The Feeding Crew

William, Toby, and Joseph

This time of year, Toby is extremely busy with the cattle. On a normal year, he will trail all of the cows home in December or January and feed the 900+ cows hay until March. This requires hours of transporting hay on pickups to three or four different locations on the ranch. Now that Matthew and Peter are older, they wake up early and help feed each weekend. They help drive pick-ups to the different feed locations, which significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to feed.

 

Recently, William and Joseph have joined the feeding crew. They get so excited for the weekend because they love helping Toby and seeing all of the baby calves. We are right in the middle of calving, so each morning there are at least 10 new calves born! This morning, I decided to join the crew. We took two pickup loads to one location, two loads to a second feed ground, three loads to a third feed ground, and one pickup load to the last location. It is always so much fun watching the new babies jump, run, and play in the sunshine. It was even more enjoyable to see the delight in all four boys' eyes as they helped on the ranch.

 

Meet Stickers. He is almost 20 years old! He has been on the ranch longer than I have!

Yum, Yum, Yum

Top feeding dog Daisy.

Newborn calf. Probably a day old.