In like a Lion

[Dave]

Normally we start brandings about now as cows go to the hills in about 3 weeks. But right now everyone's corrals are sloppy muddy messes. And there is still about 3 feet of snow up on top. It is looking like rodear brandings where you just hold the cattle in a corner of a field and drag the calves out. And I don't know how they will move the cattle who need to go up over the top to get to their summer range.

 

[1982vett]

Normally we start brandings about now as cows go to the hills in about 3 weeks. But right now everyone's corrals are sloppy muddy messes. And there is still about 3 feet of snow up on top. It is looking like rodear brandings where you just hold the cattle in a corner of a field and drag the calves out. And I don't know how they will move the cattle who need to go up over the top to get to their summer range.

Well, If it's still covered in snow down low, is their anything up on the summer range for them?

 

[Dave]

Well, If it's still covered in snow down low, is their anything up on the summer range for them?

It isn't covered with snow in the valley. It snows and it melts in a few hours. Some of the summer range is not much higher than the valley. The bottoms of the canyons. The trouble is getting there. Two options to get there. Up over the hill which is 4,700 feet or drive them up the road and cross the river which is running too high for young calves to cross.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Nothing but wind and dry here!
Send some of that lovely moisture this a way please!

 

[Lannie]

I would gladly send you our next snowstorm, if I could. We have enough snow now. Geez-Louise.

 

[Travlr]

I would gladly send you our next snowstorm, if I could. We have enough snow now. Geez-Louise.

Just talked to my son in Deadwood. He says SD is predicted getting another two feet in the next few days. The ten foot drifts in the driveway and the county road grader stuck at the head of our drive for three days kind of put the nail in the coffin for us. Twenty hours on the tractor clearing the drive to go buy groceries with a blizzard every weekend for three weeks in a row was the end for us.

 

[Allenw]

Nothing but wind and dry here!
Send some of that lovely moisture this a way please!
View attachment 28449

Looks better then here, driving around today I seen a lot of wheat just drying up and disappearing.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Looks better then here, driving around today I seen a lot of wheat just drying up and disappearing.

We are holding pretty good. But if we don't get some rain soon, there's gonna be hay made out of it.
Pretty dry

 

[Dave]

I talked to a man at church this morning. He said his grandparents have a ranch out of Unity which is about 40 miles upstream from me and at about 4,000-4,100 feet. It is where the reservoir is that feeds my irrigation. He said their driveway is one narrow lane with 4 feet of solid snow on both sides. There is a lot of cattle up in that neighborhood. I bet calving has been a rolling wreck for them this year.

 

[kenny thomas]

Looks better then here, driving around today I seen a lot of wheat just drying up and disappearing.

Is it as dry as 2018 when I was near your place and the fire jumped the Canadian river? 250,000 acres +-

 

[branxchar&charx]

Looks better then here, driving around today I seen a lot of wheat just drying up and disappearing.

Noticed same around here. Seriously need moisture.

 

[Allenw]

Is it as dry as 2018 when I was near your place and the fire jumped the Canadian river? 250,000 acres +-

It's at least as dry if not dryer, the fuel load is much less because it has been dry for basically the last year especially late last summer. Lack of fuel is the biggest reason the fire wasn't worse then it was last Friday.

 

[kenny thomas]

Hard to think of it being dryer. I think i left here April 10th that year so very close the same time period.

 

[Allenw]

We haven't had enough rain at one time to make a difference since November. I never did plant any wheat between moving and my wife getting sick I missed a couple of opportunities but if I had I would have just thrown my money away and watch everything blow.

 

[Lannie]

Just talked to my son in Deadwood. He says SD is predicted getting another two feet in the next few days. The ten foot drifts in the driveway and the county road grader stuck at the head of our drive for three days kind of put the nail in the coffin for us. Twenty hours on the tractor clearing the drive to go buy groceries with a blizzard every weekend for three weeks in a row was the end for us.

We don't typically get as much snow out here on the flat as they do in the Hills, but they're still saying 12 to 14 inches for us. With the wind, that will easily make monstrous drifts (we have a lot of trees), and now we've been "upgraded" to blizzard warning, so they're expecting wind in excess of 35mph. A foot of snow with no wind is no big deal, but a 4 to 6 foot drift outside my back door makes it hard to get out and feed the animals. The only saving grace is that the forecast has us in the 50s and 60s by next weekend, so it will melt. But there will be rivers, lakes, and fast running streams between me and the barns. I don't like ice-out any more than I like the snow. I wish I could skip all of this and just wake up in the morning and it would be the middle of May and everything is green and dry and blooming.

 

[MurraysMutts]

88 degrees here today!!

Good n warm

 

[Travlr]

60 and beautiful yesterday... and six inches of accumulated snow so far today.

 

[Dave]

88 degrees here today!!

Good n warm

88 isn't good at all. That is too d@mn hot. Might be alright in August but totally unacceptable in April.

 

[MurraysMutts]

Theyvare saying 90 tmrw and then a low of 35 tmrw night

 

[CowboyRam]

It snow here pretty much all day. Sometimes very light and others a little heavier. So far it has not amounted to very much; melted as soon as it hit the ground. Who know what it will look like in the morning.