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How Ranching Works
1. Calving
A ranchers year begins by helping the cows have their babies. Baby cows are called “calves”.
This is not a hands off process and ranchers end up really getting their hands dirty keeping the calves alive!
2. Branding
The next step in a ranchers year comes when it’s time to mark the calves to prove that you own them.
Branding seems brutal when you watch it, but there is a purpose and it isn’t just marking the calf.
3. Bulls
Bulls were out breeding and now they have been separated off and will need to be moved up to mountain pasture.
On this little Bull drive, there is one obstacle. They have to go UNDER the highway in a REALLY small tunnel!
4. Mountain Pastures
Summer means that cattle are pushed up to high mountain pastures where the greener grasses grow.
In this video, Cory and I are pushing cattle up to lush Mountain meadows in Montana!
5. Strays
Much of the summer is spent finding stray cattle that didn’t make it to the next pasture.
In this video, the rancher and I find a few strays and move them many miles back to their correct pasture in risky terrain.
6. Moving
To manage cattle and land properly, ranchers need to move cattle from one pasture to another once the cows have eaten a certain amount of the grass.
This is a 2 part video. Part 2 is in the next section below.
7. Moving Part 2
Gathering Cattle in timber so thick that you can’t see 10 feet in front of you is a challenge, but it has to be done.
In this video, the cows are pushed down off the 8,000 ft mountain, through the timber and across a mountain stream to a new pasture.
8. The Middle
Towards the fall of the year, the cattle begin to be gathered back to the ranch to get ready for the next phase of the cattle raising process.
In this video, I ride a horse with a frozen ear to help gather and ship a small bunch of cattle in Montana.
9. Gathering
The time for selling the calves is getting closer, and now the main herds have to be gathered from the high mountains and moved back to the plains.
In this video, the cattle are gathered from the huge mountain pastures and driven 20 miles to the plains.
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