it said they are worse when it is a wet year.
It was darn sure wet in that area. Calves were some lighter, too.l
Here's to better conditions in 2024 and even higher prices!!