Welcome to the Ranch!

Yesterday I received a text message from my aunt.  It said, “Can you say global warming?”  As most of you are experiencing, an artic cold front is making about 60% of the mainland United States experience freezing temperatures.  The temperature outside is dropping steadily.  It is already well below freezing with a chance of sleet today and snow flurries tomorrow.  Temperatures are expected to be well below freezing for at least 48 hours.  We are not used to this kind of winter weather.

If we are not used to it, then neither are our animals.  We took extra special precautions yesterday by rounding up horse blankets.  Stores all over the area were selling them like hotcakes.  I personally had to call three different stores and have them hold blankets for us until one of us could make it to town.  Using our fingers to do the walking worked.  We were able to find enough blankets for all of our horses.

Some of the horses were not too enthused about having a blanket strapped around their body.  But, I bet they are thanking us later today.  It is rather awkward to wear a blanket.  Straps go in front of the chest, under the heart girth, and between their back legs.  The latter is the most strange to the horses.  They are not used to feeling straps around and between their legs.  Some of our horses rolled around on the ground trying to lose the blanket.  After several attempts at rubbing the blanket off, they gave up.

In addition to putting blankets on the horses and ensuring that they have plenty of fresh, unfrozen drinking water, we are also increasing the amount of feed they receive.  We expect them to shiver and shake, which burns more calories.  We are trying to account for this by providing them with more fuel for their bodies.

The cows are fine, but they are going through the hay at a much faster rate.  The best part of this time of year (and I say this sarcastically in light of our weather this week) is that it is calving season.  Usually this is not a bad time to be born in Southeast Texas.  The temperature is cool.  The fire ants are down in the ground.  In the dog days of summer, calves have to fight not only extremely high temperatures; fire ants can prove to be fierce predators.  They have been known to blind calves and occasionally even kill them in these parts.  Fortunately, Cross Creek Cattle Company has not lost any calves this way.

But I digress, this week will be unlike most winter weather patterns we experience.  This is not good when cows are having babies.  The calves can literally go into shock.  Think about it.  Calves have been happily enjoying living in an “oven” at about 103 degrees.  Suddenly they are pushed out, hit the ground, and it is 15 degrees.  Not only is their body having trouble adjusting to the rapid change in temperature, but the wind chill is in the single digits.  It can be a potentially dangerous situation for the health of the newborn calf.

What does this mean for my husband, the ranch manager?  It means keeping close watch over the herd.  It means being ready to intervene with blankets, colostrum, etc. as needed.  It means walking quite a distance in below freezing conditions off and on all day long for days.  He has to walk now because he almost got stuck this morning.  The rain that came before the front soaked the already saturated ground.  It means discomfort for the ranch manager.

As my dad always says when things on the ranch don’t go smoothly, “Welcome to the ranch!”  It is part of the life of a cowboy.  It is part of the life of anyone running a ranch.  The animals are our livelihood.  You have to take care of them regardless of the weather.  Thankfully, it will be 40 degrees again soon enough.  I don’t know how the ranchers do it in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, or everywhere else where this weather pattern is the usual.

I just hope that everything does go well for us, our home, and our animals.  I will let you know.

Our Snowman

Yes, I know that it is the beginning of September and that autumn has not come yet.  As ranchers, we cannot afford to wait until freezing temperatures arrive before getting ready for winter.   We are blessed to be living in Southeast Texas where the winters are relatively mild.  We do not have to contend with a lot of winter precipitation.  We hardly ever get sleet or freezing rain; it is even more rare to get snow.  Last year we actually received some snow and we were so excited.  We ran outside late at night just to play in it because we knew that it would all be gone in the morning.

Our winter generally consists of some freezing nights.  We seldom get a hard freeze.  The air is almost always humid, which makes the cold air seem much colder than it is.  The coldness is magnified by a stiff, north breeze.  Grass stops growing and goes dormant under nighttime temperatures below 70 degrees.  Our night temperatures should fall below that in the next month.  Therefore, we have to store up food for the cattle to eat to keep up their condition during the winter.

To help protect the cows from the north wind and cold, we make sure that they are on a pasture with a wind break.  The trees in the woods break the wind.  In addition, so does the dam of our lake.  The cows on instinct alone search out the warmest places to sleep.  Depending on the pasture, they naturally seek the woods or behind the dam.  We never leave them on a pasture without a wind break of some kind.

Since we raise grass fed beef, we do not supplement our cow’s diet with range cubes or grain.  Our cows keep their good body conditions on hay.  My husband puts out round bales of hay for our herd.  Cows know what they need.  Sometimes they devour the bale and other times they just nibble.  Good quality hay is a must for a rancher in any climate here in the United States.

The cows will continue to get their supplemental minerals throughout the winter.  Most cows are bred at this time and will be calving in the late winter and early spring.  Their nutrition is very important to us.  We feed them a mixture of kelp meal and salt.  We add diatomaceous earth for other health reasons.  You can read about those in the article “Diatomaceous Earth?“  This combination is loose in a mineral feeder and given to the cows as free choice.  It is self-limiting.  They will only eat as much as they need.

Water is essential in any season.  Occasionally on really cold nights, we have to break the ice off the surface of the watering troughs.  Our ponds and lake have never frozen over so we are not concerned about them.  The temperature only gets cold enough to freeze over above-ground water troughs every once in a while.

Rows of square bales we hauled out of the pasture.

So right now, we are ensuring that we have enough bales of hay to make it through the winter.  We have round and square bales this year.  Although, the square bales are mainly for the horses.  They need hay in the winter too.

Even though it is still summer, we are looking forward to the change in weather.  From the ridiculously hot temperatures to the much more pleasant days of autumn.  Beyond that, we know that it will get colder in winter.  We have to be prepared for the health and well-being of our livestock.  Cross Creek Cattle Company does not fear the winter because we are ready.