Browsing by Tag: cattle-2

I believe we ended Part I of Garnet’s tale just as she was taking her first steps in our kitchen. Soon after those monumental steps, Garnet was reintroduced to her mother, and 517 accepted her, which was another remarkable event. Most cows will not accept a baby after a few days, but 517 was willing…

We got very exciting news today– Garnet, my pet cow, had her baby calf, a boy! She had her first calf last year, a little girl named Sapphire. I’m holding off on naming her newest gem until I meet him on Sunday…be prepared for pictures! Garnet is a four year old black Angus cow with…

Our plan for February (I, taking care of the ranch, and Richard, taking care of calving season at the farm) had to be seriously revised this week, thanks to an unexpected knee injury. My knee trouble started about seven months ago, during the first week of July. Each year on July 1, we have our…

We have had a trying time with predators over the past few weeks. A bobcat killed two sheep and since they were beginning to lamb we decided to send them and the llamas down to join the cows on our farm near Riverton. It then moved onto the poultry and made its way through various…

The latest arrivals at the Bitterroot include a small herd of Navajo-Churro sheep. They have quite strong characters and terrified the poor llamas when they first arrived. They were used to a guard llama and were bound and determined to attach themselves to our resident pair, who wanted nothing to do with them and were…

After a very long two weeks we have finally been able to ship our cattle to the lower ranch and the calves to market, but not before the loaded trucks had to be hauled out of the mud with a grader! The first part of roundup week was positively balmy, which made riding a pleasure,…

RFD TV has just aired a film produced by Best of America by Horseback featuring the Bitterroot cattle drive into the National Forest last July. We have been overwhelmed by the positive response to this magnificent country and that people realize we are caring custodians of it. This year we will be going all the…

The summer season has gone well with many appreciative guests who make us feel all our hard work is worth it. After a comparatively wet and cool spring we jumped to the hottest July and August on record since 1972. Plenty of water in our river and smaller creeks have helped us keep our irrigated…