A rancher’s vacation

While others I know are vacationing in Cabo, Padre or back East, Ronny and I spent a “vacation” last week helping my family in Colorado artificially inseminating (AI) our cowherd. It was great to spend some time at home and with my parents – even if it was pretty hard work!

I think this is evident to a lot of those in agriculture who take their time-off to help others with work or even doing other agricultural work because it is imperative towards food production.

Here’s the story of how the vacation went.

We start out with the working facilities. Here is Dad’s new toy – a Daniels system to bring the cows into the breeding barn (on the left). This is a pretty awesome system that allows the cows to pretty much walk themselves through it with the least amount of stress possible.

Cows on pasture while the cowboys (below) “heat detect” – or watch for them to come into heat to be bred.

Mom is an important part of the team – she records all of the numbers so she can read them when putting them into the computer!

Taking a quick break before the evening breeding session. Dad is already working hard per usual!

This is one of the last remaining “show cows” Harmony, owned by my sister, Emily, who just stood there and leaned into me as I scratched behind her ears.

The next day was pretty hard for the dogs – they worked really hard and deserved a little TLC = shade and water!

Technology is an important part of ranching – Dad is up-to-date with his smart phone.

Thanks to the cowboys, Joel, Jordan and Jerome, we could get a lot done!

When we’re done, the cowboys moved the heifers up the road to the “meadows” pasture. In a couple of weeks, they will put the bulls out in the pasture to get the few that Ronny missed. :)

And what do ranchers do when they are all done with the cattle work? Vacation! Like golfing?

Or croquet? 

Or just nap? The dogs certainly like that one!