Author Archives: John

It seems early for poison oak to be turning red, but…

Imagine my surprise when Robbin reported a new double-yellow line on Dry Creek Road to match the ‘No Parking’ signs we were greeted with when we returned from Elko at the first of February.

We can’t help but feel a little violated as progress pushes up the road and past our driveway. But nothing like new paint to be misleading, especially for tourists and strangers to the area. Due to the ongoing and endless road construction on Highway 198 to Sequoia National Park, motorhome and fifth-wheel traffic is required to take alternate routes, one of which is Dry Creek Road. Last evening, we had to drive up the road just to see how far the County thought our road was wide enough to handle two lanes of traffic. After some intermittent spaces with no line at all, it came to a stop at the narrow bridge on Bear Creek, about a third of the way to Grant Grove and the entrance to Kings Canyon National Park. We noticed that both ground squirrels and quail were afraid to walk across the new yellow line. We’ve never had to drive cattle across a road with a double-yellow line before, we’ll see how that goes.

Our pasture on Top is about 1,000 fairly flat acres of brush and rock ranging from 1,800-2,600 feet in elevation, country where wild cattle have all the advantage. A less desirable part of the ranch my grandfather purchased from Fred Ward in 1938, we have been running cows since the mid-50s where they used to run three year-old steers, often having to shoot the remnants they couldn’t gather. Up until the mid-80s, we’d brand the calves on Dry Creek and drive the pairs about five miles up from the 600′ elevation in December, then gather and bring them back down to Dry Creek in June to wean.

In the mid-80s, we developed four stockwater ponds on existing springs that provided enough water to carry 50-60 cows year-round. In that process, we also built some 4-wheel drive roads that allowed us to bring hay, salt and supplement to them in the wintertime. Utilizing the pasture better, the Top becomes their home for a lifetime, as older cows culled are replaced with proven third-calf cows. What was once a dreaded, brush-busting high lope to gather has now evolved into a tamer exercise for both cows and cowboys, the cows knowing the routine.

We will haul their calves down to the Dry Creek corrals this morning.

Day 6, Weaning Pen -Sulphur Bunch

Settling the Dust

Already Weaned

Open Second-Calf Heifers – 2011 Bunch

First-Calf Heifers – 2012 Bunch

Portrait: 2012

Mrnak Herefords West #922

Roadrunners on the Doorstep – Female and Juvenile Male

92° as I walked in the door.

As we complete Week 4 of weaning calves, the poetic muse becomes more illusive. Matters of the mind give in to the fatigue of the flesh and center almost completely now on cattle. Summer is seldom a productive writing season for me as temperatures heat up, having to rise earlier to get the work done when it’s cool that takes time away from my word play. Furthermore, calves in the weaning pen need feed everyday, and those already weaned need supplement while on the irrigated pasture where water also needs to be moved to keep the grass green. Meanwhile we gather our mountain pastures, cull cows and haul calves, working around the daily chores. It’s what we do this time of year, albeit three weeks earlier than usual due to our dry spring. We lean forward, putting one foot ahead of the other, that slow momentum that Wendell Berry calls plodding.

Naturally, the calves are lighter, the market a little weaker, we’ll take a hit but carry on. But what has become evident this year as we palpate (preg-check) our second-calf heifers, always difficult to get to breed back, our 60% normal rainfall was not enough to get much more than 55% of them to conceive. Ouch, we’ll take another hit.

We know going-in that the first-calf heifers, our Wagyu X mamas, need supplemental feeding to stay in shape to cycle and breed back. But as I’ve learned from previous dry years, alfalfa hay will not replace strong native feed to get a cow to cycle. Hence, we have a lot invested in these heifers that will not have a calf this fall. However, their Wagyu X calf offset some of those expenses, but we’re looking two years away before these three year-old heifers pay us with another calf.

To replace them with the yearling heifers we are currently weaning will take two years to wean a calf as well, however they are not proven breeders or mothers yet, 20-30% will not be mature enough to cycle and breed this winter. And that’s the dilemma: either keep the proven mothers that will hold their value with the cost of pasture or sell them now and hope the yearlings will pick up the slack in 2015.

Going into calving time this fall, we know our dry feed will be thin, that we’ll have to buy more hay, our only reprieve would be some early rains to start next year’s native grass. We would have better odds in Las Vegas.

With three more weeks of weaning yet to go, we’ve already taken the lighter end of our calves to town, sold our late calvers and the older cows we’ve gathered that might have difficulty making it through another winter trying to raise one more calf. We’ve opted to go with youth and early calvers, deciding to give our open second-calf heifers another chance, believing that the genetics we’ve worked years to develop are worth taking a chance on.

Right or wrong, we understand that Mother Nature is in charge.