The day has come to plant the seed,
these youngsters knowing nothing
of one another, of propagation,
or the nine months before
she becomes a mother
nosing and nursing her first calf—
deep-rooted instinct drives them.
A dead-beat dad, he moves on
to practice what he’s learned,
to keep track of all the girls
he sorts by name and nature,
always ready to go to work
or play like people we know
from the Internet news,
or some a bit closer to home.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2025, Ranch Journal
Tagged breeding, bulls, heifers, photography, poetry
Granite outcrops clean,
lichen islands
ignite in flames,
November’s sunset
after a good long rain—
gray back to green,
both slopes and flats—
creek stalled
a mile upcanyon,
black dots
of cows and calves
grazing ridgetops.
Glistening tree bough
drops diamonds glistening,
raining rain.
There is more to heaven,
I suppose, a giving-up
of tarnished flesh
and character,
collected wisdom
won the hard way
for eternity—
this canyon green
I’d rather stay.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2025, Ranch Journal
We’ve let the commentators have their say
as if they understand the price of beef.
We’ve let politicians have their day
pontificating plans that create grief
among both cowmen and folks in town
trying to overhaul how the market works
when demand is more and supply is down
due to drought and the rising costs that hurts
us all. We let them talk, let them repeat
to show what they don’t know when numbers shout
that we have more mouths to fill with red meat
with fewer cows and cowmen due to drought.
We pray for rain and to be left alone
with a little meat still left on the bone.
Posted in Poems 2025, poetry, Ranch Journal
Tagged beef, cattle market, Drought, politics
Lots of commentary on the cattle business lately with a focus on the price of beef. But relative to inflation, $20 will buy a cheeseburger, fries and a soda or a USDA Choice New York steak at Costco. What a deal!
Our 4-year drought (2012-2016) doesn’t seem that long ago when we had to cull some older bred cows for slaughter in order to feed the rest of our herd expensive hay. A good part of the reason why producing cow numbers are at a 75 year low. Though the media has its red meat theories, nobody mentions that the US population has more than doubled since 1951. This is simple to understand: supply and demand.
KEEPING SECRETS
How do they know, these old fat cows
that read a baggy sadness in my walk
among them checking irons as they pull
alfalfa stems apart to tongue green leaf
in the corral? The gates are set, waiting
for the truck to town. There is nothing
right about the moment, that they know—
little consolation in my voice, they eye me
suspiciously searching for details
in my muted gestures. If I told them
all I know of town, of auction rings
and rails, they would all revolt
for the brushy hills, lay fences down
to take their chances without water
through the summer—that I know.
-JCD (“Best of the Dry Years, 2012-2016”)
The three variables for the cattle business are weather, price and politics, any one which can reduce our once-a-year paycheck to a loss, but two or more can be an economic disaster—none of which have we, nor the government, any control over.
In the photo above, Robbin and I fed a few replacement heifers before the forecast Atmospheric River. The grass geminated last month has become short and spotty and we have to keep them in shape to cycle and breed when we turn the bulls out in two weeks—just part of the business.
As I write, it’s been raining overnight.
Posted in Photographs, poetry, Ranch Journal
Tagged beef, Drought, Dry Creek, photography, poetry, politics, rain, red meat, water, weather
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