Terri Blanke and Allie Fox photos
Great day for the crew as we shipped our first load of Wagyu X calves yesterday, but one month earlier and 100 lbs. lighter than usual due to current drought conditions. Drier than 2013 with only 6” of rainfall for the season, we’re trying to conserve what grass we have. Today we’re preg-checking their mothers as we begin to reduce the numbers of our cowherd.
Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal
Tagged cowherd, Drought, shipping, Wagyu X Calves
One of the Central Valley’s most prolific writers, died at 84.
Good entertainment, the house finches are now busy collecting nest materials that continually rain down from the rafters. This ambitious female is retrieving what she dropped. (Click the photo to enlarge.)
With so little rain, it’s not been much of a wildflower year—even the most common Fiddleneck and Brodiaea are scarce and on short stems. But we began yesterday with these Purple Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla), a wild gather as we collected the last of the Wagyu X calves for their EID tags and second round of vaccinations before shipping to Snake River Farms.
Posted in Photographs
Tagged purple chinese houses, Snake River Farms, Wagyu X, wildflowers
Posted in Photographs
Mountain raised,
Colonel bred,
the old man gets the call,
show her how it feels
to really watch a cow—
to hold on
when he cracks back,
hear him nicker
under his breath
when he’s done well.
No better feeling
with your clothes on.
for Allie and Fairlea Smart Pic
He waits upon the beam
that holds the rafters up,
dry weed in his beak.
He chirps incessantly
as she constructs a nest
with what he brings her.
He seems to have forgotten
the ear-piercing love songs
from her red-breasted suitors
prancing on the railing
now that he has a partner
to get the real work done.
Swirl of savage sunsets,
Swirl of the dead
Somehow, still living.
– Adrian Louis (“Degrees of Drought”)
Bribed with little water,
we have enticed Redbuds
to brighten our gardens
with cardinal colors
regardless of rainfall
before they leave
green hearts in spring.
Even the bare hills
sigh and grin relieved
for the living, love us
for our generous nature
that keeps the wild alive
and close to our swirling
yearnings satisfied.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2021, Ranch Journal
Tagged Adrian Louis, Drought, Redbuds, spring, water
Despite the welcome 1.5” of rain this month, bringing our total rainfall for the season on Dry Creek to a meager 6”, our grass is short and thin, especially on the south and west slopes of our lower foothill country. Unless we get some well-spaced rains in April, we will wean our calves early, probably weighing 50 lbs. lighter than usual. With limited stockwater and no dry feed to carry our cows through summer, fall and to an unknown beginning of our rainy season, we will have cull our cow herd deeply. A strong high pressure ridge, typical of La Niña, is blocking storm activity to California and the rest of the West. Furthermore, market returns for cattle producers are stuck in an unsustainable range, in part due to Covid-19.
After a wonderfully fun day helping Kenny and Virginia McKee brand their calves in Woolley Canyon yesterday, Robbin and I are moving slowly as we recuperate by enjoying the colors of spring in the gathering fields around us. The lush appearance of the Fiddleneck and Popcorn Flowers in the photo below is deceptive as they have little nutritional value for cattle, but they do shade the ground and help hold what moisture we have.
